Cradle- Cells. 129 



and she always lays at least enough 

 to satisfy any reasonable lover of hard 

 work. 



The cradle-cells of the drones are the 

 same as the honey-cells, but the worker- 

 cells are about one-fifth smaller. 



You see, the workers are smaller than 

 the drones, and so can lie in smaller cradles. 



The cradle-cell of the queen is j 

 not shaped like the other cells,) 

 but somewhat like a thimble. 

 It opens at the bottom, and is 2i\ 

 great deal larger. 



The queen goes about and lays an tgg 

 in each cell. She first puts in her head 

 and examines the cell with her antennas, 

 as if to make sure it is all right. 



This done, she deposits an tgg in the 

 bottom of the cell. She lays two kinds 

 of eggs, one kind being what we call fer- 

 tilized, the other kind unfertilized. The 

 fertilized eggs always hatch into workers 

 or queens, the unfertilized always hatch 



