MANAGEMENT OF HONEY BEES. 57 
by their instinct to lay the foundation of 
royal cells, in which, if the population be 
abundant, the queen deposits eggs at inter- 
vals of one or two days between each. In 
the operation of laying, which I have a thou- 
sand times witnessed in my Observatory 
hive, the queen puts her head into a cell, and 
remains in that position about a second or 
two, as if to ascertain wether it is ina fit 
state to receive the deposit. She then with 
draws her head, curves her body down- 
wards, inserts her abdomen into the cell, and 
turns half round on herself. Having kept 
this position for a few seconds, she with- 
draws her body, having in the meantime de- 
posited an egg. She thus keeps on laying 
eggs, day and night ; and I have shown her 
to hundreds of people, laying eggs, some- 
thing which they never before saw. The 
egg itself, which is attached to the bottom of 
the cell by a glutinous matter with which it 
is imbued, is ofa slender oval shape, slightly 
curved, rather more pointed in the lower end 
than in the other.’ She passes on from cell 
