THE WORKING BEE. 65 



changes she undergoes in her transition stages from egg to imago, 

 noting how she performs her various home duties, and following 

 her into the field, the orchard, and the garden, and watching her 

 in Nature's workshops elaborating new varieties of flowers and 

 fruits. 



The fecundation of the mother bee by the drone is the first 

 element in differentiating the sexual character of the egg-germ 

 in the ovary of the queen-bee. Swammerdam, an old entomolo- 

 gist, on noting a strong odour, enanating from drone bees, was 

 under the impression that the said odour permeated the body of 

 the queen-Dee, and in this way the eggs were fertilised. Francis 

 Huber, experimenting with the theory, confined a number of 

 drones in a perforated box. Placing this box of drones within 

 a hive, from which all drones had been excluded, and confining 

 a virgin queen within the same hive. Needless to say, with our 

 present knowledge of the domesticated bee, she became a drone- 

 breeder. 



THE EGGS AND THEIR DEVELOPMENT AND 

 TRANSFORMATION. 



The egg, after fertilisatibn and the treatment it receives 

 after it is deposited in the worker-cell, produces one of the rank 

 and file. While in this cell it is termed a "worker-egg." A 

 misnomer introduced into the bee-keeper's vocabulary before the 

 scientific knowledge of the economy of the hive bee was so well 

 understood as at present. 



There are such things as worker-eggs. They are the produce 

 of a fertile- worker, but these eggs always develop drone-bees. 



The queen-bee, after she has satisfied herself that the cell she 

 has selected is wholly untenanted and cleaned ready for the recep- 

 tion of an egg, places her abdomen therein, and after it is with- 

 drawn we see fixed at the base of the cell, and parallel to its 

 sides, an elongated pearly-white egg, one end being rather larger 

 than the other. 



In the larger end there is a minute doorway (micro-pyle) by 

 means of which the sexual character of the embryo drone-bee 

 contained therein was differentiated. These eggs remain in the 

 position in which they were deposited, and then gradually alter 

 it until they are lying parallel to the base of the cell, which 

 occupies about two days to complete its final position. The heat 

 necessary to hatch these eggs and for their after development 

 should not be less than 70 degrees Fahrenheit. 



