BREEDING. 
87 
eggs producing them, or the power is given to tire 
workers to develop such ns are wanted, from one 
kind, we cannot say. If we make two kinds of eggs, 
it helps the matter but very little. There is still an 
anomaly. There is but one perfect female in a nest 
to germinate eggs, and the myriads produced (being 
over 80,000 in twenty-four hours, according to some 
historians) shows that the fecundity of our queen-bee 
is not a parallel case by any means. And yet they 
are similar, by having their offspring provided for 
without an effort of their own. 
I shall leave this matter for the present, hoping that 
something conclusive may occur in the course of my ex- 
periments, or those of others. At present I am in- 
clined to think that the eggs are all alike, but am not 
fully satisfied. 
I am aware that this matter is of but little value or 
interest to many, but myself and a few others have 
“ Yankee inquisitiveness ” pretty well developed, and 
would like to know how it was managed. 
As for workers proving occasionally fertile, I have 
but little to say. After years of close observation di- 
rected to this point, I have been unable to discover 
anything to establish this opinion. Neither have I 
found the black bees described by some authors. It 
is true that in the middle or latter part of summer a 
portion will be much darker than others, and perhaps 
rather smaller, and some of them with their wings 
somewhat worn, probably the result of continued labor, 
peculiar food, or some incidental circumstance. 
I have a few times found a humble-bee under thn 
