MANAGEMENT OF HONEY BEES. 89 
minately mixed in the ovaries of the queen , 
but arranged so that at a particular season 
she can lay only acertain kind ; that shecan 
lay no male eggs until those of the workers, 
occupying the first place in the oviducts, are 
discharged. I do not mean to question this 
statement, as holding true generally, but I 
think it made in terms too unqualified, and 
that there are palpable and frequent excep- 
tions. He has himself acknowledged, else- 
where, that a queen hatched in spring will 
sometimes lay fifty or sixty eggs of males 
during the course of the ensuing summer, 
and I have repeatedly witnessed the fact. 
Now, this takes place in certain circum- 
stances, and under certain conditions, name- 
ly, that the family of the queen so laying 
shall have been a very early swarm, that it 
shall abound in population, and that the sea- 
son shall be genial, and the secretion of 
honey in the flowers plentiful. In such a 
favorable juncture of circumstances, it almost 
invariably happens that the queen lays male 
eges, and that, as the natural consequence, 
8* 
