84 
BREEDING. 
contained an egg; most of these she examined, but did 
not use them ; six or eight, it appeared, were all that 
were unoccupied; in each of these she insjmediately 
deposited an egg. She continued to searchNfor .more 
empty cells, and in doing so, she got on the part of 
the comb containing worker-cells, where she found a 
dozen or more empty, in each of which, she laid one. 
The whole time perhaps thirty minutes. Query ? 
Was her series of drone eggs exhausted just at this 
time ? If so, it would appear that she was not aware 
of it, because she examined several drone-cells after 
laying the last one there, before leaving that part 
of the comb, and acted exactly as if she would have 
used them had they not been pre-occupied. Did the 
worker-cells receive some eggs that would have pro- 
duced drones, but for the circumstance of being de- 
posited in worker-cells? I know we are told that 
an egg may be transferred from a worker-cell to 
one for drones, or an egg taken from a drone-cell and 
deposited in a worker-cell ; that the exchange will 
make no difference, the bee will be just what the first 
deposit would have made it. How the knowledge for 
this assertion was obtained, we arc not informed, at 
least of the practical part. That an egg was ever de- 
tached from the bottom of one cell safely and success- 
fully deposited in another, without breaking or in- 
juring it in some manner, to make the bees refuse it; 
permit me at present to doubt. 
NECESSITY" FOR FURTHER OBSERVATION. 
Cannot some experiments, practicable to all, be in- 
