QUEENS 
rounding tilings, and, instead of being 
frightened as usual at opening the hive, she 
will pay no attention; but if the comb she 
is on is lifted up she will take her flight 
from that as well as from anywhere else. 
They have been caught in the hand at such 
times, without their being frightened; and 
as soon as they were allowed to go, they 
were off as if nothing had happened. 
After the queen is satisfied that she will 
know the place, she ventures out boldly; 
and from the fact of her circling right np 
in the air, it was once supposed that ferti¬ 
lization took place above the ken of human 
eyesight. This has been shown to be a mis¬ 
take. See Drones. 
After a successful flight she returns with 
the organs of the drone remaining attached 
to her body. (See Drones.) This is a 
white substance, and is frequently so large 
as to be plainly seen while she is on the 
wing. A queen is usually gone half an 
hour, but she will sometimes return ferti¬ 
lized after an absence of not more than 10 
or 15 minutes, and there have been reported 
instances where she has been gone not more 
than three minutes. This accomplished, sLe 
goes quietly into the hive. The bees are 
much inclined to chase after her, and they 
sometimes pull at the protruding substance 
as if they would drag it away. That they 
do so, is pretty well proved. 
Until recently it was generally believed 
that the queen met the drone only once, 
notwithstanding the fact that Francis Hu¬ 
ber, in his book, “New Observations,” pub¬ 
lished in 1814, made the statement that 
queens might or might not take more than 
one wedding-flight before beginning to lay. 
But this seems to have been overlooked un¬ 
til 1904, when considerable proof was ad¬ 
duced to show that the same queen before 
laying (not after) may not only take sev¬ 
eral wedding-flights, but come back on dif¬ 
ferent occasions with sure evidence of hav¬ 
ing met a drone. ^ 
While it seems to be pretty well proved 
that the queen may take more than one 
marriage-flight prior to her laying, it is 
very much doubted whether she ever takes 
a second flight to meet the drone after lay¬ 
ing. It is true that some facts seem to 
point that way; but when the great number 
of spermatozoa that she receives on her 
wedding-flight is considered, it hardly 
seems likely that a flight is taken later. Ac¬ 
cording to Cheshire, the spermatozoa are 
extruded from the spermatheca in detach¬ 
ments, only a part of them being effective 
in the fertilization of eggs. He estimates 
that about 4,000,000 spermatozoa are re¬ 
ceived at the fertilization of the queen. A 
good queen might, perhaps, lay two hun¬ 
dred thousand eggs in a season. If only 
one-fourth (or 1,000,000) of the spermato¬ 
zoa were effective, the queen could still re¬ 
main fertile for five years if she laid an 
average of 200,000 eggs per year. There¬ 
fore, unless a much greater number of 
spermatozoa are lost, there could be no 
necessity for a later fertilization. 
Queen laying, surrounding bees turned toward her. 
For further particulars on this subject 
of mating, see Drones. 
WHEN THE QUEEN BEGINS TO LAY AFTER 
MATING. 
The 3d or the 4th day after a successful 
mating one will, as a general rule, find the 
queen depositing eggs. The average age at 
which queens begin laying is about nine 
days. Between impregnation and the time 
the first egg is laid a remarkable change 
takes place. 
After the queen has been out and ferti¬ 
lized, her appearance is much the same as 
before. She runs and hides when the hive 
is opened, and looks so small and insignifi¬ 
cant that one would not think of calling 
