60 NATUEAL HISTORY OP THE HONEY BEE. 



of their ovaries, and thus determine their sex. The accuracy 

 of these examinations has been verified by the well-known 

 facts respecting fertile workers. 



Riem, a German Apiarian, first discovered that workers 

 sometimes lay eggs. Huber, in the course of his investiga- 

 tions on this subject, ascertained that such workers were 

 raised in hives that had lost their Queen, and in the vicinity 

 of the royal cells in which young Queens were rearing. He 

 conjectured that they received accidentally, a small portion 

 of the peculiar food of these infant Queens, and he thus ac- 

 counted for their reproductive organs being more developed 

 than those of other workers. Workers reared in such hives, 

 are in close proximity to the young Queens, and it is possi- 

 ble that some of the royal jelly may be accidentally dropped 

 into their cells. 



In the Summer of 1854, I examined a brood comb which 

 had been given to a Queenless colony. It contained eleven 

 sealed Queens. A number of cells were capped with a 

 round covering, as though they contained drones. On open- 

 ing several of them, I found some containing drone, and 

 others worker nymphs. The latter seemed a little more 

 sugar-loaf, in shape, than the common workers, and their 

 cocoons were of a coarser texture than usual. I believe 

 that they were fertile workers. I had noticed, for several 

 years, in hives raising artificial Queens, the same kind of 

 cells, and at first thought that they all contained drones. 

 I am now inclined to believe that bees, when rearing Queens 

 artificially, frequently give a portion of the royal jelly to 

 brood which, for some reason, they do not proceed to de- 

 velope, as full grown Queens. It is a well known fact that 

 they often begin many more Queen cells, than they choose 

 to complete. The kind of eggs laid by these fertile workers, 

 has already been noticed. Huber states that they prefer 



