106 THE LORE OF THE HONEY-BEE | 
portentous symbol. It is a fact, now incontestably 
proved, that the virgin queen-bee is capable of re- 
producing her kind, yet only the male of the 
species. If she is born late in the year, when no 
drones exist, and her fertilisation is therefore im- 
possible, or if some imperfection of wing prevents 
her going out for her mating-flight, she will still 
set busily to work at her one function of egg- 
laying; and these eggs will all hatch out into male 
bees. The same thing occurs in the case of the 
queenless hive, which, having neither worker-egg 
nor worker-grub, whose age is under the three 
days’ limit, yet tries to raise a new queen from a 
larva perhaps four or even five days old. The 
queen thus created is queen only in name. She 
may have her ovaries completely developed, but 
otherwise she will be congenitally destitute. She 
will have neither the will nor power to receive the 
drone; and the eggs that she lays so industriously 
only add to the crowd of useless males that will 
soon be the sole representatives of the doomed 
household. 
Following the progress of a bee-colony through 
the mounting days of spring, we see, with every 
week that passes, a larger area of comb occupied 
by the young worker-brood ; while about the 
middle of April the queen pays her first visit 
to the drone-combs, laying a single egg in each 
cell, as with the rest. It is commonly supposed 
that the queen is always surrounded by an adu- 
