BBEEDINQ. 87 



eggs producing them, or the power is given to the 

 workers to develop such as are -wanted, from one 

 kind, we cannot say. If we make two kinds of eggs, 

 it helps the matter but very little. There is still an 

 anomaly. There is but one perfect female in a nest 

 to germinate eggs, and the myriads produced (being 

 over 80,000 ip twenty-four hours, according to some 

 historians) shows that the fecundity of our queen-bee , 

 is not a parallel case by any means. And yet they 

 are similar, by having their offspring provided for 

 without an effort of their own. 



I shall leave this matter for the present, hoping that 

 something conclusive may occur in the course of my ex- 

 periments, or those of others. At present I am in- 

 clined to think that the eggs are all alike, but am not 

 fully satisfied. 



I am aware that this matter is of but little value or 

 interest to many, but myself and a few others have 

 " Yankee inquisitiveness " pretty well developed, and 

 would like to know how it was managed. 



As for workers proving occasionally fertile, I have 

 but little to say. After jpears of close observation di- 

 rected to this point, I have beea unable to discover 

 anything to establish this opinion. Neither have I 

 found the black bees described by some authors. It 

 is true that in the middle or latter part of summer a 

 portion will be much darker than others, and perhaps 

 rather smaller, and some of them with their wings 

 somewhat worn, probably the result of continued labor, 

 peculiar food, or some incidental circumstance. ■ 



I have a few times found a humble-bee under thfl 



