42 
Beekeeping 
tally less highly developed than the workers and that, to 
some degree, the workers determine the number of eggs to 
be laid and otherwise determine the queen’s activities. 
The ovaries of the queen (Fig. 92) are highly developed, as 
is necessary for her specialized function, and because of this 
development the abdomen is greatly elongated. Her legs 
(Fig. 81) are not specially modified as are those of the workers 
and the ovipositor is curved and smooth and has attached to 
it a poison sac 1 and functions as a sting. Whether it also 
assists in egg-laying is not determined. The eyes (Fig. 69) 
are much like those of the workers, the mandibles are notched 
and proportionately large, the head is not so elongated as 
that of the worker and is somewhat smaller. The antennae 
have twelve segments, like those of the worker. 
Mating normally takes place but once when the queen is 
from five to eight days old, the time differing slightly in 
different races and being influenced also by conditions of the 
weather. There is reason to think that some queens mate 
more than once, but always before laying eggs. Mating 
never occurs in the hive but on the wing and the queen re¬ 
ceives a supply of spermatozoa (male sex cells), millions in 
number, which are stored in her spermatheca (Fig. 92) and 
remain functional during the life of the queen or until they 
are exhausted. Egg-laying commonly begins two days after 
mating. The queen often lives three or four years but a few 
exceptional cases are recorded of queens living seven years. 
The life of the queen seems to depend somewhat on the num¬ 
ber of eggs which she lays. The queen, when she fails in egg- 
laying, is superseded by a young queen reared by the workers. 
1 On one occasion the author was stung by a virgin queen. While it 
was doubtless his own fault, this is an experience that comes to but few 
beekeepers. This was in the early days of his beekeeping experience and 
that there was a poison sac at the other end of the sting was attested by a 
goodly swelling. The queen was seemingly uninjured. This occurred in 
the apiary of the A. I. Root Co., Medina, Ohio and, by a strange coinci¬ 
dence, E. R. Root received a letter the same day from a western beekeeper 
who had a similar experience and who considered it rare enough to be worthy 
of publication. 
