10 THE HIVE AND THE HONEY-BEE. 



but one of her sex is permitted to exist in a hive at the one time, 

 and to her protection and comfort are the 

 i energies of the other bees to be directed. 

 The Queen-bee may be recognized by her 

 greater length of body, which is of a 

 blackish color above, and of a yellowish 

 tint beneath. She is usually, but not by 

 any means invariably, of a larger size than 

 either of the other classes ; her abdomen 

 contains two ovaries, or receptacles for eggs ; and her sting is of 

 a curved form. The Queen-bee commences depositing her eggs 

 when about five days old ; during the heat of the season she lays 

 from 150 to 200 eggs per day, and lays with little or no inter- 

 mission from early Spring to the middle of Autumn. The pro- 

 gress of her eggs from their deposition to maturity, shall be 

 treated of elsewhere. 



The second class of bees are the Drones. These are bulkier 

 in the body than either the Queen or the Working-bee. Their 

 head is rounder, proboscis shorter, eyes 

 fuller, an additional articulation to the 

 antennae, and no sting. They also make 

 more noise in flying than the other bees. 

 The Drones are the males of the hive ; 

 by them the royal mother is impregnated 

 and her eggs fertilized. How or when 

 this intercourse takes place has long furnished philosophers with 

 a subject for controversy and inquiry ; and it has not even yet 

 been set at rest in such a manner as to admit being proved to a 

 positive demonstration. 



Aristotle supposed that no such connection took place ; Swam- 

 merdam held the same opinion, but imagined that she required 

 to be in the neighborhood of the Drones, from whose bodies 

 there proceeded to her a vivifying aura, producing fertilization. 

 It has been by some supposed that the eggs are fertilized by 

 the Drones after having been deposited. This cannot be the 

 case, as many accurately instituted experiments satisfactorily 

 prove that eggs once laid will progress to maturity, and prove 

 fertile in the absence of Drones. 



M. de Reaumur described passages which occurred between 

 the Drones and the Queen, which were sufficient to induce sus- 

 picions at least of somewhat more than he actually witnessed, 



