8 HANDY BOOK OF BEES. 



cells containing two or three eggs. On another examina- 

 tion some time after, the empty cells will he found all 

 filled. And often, when bees are building combs, eggs 

 are set on the foundations of cells — that is to say, as soon 

 as the bottoms of the cells are formed, eggs are placed on 

 them, and afterwards their sides are built up around the 

 eggs. 



Some one may ask how it is known that a queen bee 

 lays 2000 eggs every day in the height of the season. 

 Some hives contain more than 2000 square inches of 

 combs each. Let us suppose that only one half of these 

 combs is filled with brood, and the rest filled with honey 

 and bee-bread : that is 1000 inches of comb for brood in 

 each hive. One inch of comb has 50 worker-cells in it, 25 

 on each side. Very well, 1000 inches of comb contain 

 50,000 young bees, in all stages of development, from the 

 egg up. These 50,000 young come from one queen in 

 three weeks. Divide the 50,000 by 21, and it will be 

 found that the average number laid per day for three 

 weeks amounts to some hundreds beyond 2000 per day. 

 "We have not yet seen a hive large enough to overtask the 

 laying powers of a queen bee. 



Tlie Sexes of Eggs. 



On this question there appeared in the first edition of 

 this work some very interesting and well-written letters 

 from the pen of the late Mr Woodbury of Exeter, who 

 held " that eggs of queen bees when laid are of two sexes, 

 male and female, and that no after-treatment can alter 

 either sex." We then were inclined to believe that all the 

 eggs of queen bees in proper condition are of one kind 

 only, and convertible into queens, drones, or workers. 

 Mr Quinby, an able American writer on bees, held the 

 same opinion, and argued thus : " If food and treatment 



