THE HONEY-BEE. 
75 
which will, probably, for ever remain inscrutable to 
man.” In the natural state of things, that is, when 
fecundation has not been postponed, the Queen lajs 
the eggs of workers in forty-sis hours after her union 
with the male,and continues for the subsequent eleven 
months to produce these alone, and it is onlvafter this 
period that a considerable laying of the eggs of drones 
commences. These male eggs require eleven months 
to attain to maturity, but, under the effects of retarda- 
tion, they are matured in forty-six hours. The eggs of 
workers, which, iu the usual state of things, would have 
been laid first, never come to light ; their vitality has 
beendestroyed by some vitiation which has taken place, 
and the cause of which has not yet been discovered. 
Huber, in reasoning on the subject, and contemplating 
the difficulty attending it, declares it to he “ an abyss 
in which he is lost.” There is another circumstance 
which he has not adverted to, and which seems to 
increase these difficulties. He asserts that before a 
Queen commences her great laying of male- eggs, she 
must be eleven months old. But he acknowledges 
that ,c a Queen, hatched in spring, will perhaps lay 
fifty or sixty eggs of drones in whole, during the course 
of the ensuing summer.”* We know this to be true 
from our own experience ; and also as the usual con- 
sequence of this appearance of male-eggs, that the 
Bees commence building royal cells, — the Queen lays 
in them, and swarming takes place. Now this partial 
laying of drone-eggs takes place only in the case of 
very early swarms ; and if the weather be unfavour- 
* Huber, page 169. 
