THE QUEEN-BEE. 25 



but her fecundity is said to diminish after her second 

 year, or, if it continues, she will in her old age lay a 

 majority of drone eggs, to the serious weakening 

 of the community. The skilled apiarian, therefore, 

 takes care that every hive shall have a queen of an 

 age when her fertility is greatest. 



The process of egg-laying begins from two to four 

 days after the flight for mating, depending somewhat 

 on the preparation of cells for that purpose. The 

 queen, on finding comb adapted to her needs, thrusts 

 her head into a cell, apparently to ascertain if it is 

 empty, and of the right depth and size for one of the 

 two different kinds of eggs — those for workers, and 

 those to become drones. Satisfied on these points, 

 she withdraws her head, and, curving herself down- 

 wards, inserts her abdomen, and giving the lower part 

 of her body a half-turn towards the thorax, she 

 expels an e.^<g from her oviduct, and then retires in 

 search of other cells in which to make similar de- 

 posits. She rarely, and only by mistake, lays more 

 than one egg in a cell. If she falls into the error, the 

 worker-bees immediately remove all but one. 



The examination of each cell by the queen to 

 ascertain its fitness for the two kinds of eggs is an 

 essential point ; for, in the first place, the nature of 

 drone-eggs is radically different from that of those 

 which will produce workers ; and the size of the cells 

 in which the former are hatched is considerably 

 greater than that in which the latter will be de- 

 veloped, nineteen ends of the larger covering a 

 square inch of surface, while twenty-seven of the 

 smaller will occupy the same space. 



It seenis an indisputable fact that the queen has 



