10 A MANUAL OF BEE-KEEPING. 



distinguishable from its white colour; and that the supply 

 of semen received during copulation is sufficient for her 

 whole lifetime. From the inability to meet the Drone, 

 no Queen lame in her wings can ever be perfectly 

 fertile ; that is, capable of producing both sexes. 2nd. 

 All eggs which come to maturity in the ovaries of a Queen 

 Bee are of one and the same kind, and when they are 

 laid without coming in contact with the male semen 

 become developed into male Bees. This theory of 

 Dzierzon's, styled Parthenogenesis, has since been amply 

 confirmed by numberless experiments, although what 

 power the Queen possesses (or how she exercises it), of 

 determining which eggs shall receive fecundation and 

 which not is still a mystery. Certain it is, that when eggs 

 are laid in Drone cells Drones are produced. 



It has been suggested that the extrusion of the 

 seminal fluid from the spermatheca requires abdominal 

 pressure, which the construction of Worker cells affords, 

 and the larger size of the Drone cells does not ; this 

 theory has been combated by saying the Queen will 

 often lay eggs on the floor of cells whose walls are not 

 yet built ; but I do not know that it has been proved 

 that these eggs were allowed by the Bees to hatch ; and 

 it is well known where eggs are dropped or placed in 

 undesirable places they will eat them. 



To demonstrate that unfertilized eggs will hatch and 

 produce Drones, and Drones only, is easy. Observation 

 has proved that unless a young Queen becomes impreg- 

 nated during the first thirty days of her life, she becomes 

 incapable of receiving impregnation ; and though she 

 continues laying, all her eggs produce but Drones. A 

 Drone-breeding Queen is a common occurrence in an 

 apiary of any extent, and is of course a misfortune, as 

 no Workers being forthcoming to replace the dead, the 



