48 
THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 
eggs are matured, just as unfavorable circumstances 
diminish the nuniber of eggs laid by the hen; and when 
the weather is very cold, the queen stops laying in weak 
colonies. 
In the Latitude of Northern Massachusetts, I have found 
that the queen ordinarily ce.ases to lay some time in Octo¬ 
ber; and begins again, in strong stocks, in the latter part 
of December. On the 14th of January, 1857 (the previ¬ 
ous month having been very cold, the thermometer some¬ 
times sinking to 17° below zero), I examined three hives, 
and found that the central combs in two contained eggs 
and unsealed brood; there were a few cells with sealed 
brood in the third. Strong stocks even in the coldest cli¬ 
mates usually contain some brood ten months in the year. 
It is amusing to see how the supernumerary eggs of the 
queen are disposed of. If the workers are too few to take 
charge of all her eggs, or there is a deficiency of bee-bread 
to nourish the young; or if, for any reason, she does not 
judge best to deposit them in the cells, she stands upon 
a comb, and simply extrudes them from her oviduct, the 
workers devouring them as fast as they are laid. I have 
repeatedly witnessed in observing-hives the sagacity of 
the queen in thus economising her necessary work, in¬ 
stead of depositing her eggs in cells where they are not 
wanted. What a difiference between her and the stupid 
hen, which so obstinately persists in sitting upon addled 
pieces of chalk, and often upon nothing at all! 
The workers devour also sill eggs which .are dropped 
or deposited out of place by the queen ; thus, even a tiny 
egg, instead of being wasted, is turned to good account. 
One who carefully watches the habits of bees will ofien 
feel inclined to speak of his little favorites .as having an 
intelligence almost if not quite akin to reason; and I have 
sometimes queried, whether the workers who are so foiul 
