THE QUEEN. 66 



July the colony of the first queen was very poor, the second 

 was of average strength, and both the others were very 

 strong. 



166. It is amusing to see how the supernumerary eggs 

 of the queen are disposed of. If the workers are too few to 

 take charge of all lier eggs, if there is a deficiency of bee- 

 bread to nourish the young; or if, for any reason, she does 

 not think best to deposit them in the cells, she stands upon 

 a comb, and simply extrudes them from her oviduct, the 

 workers devouring them as fast as they are laid. 



One who carefully watches the habits of bees will often 

 feel inclined to speak of his little favorites as having an 

 intelligence almost if not quite akin to reason ; and we have 

 sometimes queried, whether the workers who are so fond of 

 a tit-bit in the shape of a newly-laid egg, ever experienced 

 a struggle between appetite and duty ; so that they must 

 practice self-denial to refrain from breakfasting on the eggs 

 so temptingly deposited in the cells. 



167. It is well known to breeders of poultry, that the 

 fertility of a hen decreases with age, until at length she 

 may become entirely barren. By the same law, the fecun- 

 dity of the queen-bee ordinarily diminishes after she has 

 entered her third year. An old queen sometimes ceases to 

 lay worker-eggs ; the contents of her spermatheca becoming 

 exhausted, the eggs are no longer impregnated, and pro- 

 duce only drones. 



The queen-bee usually dies of old age in her fourth year, 

 although she has been known to live much longer. There is 

 great advantage, therefore, in hives which allow her, when 

 she has passed the period of her greatest fertility, to be 

 easily removed. 

 5 



