170 Mr. Hunter's Observations on Bees. 
ing more to a point at the anus. The scales at this season are 
more overlapped, which can only be known by drawing them 
out. In the spring and summer she is more easily distin- 
guished : the belly is not only thicker, but considerably longer 
than formerly, which arises from the increase of the eggs. We 
distinguish a queen from the working bee, simply by size, and 
in some degree by colour ; but this last is not so easily ascer- 
tained, because the difference in the colour is not so remarkable 
in the back, and the only view we can commonly get of her 
is on this part ; but when a hive is killed, the best way is to 
collect all the bees, and spread them on white paper, or put 
them into water, in a broad, flat-bottomed, shallow, white dish, 
in which they swim ; and by looking at them singly, she 
may be discovered. As the queen breeds the first year she is 
produced, and the oviducts never entirely subside, an old queen 
is probably thicker than a new bred one, unless indeed the 
oviducts, and the eggs, form in the chrysalis state, as in the 
silk-worm, which I should suppose they did. The queen is per- 
haps at the smallest size just as she has done breeding, for as 
she is to lay eggs by the month of March, she must begin early 
to fill again ; but I believe her oviducts are never emptied, 
having at all times eggs in them, although but small. She 
has fat in her belly, similar to the other bees. 
It is most probable that the queen which goes off with the 
swarm is a young one, for the males go off with the swarm 
to impregnate her, as she must be impregnated the same 
year, because she breeds the same year. 
The queen has a sting similar to the working bee. 
