94 SUCCESSFUL BEE-KFEPING. 
Samuel Wagener, of Phil- 
adelphia, has suggested 
that in the act of deposit- 
ing an egg in a worker cell 
the abdomen of the queen 
becomes compressed, forc- 
jing the sperm into con- 
tact with the egg in pass- 
ing the sac, and changing 
it from a drone to a worker. 
[See Fig. 36.] But it is 
found that the queen will 
deposit eggs in cells but 
just begun, when no possible 
compression of the abdo- 
men can take place, these 
36.—Ovaries of queen. eggs producing workers. 
Besides, it often happens that drones mature from the very 
smallest worker cells. It appears, after all, that not only 
the queen, but the workers also, know what the egg will 
produce ; for drone cells are not prepared until the season 
when they are wanted approaches, nor can the queen be 
induced to place eggs therein much in advance of this 
period. 
For myself, I am satisfied that the queen has volition in 
the matter ; and that the bees have the power, by a par- 
ticular process of nursing, suitable for each, to produce 
FROM WORKER EGGS EITHER QUEENS, WORKERS OR DRONES ! | 
I am aware that this idea is somewhat new and ahead 
of “the books,” but in my practice of rearing queens by 
very small nuclei, I have often found drone brood maturing 
in a small piece of worker comb cut from cards full of 
eggs taken from the centre of the hive, where it is 
scarcely possible drone eggs would be found. 
