22 HONEY BEES. 
BREEDING. 
The natural increase of the honey bee is very imper- 
fectly understood by the great majority of bee keepers. 
Very many suppose that young bees are raised only in 
the warm summer months, and their ideas of the modus 
operandi of increase are exceedingly vague. I find that 
strong stocks have maturing brood nearly every month 
in the year—I have found brood in stocks in December 
and January. 
The queen lays all the fertile eggs in the swarm, con- 
sequently all increase is dependent on her. I say the 
queen lays all the fertile egys, because occasionally 
under certain circumstances we find eggs laid by workers 
but under my observation, such eggs never mature. 
Egg-laying workers are known to be such, by eggs being 
found in stocks that have been deprived of their yueen, 
and the means of rearing another. This is one of the 
wonders of nature, of which no satisfactory solution has 
been given. The points established as to the sex of bees 
are these: ‘The queen is a fully developed female; the 
drones are fully developed males; the worker,—what is 
it 2 The worker is said by some to be neuter. If this 
last is true, how are the eggs produced ? Others say 
the worker is a female with generative organs not fully 
developed! A pretty nice point—to credit them with 
the power to produce eggs without imparting vitality 
sufficient to germinate. 
We will leave this knotty question, as it is of no con- 
sequence in the practical management of bees for profit. 
