92 LAYING OF DRONE EGGS. 



her eggs is the month of January, and the massacre of the 

 drones is a direct indication that the breeding season is 

 drawing to a close. This massacre begins to take place in 

 June, and closes in August at the farthest, thus allowing 

 seven or eight months for the breeding season ; but never was 

 it known in this country, nor even in that of Huber, much 

 less in that of Duncan, that the queen laid her eggs in 

 November. Thus the eleven consecutive months of Huber 

 can only be looked upon as a fabulous delusion. Further, 

 we are informed, that it is not until after the expiration of 

 the eleven months, that the queen commences to lay drone 

 eggs. In direct contradiction of which we can affirm, that 

 a queen bee generally lays drone eggs, if the swarm be an 

 early one, in fourteen days after taking possession of the 

 hive : in fact, Huber himself acknowledges that the queen 

 will lay fifty or sixty drone eggs during the summer ; but 

 so far from regarding it as a mere casualty, we affirm it to be 

 an invariable habit of the insect, and we are warranted in that 

 affirmation by the fact, that we never examined the ovarium 

 of a young queen at the head of a swarm, without perceiving 

 the rudiments of drone eggs in it. If we proceed further 

 in the statements of Huber, we find that the male eggs 

 require eleven months to attain to maturity. Is it possible 

 for a more vicious error to be propagated respecting the 

 drone eggs of the queen ? But then we meet with a qualifica- 

 tion, which goes to show that under the effects of retardation 

 they are matured in forty-six hours. We, however, profess 

 our incompetency to understand the meaning of Huber. 

 Does he mean to assert, that the drone eggs take eleven 

 months to come to maturity in the ovarium of the queen, 

 or in the cell after their deposition ? Let us, however, take 

 whichever of the two cases we please, in either instance we 

 find ourselves, like Huber himself, in an abyss of mysticism 

 and error. To affirm that the drone eggs, under any cir- 

 cumstances whatever, take eleven months to arrive at 



