166 Mr. Hunter's Observations on Bees. 
“ containing eggs only, in six boxes, but no preparations 
“ were made towards producing a queen. * * * § 
“ The experiment of producing a queen bee from a maggot 
“ was repeated every month of the year, even in November. -f 
“ A maggot three days old was procured from a friend, in- 
“ closed in an ordinary cell, and shut up with a piece of comb, 
“ containing eggs and maggots. That three days old was 
“ formed into a queen, and all the other maggots and eggs 
“ were destroyed.'^' 
“ In above a hundred experiments a queen has been formed 
“ from maggots three days old/' § 
Wilhelmi observes, that a queen cell, which is made while 
the bees are shut up, is formed by breaking down three com- 
mon cells into one, when the maggot is placed in the centre, 
after which the sides are repaired. 
A young queen lately hatched was put into a hive, which 
had been previously ascertained to contain no drones, and 
whose queen was removed ; and yet the young queen laid eggs.|| 
In repeating Mr. Schirach's experiment, he shut up four 
* Why eggs, which we must conceive hatched, and produced maggots, did not 
form queens, one cannot imagine. 
f In which month, as bees never swarm, there could be no occasion for mothers, 
or supernumerary queens, and still each experiment produced a handsome queen. 
This is as singular an observation as any. In this country, and in all similar ones, bees 
hardly breed after July, and by the beginning of September there is hardly a chrysalis 
to be seen ; yet these bred till November, and even laid eggs. 
J Why did the bees destroy them in this experiment, and not in others ? 
§ The working bees, from the above experiments, are considered as all females, 
although the ovaria are too small for examination. 
It would appear that a maggot three days old was of the best age for this experi- 
ment, yet one should have conceived that a maggot two days old would soon be fit. 
JJ There is no mystery in this ; but did they hatch ? 
