40 PHYSIOLOGY OF THE HONEY-BEE. 



per day, will seem exaggerated to many bee-keepers, own- 

 ers of small hives. They will perhaps ask how such lay- 

 ing can be ascertained. Nothing is easier. Let us suppose 

 that we have found a hive, with 1,200 square inches of 

 comb occupied by brood. As there are about 55 worker- 

 cells to the square inch of comb (217), 27 to 28 on each 

 side, we multiply 1,200 by 55, and we have 66,000 as the 

 total number of cells occupied at one time. Now, it takes 

 about 21 days for the brood to develop from the egg to the 

 perfect insect, and we have 3,145 as the average number of 

 eggs laid daily by that queen, in 21 days. Of course, this 

 amount is not absolutely accurate, as the combs are not 

 always entirely fllled, but it will suffice to show, within 

 perhaps a few hundred, the actual fecundity of the queen. 

 Such numbers can be found every year, in most of the 

 good colonies, provided that the limited capacity of the 

 hive will not prevent the queen from laying to the utmost 

 of her abihty. 



99. The laying of the queen is not equal at all seasons. 

 She lays most during the spring and summer months, pre- 

 vious to the honey crop and during its flow. In late autumn 

 an-d winter months, she lays but little. 



100. Her shape is widely different from that of the 

 other bees. While she is not near so bulky as a drone, her 

 body is longer ; and as it is considerably more tapering, or 

 sugar-loaf in form, than that of a worker, she has a some- 

 what wasp-like appearance. Her wings are much shorter 

 in proportion than those of the drone, or worker;* the 

 under part of her body is of a golden color, and the upper 

 part usually darker than that of the other bees, t Her mo- 

 tions are generally slow and matronly, although she can, 

 when she pleases, move with astonishing quickness. No 

 colony can long exist without the presence of this all-impor- 



*The wings of the queen are in rcatitu longer than those of the worker. 

 t This applies only to queens of the hlack or common race. 



