40 PHYSIOLOGY OF THE HONEY-BEE. 
per day, will seem exaggerated to many bee-keepers, own- 
ers of small hives. They will perhaps ask how such lay- 
ing can be ascertained. Nothing is easier. Let us suppose 
that we have found a hive, with 1,200 square inches of 
comb occupied by brood. As there are about 55 worker- 
cells to the square inch of comb (217), 27 to 28 on each 
side, we multiply 1,200 by 55, and we have 66,000 as the 
total number of cells occupied at one time. Now, it takes 
about 21 days for the brood to develop from the egg to the 
perfect insect, and we have 3,145 as the average number of 
eggs laid daily by that queen, in 21 days. Of course, this 
amount is not absolutely accurate, as the combs are not 
always entirely filled, but it will suffice to show, within 
perhaps a few hundred, the actual fecundity of the queen. 
Such numbers can be found every year, in most of the 
good colonies, provided that the limited capacity of the 
hive will not prevent the queen from laying to the utmost 
of her ability. 
99. The laying of the queen is not equal at all seasons. 
She lays most during the spring and summer months, pre- 
vious to the honey crop and during its flow. In late autumn 
and winter months, she lays but little. 
100. Her shape is widely different from that of the 
other bees. While she is not near so bulky as a drone, her 
body is longer; and as it is considerably more tapering, or 
sugar-loaf in form, than that of a worker, she has a some- 
what wasp-like appearance. Her wings are much shorter 
in proportion than those of the drone, or worker;* the 
under part of her body is of a golden color, and the upper 
part usually darker than that-of the other bees.t Her mo- 
tions are generally slow and matronly, although she can, 
when she pleases, move with astonishing quickness. No 
colony can long exist without the presence of this all-impor- 
*The wings of the queen are in reality longer than those of the worker. 
t This applies only to queens of the black or common race. 
