8 RePOBT op MaBTLAND AGBICtrLTOBAL SOCIETT 



The Eastern Shore Chapter of the Association, organized last year, met 

 once during July, and the Baltimore group originally comprising the whole 

 of the State Association, held five meetings ; one the annual meeting in con- 

 junction with the Maryland Agricultural Society-Maryland Farm Bureau 

 meetings, one summer field meeting and three indoor winter meetings. 



These Baltimore meetings were well attended by both beginners and 

 experienced beekeepers. Having two classes of beekeepers present at the 

 same meeting has made it difficult to arrange programs suitable and in- 

 teresting for both, as a beginners program proves unprofitable and un- 

 interesting to the experienced man and the advanced program goes over 

 the heads of the beginner. 



It is hoped to alleviate this situation during 1936 by holding a beginners 

 class in Baltimore, primarily for the novice in addition to the regular 

 association meetings. 



PARTIAL-DBONE-LAYING QUEENS 



By O. E. BuENSiDE 



Assistant Apiculturist Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine 



U. S. Department of Agriculture. 



Before taking up the discussion of partial-drone-laying queen bees, it 

 seems desirable to review briefly for comparison the work of normal 

 fertilized queens and of unfertilized queens. Queens that have mated 

 normally lay only fertilized eggs in worker and queen cells and unfertilized 

 eggs in drone cells and cells that are larger than the average worker cell. 

 In rare cases young queens may lay a few unfertilized eggs in worker 

 cells before beginning to lay fertilized ones regularly. Old or exhausted 

 queens may lay both worker and drone eggs in worker cells for a few days 

 before they are superseded. The brood of a normal queen with the ex- 

 ceptions mentioned consists almost entirely of worker brood in worker 

 cells, drone brood in drone cells and queen brood in queen cells. Drone 

 and queen brood may be entirely absent even when much worker brood 

 is present. Queens that fail to mate can, of course, lay only unfertilized 

 eggs and their brood consists entirely of drones. These queens are known 

 as drone layers. They usually delay longer than mated queens before 

 beginning to lay but may lay just as prolifically. 'The eggs are deposited 

 more or less regularly and until the brood is capped it can readily be 

 mistaken for the brood of a fertile queen. Drone-laying queens do not 

 seem inclined, as do prolific fertile queens, previous to the swarming 

 season, to leave the worker comb in order to lay in drone cells. 



In rare cases queens become partial-drone-layers at a time when they 

 should be at their best. They lay both drone and worker eggs in worker 

 cells and their brood consists principally of drones and workers irregularly 

 scattered in worker comb. There may also be present drone brood in 

 drone comb and queen brood in queen cells. 



