THE WORKERS. 2) 
“ An angry hive of bees 
That want their leader, scatter up and down, 
And care not whom they sting.” 
If this occurs when the blossoms are yielding honey 
in profusion, a worker will be found to deposit eggs. 
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12.—Worker laying. 
These eggs are laid regardless of order, scattered all over 
the combs, and frequently six or seven in a cell. They 
will hatch, the bees destroying all except one in each 
cell ; the remainder will mature as drones only. 
Repeated attempts are made by the bees to rear queens 
from such eggs, which result in failure. They not un- 
frequently get so far as to cap over the cells and wait 
for the issue of the longed-for queen. But the hope is 
vain, for no Royalty is there, and the sleep of the grave* 
* It will be observed as a singular fact, that while the eggs of hoth an wn- 
fertile queen and a drone laying worker will mature and hatch from either 
drone or worker cells, they never mature as queens, nor hatch from the 
queen cell! A perfect drone to all appearance will mature, but would seem 
to expire at the moment of hatching. 
