PHYSIOLOGY AND BREEDING. 31 



them constantly by keeping them well supplied with food, 

 when honey abroad became scarce. I put two of these 

 combs, being about twelve inches wide, by fifteen or six- 

 teen deep, into a strong colony, where the queen was very 

 prolific. Over two-thirds of the cells were empty, when 

 put in, and within four or five days they were all stocked 

 with eggs, except a few that were stored with pollen. 

 This was by no means a single occurrence. It was 

 repeated again, and again, making at least 10,000 eggs 

 laid in four or five days." 



A person desirous of approximating to the number oi 

 eggs deposited, without being able to actually count them, 

 can make an estimate as follows. It will satisfy him that 

 a queen is the mother: If we examine a thrifty stock in 

 the height of the breeding season we shall find the combs 

 filled with brood, amounting frequently to three-quarters 

 of all in the hive. By observing the number of cells to 

 the square inch, it is easy to get the number to the square 

 foot, then multiply this by the'number of the combs in a 

 hive, and we shall have the whole number of cells. For 

 example, a piece of worker comb one inch square contains 

 about fifty cells, including those on both sides. At this 

 rate, a piece twelve inches square contains over 7000. Sup- 

 pose a hive contains eight such combs, and that 120 square 

 inches of each comb are used for brood, we have eight 

 times 120 square inches of brood — 960 — fifty to the square 

 inch would multiply into 48,000 cells. One or two of these 

 combs would contain cells for drones, which are a little 

 larger, and the number would be thus somewhat reduced. 

 Also some might be empty, the young bee having just left 

 them, and a few here and there might be occupiied with bee- 

 bread or honey. Admitting the necessary deduction to be 

 one quarter, we would have left 36,000 ceUs actually occu- 

 pied at one time with brood in various stages of develop- 

 ment I We must remember that the time from the egg to 



