THE QUEEN BEE 95 
‘‘Tf,’’ said he, ‘‘ you keep a fairly close watch on 
the progress of any one particular hive, from the 
time the first eggs appear in the combs early in 
January, ’tis very easy to see how the old false 
ideas got into general use. At first glance a bee- 
colony looks very much like a kingdom; and the 
single large bee, that all the others pay court to and 
attend so carefully, seems very like a queen. Then, 
when you look a little deeper and begin to under- 
stand more, appearances are still all in favour of 
the old view of things. The mother-bee seems, on 
the face of it, a miracle of intelligence and foresight. 
While, as far as you know, all other creatures in the 
world bring forth their young of both sexes hap- 
hazard, this one can lay male or female eggs 
apparently at will. You watch her going from 
comb to comb, and the eggs she drops in the small 
cells hatch out females, and those she puts in the 
larger ones are always males, or drones. More 
than that: she seems always to know the exact 
condition of the hive, and to be able to limit her 
egg-laying according to its need, or otherwise, of 
population; for either you see her filling only a few 
cells each day in a little patch of comb that can be 
covered with the palm of your hand, or she goes to 
work on a gigantic scale, and, in twenty-four hours, 
produces eggs that weigh more than twice as much 
as her whole body.” 
He got up now and began pacing to and fro, as 
was his custom when much in earnest over his bee- 
talk. 
‘‘ Then,’”’ he went on, ‘‘to cap all, as the honey 
season draws on to its height, you are forced 
presently to realise that the queen has conceived and 
