46 HANDY BOOK OF BEES. 



CHAPTER VII. 



FEETILE WOKKEKS. 



About these we can say notHng. Many respectable bee- 

 keepers believe that fertile workers occasionally exist. 

 Those that write about them admit that their existence in 

 hives is very rare indeed. If Mr Woodbury is correct in 

 his opinion, they never leave home. Though we have 

 never seen one, and once oifered £10 for one, or a dozen 

 of her eggs, we are not now disposed to question the evi- 

 dence of those who say they have seen them. Huber's 

 opinion as to the cause of the fertility of a working bee 

 is very lucidly stated in his book — a book which has less 

 weight and authority amongst advanced and intelligent 

 bee-keepers now than it had when first published. He 

 says, " Fertile workers are reared by the sides of royalty. 

 When the bees are feeding young queens in their cells, 

 a little of the royal jelly or food goes by mistake or acci- 

 dent into common cells, and there does the work of ferti- 

 lising common workers." We are utterly ignorant about 

 fertile working bees. 



