THE QUEEN. 65 
July the colony of the first queen was very poor, the second 
was of average strength, and both the others were very 
strong. 
156. It is amusing to see how the supernumerary eggs 
of the queen are disposed of. If the workers are too few to 
take charge of all her eggs, if there is a deficiency of bee- 
bread to nourish the young; or if, for any reason, she does 
not think best to deposit them in the cells, she stands upon 
acomb, and simply extrudes them from her oviduct, the 
workers devouring them ag fast as they are laid. 
One who carefully watches the habits of bees will often 
feel inclined to speak of his little favorites as having an 
intelligence almost if not quite akin to reason; and we have 
sometimes queried, whether the workers who are so fond of 
a tit-bit in the shape of a newly-laid egg, ever experienced 
a struggle between appetite and duty; so that they must 
practice self-denial to refrain from breakfasting on the eggs 
so temptingly deposited in the cells. 
157. It is well known to breeders of poultry, that the 
fertility of a hen decreases with age, until at length she 
may become entirely barren. By the same law, the fecun- 
dity of the queen-bee ordinarily diminishes after she has 
entered her third year. An old queen sometimes ceases to 
lay worker-eggs ; the contents of her spermatheca becoming 
exhausted, the eggs are no longer impregnated, and pro- 
duce only drones. 
The queen-bee usually dies of old age in her fourth year, 
although she has been known to live much longer. There is 
great advantage, therefore, in hives which allow her, when 
she has passed the period of her greatest fertility, to be 
easily removed. 
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