66 PHYSIOLOGY OF THE HONEY-BEE. 



number of eggs laid by the hen; and when the weather is 

 very cold, the queen stops laying, in weak colonies. 



In the latitude of Northern Massachusetts, we have found 

 that the queen ordinarily ceases to lay some time in October; 

 and begins again, in strong stocks, in the latter part of Decem- 

 ber. On the 14th of January, 1857 (the previous month having 

 been very cold, the thermometer sometimes sinking to 17° be- 

 low zero), we examined three hives, and found that the central 

 combs in two contained eggs and unsealed brood; there were 

 a few cells with sealed brood in the third. Strong stocks, 

 even in the coldest climates, usually contain some brood ten 

 months in the year. 



155. "Queens differ much as to the degree of their fertil- 

 ity. Those are best which deposit their eggs with uniform reg- 

 ularity, leaving no cells unsupplied — as the brood hatches at the 

 same time on the same range of comb, which can be again sup- 

 plied; the queen thus losing no time in searching for empty 

 cells. ' ' — (Dzierzon.) 



In bee-life, as well as in human affairs, those who are 

 systematic, ordinarily accomplish the most. 



To test the difference of fecundity between queens, Mr. 

 De Layens, while transferring bees (574), in middle April, 

 counted the eggs dropped on a black cloth (577), in forty 

 mmutes, by the queens of four different colonies. The 

 poorest queen dropped but one egg, the second twelve, the 

 third eighteen, and the fourth twenty. On the fifteenth of 

 July the colony of the first queen was very poor, the second 

 was of average strength, and both the others were very strong. 



156. It is amusing to see how the supernumerary eggs 

 of the queen are disposed of. If the workers arc too few to 

 take charge of all her eggs, if there is a deficiency of bee- 

 bread to nourish the young; or if, for any reason, she does 

 not think best to deposit them in the cells, she stands upon 

 a comb, and simply extrudes them from her oviduct, the 

 workers de^'ouring them as fast as they are laid. 



One who carefully watches the habits of bees will often 

 feel inclined to speak of his little favorites as having an 



