THOUSAND ANSWERS 
143 
Law* on Beekeeping.— Q. What are the laws governing the 
keeping of bees, disease control, etc.? 
A. Laws concerning bees and diseases are made by each state 
individually. Write to your state bee inspector or state entomolo- 
gist for information. If you do not know who he is, the publishers 
of the bee journals should be able to inform you. 
Laying Worker*.— Q. In overhauling a friend’s bees today, I 
had a new experience. I found a colony that was queenless (at 
least no queen was noticed), and no brood was found in any of 
the combs, excepting a small quantity of drone-brood scaled up. 
Ninety-six drone-cells, actual count, and one sealed queen-cell * 
no worker-brood at all. The queen-cell was right among the 
sealed drone-cells. 
A. It is not only possible, but probable, that not only a laying 
worker, but a number of them were present, and that the bees at- 
tempted to rear a queen just as you have suggested. 
Q. In appearance are laying workers different from workers? 
A. Not a bit. I suppose I have seen hundreds of them— for 
in every colony with laying workers it isn’t a single worker, but 
a whole nest of them at the miserable business — but I never 
could tell which the laying workers were, except one single lay- 
ing worker that I caught in the act of laying. 
Q. Do old bees become drone-layers, or do only the younger 
ones “go astray?” 6 
A. I have a strong impression it’s only the younger ones. 
Some have advanced the theory that laying workers, in their 
larval existence, have been located near queen-cells, and so have 
been fed some of the royal jelly as a sort of overflow. If that 
were the true theory, of course there would be no drone-layers 
except those which started in at the business early in life. But 
I wouldn’t take much stock in that theory. Nurse-bees are not 
so careless as to slop around the soup dishes in that sort of style. 
Besides, if that theory were correct, laying workers would be 
just as likely to appear at all times after young queens are reared, 
whereas we know that with most races of bees no laying workers 
are seen unless a colony has been hopelessly queenless for some 
time. I don t remember that I ever saw any other explanation 
given, but if you can’t find anything better I’ll offer one of my own 
for what it is worth. It is that when a lot of nurses are loaded 
up with pap, and only a few larvae are left unsealed, those few are 
fed so heavily that they are developed sufficiently to do some- 
thing in the egg-laying line. If any reliance can be put upon this 
