222 BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 



evolutions, the young queen, if prevented from 

 leaving, becomes greatly agitated, seeking an exit at 

 every point, until the drones are once more at home. 

 If at liberty, she flies daily with increased anxiety, 

 until the object explained in the last chapter has 

 been realised, when, about forty-eight hours after, she 

 deposits her first eggs, which invariably produce 

 workers. 



But exceptional cases often arise, and it is in har- 

 mony with facts such as those before given, and 

 which have long been known, that a queen, or 

 mother-bee, is not doomed to total sterility if raised 

 at a part of the year when drones do not exist, but 

 that she, although later than at the normal period, 

 begins to deposit eggs, which, however, are in no 

 instance converted into workers, but invariably pro- 

 duce drones, which must, of course, in her case at 

 least, be generated parthenogenetically. Queens 

 having defective wings, and so incapable of mating, 

 are also invariably drone-breeders. Similarly, if a 

 queen of the Italian race {Apis Ligustica), which has 

 consorted with an Italian drone, be placed in a hive 

 containing English bees {Apis Mellifica) only, and 

 which is itself located in a neighbourhood where 

 Italians are unknown, all her progeny, both workers 

 and drones, will, to the end of her life, continue 

 pure, carrying their characteristic yellow abdominal 

 bands, and a thousand other minor distinctive pecu- 

 liarities; but should she leave with a swarm, or 

 die, the workers will raise a successor from one 

 of her eggs. The new queen of unmixed blood 

 must of necessity mate with an English drone 



