BEE MANUAL. 67 



"12. As some unfeoundated queens occasionally lay drone eggs, 

 so also in queenless colonies, no longer having the requisite means of 

 securing a queen, common workers are sometimes found that lay 

 eggs, from which drones only proceed. These workers are likewise 

 unfeoundated, and the eggs are uniformly laid by some individual 

 bee, regarded and treated more or less by her companions as their 

 queen. 



" 13. So long as a fertile queen is present in the hive, the bees do 

 not tolerate a fertile worker. Nor do they tolerate one while cherish- 

 ing the hope of being able to rear a queen. In rare instances, 

 however, exceptional cases occur. Fertile workers are sometimes 

 found in the hive immediately after the death or removal of the queen, 

 and even in the presence of a young queen, so long as she has not 

 herself become fertile. " 



The foregoing enunciation of the Dzierzon theory is now 

 generally accepted, with scarcely any modification, as the basis 

 of the modern science of Apiculture. As regards Proposition 

 5, some doubts are still entertained as to whether it may not 

 be possible that fecundation may be, in some rare instances, 

 accomplished within the hive. Professor Cook indeed states a 

 case as having come under his own observation, where a 

 " queen whose wing was clipped just as she came from the 

 cell, and the entrance to whose hive was guarded by per- 

 forated zinc so that she could not get out, was impregnated, 

 and proved an excellent queen." He adds, " so it seems more 

 than possible that mating in confinement may yet become 

 practicable." Certainly it has not been found practicable as 

 yet, and many additional authentic cases must be recorded 

 before it can even be admitted that there was no possibility of a 

 mistake in the isolated case referred to. 



Attempts have also recently been made to effect artificial 

 fecundation of the queen larva, and thus produce a queen 

 capable, when she first issues from the cells, of laying both 

 male and female eggs. Some cases of success in this delicate 

 operation have even been asserted, but no satisfactory practical 

 results have been as yet attained. It is the opinion of some 

 who are well qualified to judge, that ultimate success in this 

 direction may be possible, and no doubt the most searching 

 investigation and the most careful experiments will be made until 

 certainty shall be attained on the point. Should it ever be found 

 really practicable to regulate cross-breeding in such a certain 

 manner, it would undoubtedly open quite a new era in queen 

 rearing and in the propagation of peculiar races of bees. 



