Account of the Queen Bee. 59 
the propagation of bees, may perhaps plead, 
that although there were no drones in the hive, 
when I took the Queen from it, yet there 
might have been eggs laid in drone cells, which 
would come forward to be drones as foon as 
the young Queen, and fo impregnate her, and 
render her fit for breeding. But the contrary 
is the fact : for,when the old Queen was taken 
‘out of the hive, there was not a fingle egg in 
any of the drone cells. If there had, I would 
have feen the bees fitting upon the cells of the 
drone combs, as they did on thofe of the 
common bees, and on the royal cell. Befides, 
I turned up the hive every fecond day, during 
the whole period of forty-three days, in order 
‘to determine how long the bees took tu erect 
the royal cell, and feal it up; how many days 
elapfed before an egg produced a Queen ; how 
old the Queen was, before fhe began te lay 
eges ; how many days pailed, before thefe eggs 
produced common bees ; and, above all, whe- 
ther the Queen needed the agency of the 
drones, to enable her to become a mother. 
To arrive at a certainty on this point, I often 
turned. the bees over in the hive with a fmall 
{tick, in fearch of young drones in drone 
cells, but could not difcover the {malleft vei- 
| H 2 tige 
