THE QUEEN. 05 



spermatozoids are in some way rendered inoperative by severe 

 cold. 



152. Tlie queen begins laying about two days after im- 

 pregnation. She is seldom treated with much attention by 

 the bees until after she has begun to replenish the cells vrith 

 eggs; although if previously deprived of her, they show, 

 by their despair, that they fully appreciated her importance 

 to their welfare. 



The extraordinary fertility of the queen-bee has already 

 been noticed. The process of laying has been well described 

 by the Rev. TV". Dunbar, a Scotch Apiarist : 



153. "When the queen is about to lay, she puts her head 

 into a cell, and remains in that position for a second or two, to 

 ascertain its fitness for the deposit she is about to make. She 

 then withdraws her head, and curving her body downwards, in- 

 serts the lower part of it into the cell; in a few seconds she 

 turns half round upon herself and withdraws, leaving an egg 

 behind her." 



In the Winter, or early Spring, she lays first in the middle 

 of the cluster, and continues in a circle, around the first eggs 

 laid, till she has filled most of the warmed space. She 

 then crosses over to the next comb and iioes the same thing ; 

 as the bees always cluster on different combs in groups ex- 

 actly opposite, to produce the utmost possible concentration 

 and economy of heat for developing the various changes of 

 the brood. 



154. Queens lay more or less according to, 1st, The sea- 

 son; 2nd, The number of bees that keep up the heat of the 

 brood-nest, and 3d, The quantity of food which the}' eat. 

 When bees harvest honey or pollen, or when these necessaries 

 are provided artificially by the Apiarist, they feed the queen 

 as they pass by her, oftener than they would otherwise; hence 

 her laying increases in Spring, and decreases in Summer or 

 Fall. It is certain that when the weather is uncongenial, or 

 the colony too feeble to maintain sufficient heat, fewer eggs 

 are matured, just as unfavorable circumstances diminish the 



