THE ^EEN-BEE. 115 



threw much light upon this subject. He ascertained that, 

 h'ke many other insects, she was fecundated in the open 

 air and on the wing, and that the effect lasts for several 

 years, and probably for life. To his amazement he found 

 that unwedded queens laid eggs, but they always produced 

 drones. He tried this experiment repeatedly, but always 

 with the same result. Bee-keepers, even from the time 

 of Aristotle, had observed that all the brood in a hive 

 were occasionally drones. Before attempting to explain 

 this astonishing fact, I must call the attention of the 

 reader to another of the mysteries of the bee-hive. 



It has always been stated that the workers are proved 

 by dissection to be females, which, under ordinary circum- 

 stances, are barren. Occasionally some of them appear 

 to be sufficiently developed to be capable of laying eggs ; 

 but these eggs, like those of unwedded queens, always 

 produce drones. Sometimes, when a colony which has 

 lost its queen despairs of obtaining another, these drone- 

 laying workers are exalted to her place, and treated with 

 equal regard by the bees. 



The eggs of bees are of a lengthened, oval shape, with 

 a sliglit curvature, and of a bluish white colour. Being 

 besmeared at the time of laying with a glutinous substance, 

 they adhere to the bases of the cells, and remain unchanged 

 in figure, or situation, for three or four days ; they are then 

 hatched, the bottom of each cell presenting to view a small 

 white worm. On its growing, so as to touch the opposite 

 angle of each cell, it coils itself up, to use the language of 

 Swammerdam, like a dog when going to sleep, and floats 

 in a whitish transparent fluid, which is deposited in the 

 cells by the nursing bees, and by which it is probably 

 nourished ; it becomes gradually enlarged in its dimensions 

 till the two extremities touch one another and form a ring. 

 In this state it is called a larva or worm. So nicely do the 

 bees calculate the quantity of food which will be required 



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