BEE MANUAL. 67 
‘12. As some unfecundated 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 
unfecundated, and the eggs are uniformly laid by some individual 
bee, regarded and treated more or less by her companions as their 
ueen. 
“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 Cuok 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. 
