30 PHYSIOLOGY AlfD BREEDING. 



I happen to know is not perfectly reliable in all things, 

 and if the truth in this case, is to be established upon his 

 testimony, I fear it will lack support. 



The queen upon her return, frequently bears evident 

 marks of her connection with the drone, and usually be- 

 gins to lay in two days afterwards, and continues through- 

 out the season, unless some special interruption occurs. 



NUMBBB OF EGGS THAT A QTIEBN WILL LAY. 



The number of eggs that she will lay in twenty-four 

 hours, is a subject on which all writers do not yet agree, 

 probably owing to the fact that the number varies from 

 one or two hundred to three thousand. Take a queen 

 that has been reared in a small box, and she will soon fill 

 all the combs after she begins, and when there is no occasion 

 for laying many, there ^re less deposited. She remains 

 small in size, and seems to adapt herself, partially at least, 

 to the necessities of the colony ; but this same queen, in- 

 troduced to a strong colony with suitable combs, in a 

 honey season, will, in less than a week, greatly increase in 

 size, so as hardly to be recognized, and will deposit two 

 or three thousand eggs daily. This statementi||when first 

 heard, is received with a very large mai'gin by almost 

 every one: " the thing seems impossible ;" and yet a little 

 patient observation convinces the most skeptical. I have 

 had a colony in an observatory hive, where every egg de- 

 posited could be seen. Visitors have frequently counted 

 the eggs as deposited, for ten or fifteen minutes, and all 

 have estimated the number laid in twenty-four hours to be 

 over three thousand. Mr. Harbison says : " During the 

 past season I worked a number of queens to their full ca- 

 pacity for producing eggs, in strong colonies, by frequently 

 changing combs from which brood had just emerged in 

 artificial swarms where the queen had not yet become fer- 

 tile, for combs stocked with eggs and larvffi, stimulating 



