36 THE HONEY-BEE. 
we clearly demonstrated, as have many others, by the 
simple test of an Italian queen, fecundated by a native 
drone, which produced pure Italian drones, and mixed 
queens and workers. Also, when a native queen meets an 
Italian drone, the result is similar; the drones are pure 
natives, and the others of mixed blood. 
These facts being determined, it is easy to understand 
how the eggs of an unimpregnated queen, will produce 
drones in whatever cells 
they may be deposited. The 
fertilization of the queen 
fills the spermatheca with 
the seminal fluid, which 
impregnates a certain por- 
tion of the eggs, as they 
pass from the ovaries, 
through the oviduct in 
the process of egg-laying. 
(Fig. 7). 
The precise causes which 
produce the fertilization of 
this certain portion of eggs, 
viz., those from which 
queens and workers are 
hatched, and the non-fer- 
tilization of drone-eggs, are 
yet the basis of some dis- 
cussion. 
Mr. Wagner, the founder of the American Bee Journal, 
advocated the theory that fertilization was affected by the 
size of the cells in which the eggs were deposited; the 
slight compression produced by the small worker cells, 
being sufficient to force the fluid from the spermatheca 
as the eggs are laid. Mr. Quinby took this view, all his 
experience tending to corroborate it. In support of this, 
he says: ‘‘ When I first saw the smallest queen that I 
Fig. 7.— OVARIES OF THE QUEEN. 
