THE AUSTRALIAN BEEKEEPERS’ JOURNAL. 
1 
when they want to raise a young Queen in 
the ordinary way with a view to swarming, 
and are larger than the Worker cells and hang 
downwards. In these partly made cells the 
Queen deposits female eggs, which after two 
days develop into larvae, after which they 
get plenty of prepared food (Royal Jelly) and 
these cells are gradually lengthened, from the 
laying of the eggs, till on the fifth or sixth 
day, having nearly filled the cells with food 
they are capped or closed ; the Queenly larvae 
then gradually developes into a Nymph which 
emerges fi'om its prison in fourteen to sixteen 
days from the date the egg was laid, the better 
food bringing it to maturity much quicker 
than the working bee, which requires twenty 
to twenty-one days to bring it to perfection. 
It is not difficult to discern the Queen from 
the rest of the bees, as she is much larger, the 
after part of the body longer, while her wings 
are comparatively shorter, her legs, particu- 
larly her hind legs, are longer, but have not 
the brushes or baskets like those of the 
Worker bee (these not being required as she 
has not to seek her own food), and her abdomen 
tapers to a point. But not only in her out- 
ward appearance does the Queen differ from 
the others hut in her internal organisation ; as 
the larger cell and the Royal food render the 
reproductive or genital parts perfect and 
capable of impregnation by the Drone which 
must take place within the first five or six 
weeks, as after that period she will be incap- 
able of being fertilised ; one impregnation is 
sufficient, and with very few exceptions lasts 
during her whole life. 
Her intercourse with the Drone takes place 
outside the hive, so she must be strong and 
well winged, and there must be plenty of 
Drones about, else the occasion may be lost ; 
her wedding trip always takes place during 
the warm hours of the day between twelve 
and five o’clock in the afternoon, which is the 
time the Drones take their daily flight. Her 
marriage having been consummated her 
Majesty returns to the hive to the great 
delight of her subjects, and unlike the most 
of them, remains at home, and after two or 
three days commences to lay her eggs, 
which fully occupies her time and she never 
seeks to roam again except when she goes 
forth to lead a swarm and form a new 
Colony. 
I might here briefly desoribe the peculiar 
and wonderful internal organisation or de- 
velopment of a fertilised Queen. By her 
connection with the Drone, she receives the 
male or fertilising sperm in a receptacle where 
it is held, as it were in suspense or germ life, 
until required for fertilising the eggs. The 
eggs are produced in a double egg vessel, and 
when mature pass into the egg canal, to which 
a small pipe from the sperm receptacle leads. 
When she wishes to lay eggs for Worker bees 
she discharges from the receptacle into the 
eggs the necessary quantity of the sperma, 
but when this is not done the eggs produce 
Drones, so that she can arbitrarily deposit 
either Worker or Drone eggs at will. From 
this it would appear that even unfertilised 
Queens ; nay more, that a Worker bee in a 
Queenless hive may have the power of laying 
eggs, but of such eggs Drones would be the 
produce, although deposited in a Worker or 
Queen cell. Such unimpregnated Queens 
only begin to lay after their flight, when they 
have been unsuccessful in meeting a Drone, or 
when their flight has been too long delayed and 
although the bees may feed her on the choicest 
food, no Queens can be raised, exhibiting 
the strange natural phenomenon that the life 
germ of the female sex is generated in the 
male, while that of the male has its origin 
with the female. 
The Queen, like the working hee, is pro- 
vided with a sting, but this she only uses 
in combat with another Queen, as she will 
admit of no rival to her throne, and except at 
swarming time a second Queen is rarely 
found in a colony, and in fact one of the first 
acts of her life is to search for and try to 
destroy any pup® of princesses that are likely 
to be antagonistic to her sovereignty. 
WORKERS. 
The Worker Bees, which are the smallest of 
the three, are produced in the small six- 
cornered cells, and their development takes 20 
to 21 days, are in reality undeveloped females, 
and although from this defect it is not their 
vocation to lay eggs and reproduce their kind, 
their duties nevertheless are not much less 
important, and are certainly equally onerous 
and necessary ; the whole working of the 
establishment both in and out of doors, devolves 
upon them, and almost from the moment of 
their birth their life is one of unceasing labour 
of various kinds, some of which require much 
skill and forethought. These they so cheerfully 
and untiringly perform that their industry 
has been extolled as well worthy of imitation 
by poet and philosopher from the days of 
Aristotle and Virgil down to those of Dr. 
Watts. They build the combs, they go 
abroad to seek the sweet nectar, and when 
obtained bring it home, store it in the cells 
prepared for it, they get the pollen and feed 
the larvae, nurse and cap them, they clean and 
feed the young bees when hatched, thus 
taking upon them all a mother’s cares and 
responsibilities. They clear away the dirt 
and rubbish from the hive, they guard and 
protect it against all invasions of their many 
enemies of various kinds, and are ready to 
