NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HONEY BEE. 41 



seminal sac, so as to be able to extrude her eggs, allowing 

 them to receive or not, just as she pleased, a portion of its 

 fertilizing contents. In this way he thought she determined 

 their sex, according to the size of the cells in which she laid 

 them. Mr. Samuel Wagner of York, Pa., has recently 

 communicated to me a very original and exceedingly in- 

 genious theory of his own, which he thinks will account for 

 all the facts, without admitting that the Queen Bee has any 

 special knowledge or will on the subject. He supposes that 

 when she deposits her eggs in the worker cells, her body is 

 slightly compressed by the size of the cells, and that the 

 eggs, as they pass the spermatheca, receive in this manner, 

 its vivifying influence. On the contrary,.when she is laying 

 in drone cells, this compression cannot take place, the mouth 

 of the spermatheca is kept closed, and the eggs are, neces- 

 sarily, unfecundated. This theory may prove to be true, 

 but at present, it is encumbered with some difficulties, and 

 requires further investigations, before it can be considered as 

 fully established. 



Leaving then, for the present undecided, the question 

 whether the Queen exercises any volition in this matter, I 

 shall, by stating some facts which have occurred in my own 

 Apiary, endeavor to relieve, as far as possible, this intricate 

 subject from some of the difficulties which embarrass it. 



In the Autumn of 1852, my assistant found in one of my 

 hives a young Queen, whose progeny consisted entirely of 

 drones. The colony had been formed by removing part of 

 the combs containing bees, brood and eggs, from another 

 hive ; and had only a few combs, and but a small number of 

 bees, which raised a new Queen in the manner to be here- 

 after particularly described. This Queen had laid a number 

 of eggs in one of the combs, and the young were already 

 emerging from the cells. I perceived, at the first glance, 

 4* 



