BEE MANUAL. 75 



and recorded by Huber ; but since the Dzierzon theory has 

 been established it is of course easily understood. If, after a 

 hive becomes queenless, there should be no recently deposited 

 eggs or very young larvae of workers in the combs, it is of 

 course impossible for the bees to rear a new queen for them- 

 selves ; and if they be not provided with a new queen, or with 

 some young larvae or eggs to rear one from, the colony is certain 

 to dwindle away and perish either from the attacks of robbers 

 or from starvation. 



FERTILE WORKERS. 



The existence of egg-laying workers in a hive upon certain 

 rare occasions was noted by M. Riem even before Huber's 

 time, and fully confirmed by the latter. The circumstances 

 under which they do occur are given in Propositions 12 and 

 13 of the Dzierzon theory. They are of course quite useless 

 for keeping up the stock of a hive, as their eggs can only pro- 

 duce drones. Prof. Cook sums up in a few words all that is as 

 yet known about their origin. He says : — 



" Huber supposed that these were reared in cells contiguous to royal 

 cells, and thus received royal food by accident. The fact as stated 

 by Mr. Quinby, that these occur in colonies where queen larva? were 

 never reared, is fatal to the above theory. Langstroth and Berlepsch 

 thought that these bees were fed, though too sparingly, with the royal 

 aliment by bees in need of a queen, and hence the accelerated develop- 

 ment. Such may be the true explanation. Yet if, as some apiarists 

 aver, these appear where no (royal ?) brood has been fed, and so must 

 be common workers, changed after leaving the cell, as the result of a 

 felt need, then we must conclude that development and growth, as 

 with the high-holder, spring from desire." 



This is evidently one of the matters relating to apiculture 

 about which we have still much to learn. Prof. Cook adds : 

 " Fertile workers seem to appear more quickly and in greater 

 abundance in colonies of Cyprian and Syrian bees after they 

 become hopelessly queenless, than in Italian colonies." If so, 

 it is a point decidedly against the cultivation of those races. 



RELATION OF BEES TO FLOWERS. 



This subject (the word flowers being taken in its widest sense, 

 as applying to all sorts of blossoms of plants, shrubs, and trees) 

 is one of the most important and interesting to which the apiarist 



