XII 



SOME STRANGE FACTS ABOUT QUEENS 



The older writers had a very vague idea about the 

 manner in which the race of bees is perpetuated. 

 It was not until quite late in history that the queen 

 was discovered to be the only fertile female in the 

 hive, and, indeed, in the earliest times she was 

 not regarded as a female, but a king, exalted by 

 some wise dispensation of Providence to the 

 position of a governor and ruler of the whole tribe. 



Reaumur, in the end of the eighteenth century, 

 seems to have been the first to call attention to 

 the fact that the queen was a female and " mother 

 of all the others," but it is to the great Huber, 

 who, in spite of the greatest handicap it would 

 be possible for an observer to have, lack of 

 vision, achieved such wonders in the realm of bee 

 study, that we owe our knowledge of all the 

 important principles which govern the life of 

 the hive. 



We have said elsewhere that the queen is reared 

 from eggs in no way different from workers, and 

 that she attains her perfect maternal development 

 only by reason of being fed on special food. 



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