NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HONEY BEE. 63 



economizing her necessary work after this fashion, instead 

 of laboriously depositing the eggs in cells where they are 

 not wanted. What a difference between her wise manage- 

 ment, and the stupidity of a hen obstinately persisting to set 

 upon addled eggs or pieces of chalk, and often upon nothing 

 at all. 



The workers eat up also the eggs which are dropped, or 

 deposited out of place by the Queen ; in this way, nothing 

 goes to waste, even a tiny egg being turned to some account. 



It is difficult for one who has carefully watched the habits 

 of bees, to speak of his little favorites otherwise than as pos- 

 sessing an intelligence almost, if not quite, akin to reason; 

 and I have sometime queried, whether the workers who are 

 so fond of a tit-bit in the shape of a new laid egg, ever ex- 

 perience a struggle between their appetite and the claims of 

 duly, and if it does not cost them some self denial to refrain 

 from making a breakfast on a fresh laid egg. 



It is well known to every breeder of poultry, that the fer- 

 tility of a hen decreases with age, until at length, she be- 

 comes entirely barren; it is equally certain that the fertility 

 of the Queen bee ordinarily diminishes after she has entered 

 upon her third year. She sometimes ceases to lay worker 

 eggs, a considerable time before she dies of old age ; the 

 contents of her spermatheca becoming exhausted, the eggs 

 can no longer be impregnated, and must therefore produce 

 drones. 



The Queen bee usually dies of old age, some time in her 

 fourth year, although some have been known to live much 

 longer. It is highly important to the bee keeper who would 

 receive the largest returns from his bees, to be able, as in 

 my hives, easily to remove her, when she has passed the 

 period of her greatest fertility. 



Before proceeding farther in the natural history of the 

 5* 



