month of September, after all the drones had been destroyed. I wanted to know on how many days she left her hive to find a companion. Being a journeyman gardener at the time, I visited the hive but once a-day, generally about four o'clock in the afternoon. The mouth of the hive was shut, so that every bee had to pass through a narrow tube, projecting two or three inches, before it took wing. Though the way out was plain and easy, neither the queen nor bees ever found the way back into the hive. For nine days the queen came through the tube, though the weather was rather cold and showery at the time, and was invariably found sometimes trying to find an entrance into the hive, or nestled up in a small cluster of bees near the door of the hive. Once I saw her come home and light on the flight-board at four o'clock. The sky was heavily clouded, and the atmosphere rather cold. Of course the queen and bees found outside the hive were admitted every afternoon. This simple experiment fully convinced me that the impulses of a young queen for a mate are very strong and urgent; and when she fails to find one, the fault is not hers.

The drones seldom leave their hive but in very fine weather. This fact accounts for the non-impregnation of queens during unfavourable weather. Very cold or stormy weather may, and often does, I daresay, prevent queens from leaving their hives on these errands or occasions of necessity. Failure is very uncommon in fine weather. About the time her majesty is expected to leave her hive, the drones come out in great force and make a tremendous noise in front of the hive. By reason of their number their buzz becomes a roar, heard at a considerable distance from the hive. Last year I happened to hear this well-known sound, and went at once to see her majesty come out of her hive and go away on her marriage-tour.

The hive was no sooner reached than she was seen going into it. She had been abroad before the drones had come out. In about five minutes after her return she came out again, and took wing amid a noisy rabble of drones.

The statements of some authors about queens selecting their lovers in their hives, and then going away together to make their nuptial couches high up in the air, where no eye may follow, are mere poetical fancies. When a queen

comes out for this purpose, she comes by herself: she has no favourites will accept a mate from a strange hive, or from a distance, as readily as from her own hive. How far she will fly in search of a mate is not known. But it is well known that drones fly great distances from home, and often impregnate queens which they happen to meet. Though there were a great many hives in our garden last year, and drones enough in every one of them, some of our young queens were made fruitful by contact with Italian or Ligurian drones. Now, no bee-keeper within a distance of four miles has bees of this kind. This fact shows that pairing inside never takes place.

But where does copulation take place? In the air, or on the ground? Most writers think it takes place in the air. We believe it takes place on the ground-that the queen is caught in the air by the drone, and both come down. Last summer I saw a queen hotly pursued by two drones. She was overtaken, but they did not catch her. As soon as they apparently reached her, she doubled and went back as a hare does when pursued by dogs. She gained a few paces at the turn, and all went out of my sight. When I was a lad, in my father's house, a labouring man called to tell us what he had seen while digging in a field about half a mile from our house. He heard a great noise, as if a swarm were passing over his head; he instantly looked up, when a ball or cluster of drones fell

at his feet, half the size of his spade-handle. He got a bit of stick and began to poke amongst the drones, when to his astonishment a queen crawled out of the cluster and took wing, followed in a twinkling by all the drones. His statement we believed at the time, and still believe it.

A great many queens are lost on their marriage-tours; they never return. Whether they fall into water and are thus lost, or lose their way home, or go into the wrong hives, I cannot say; but most bee-keepers of observation and experience well know that these necessary excursions are not unattended with risk, and sometimes with loss.

It is well for the bee-keeper that his queens, when timely impregnated, never require the drone again as long as they live. They never again leave their hives for this purpose. It is believed that during the first ten days of their lives copulation may take place more than once, but afterwards it never takes place. And this is one of the most extraordinary things in bee-history. A queen bee lives four years; lays a vast number of eggs—at least 2000 a-day-in the heat of summer, for months together, every year. I guess that a healthy fertile queen, during her life, lays at least 800,000 eggs- -200,000 a-year. Now these eggs are all duly fecundated, and capable of hatching into young bees, though the queen never meets a drone after the first few days of her existence.

EGG-LAYING.

This commences from six to ten days after impregnation takes place. Who can think of the laborious and monotonous life of a queen bee without feeling a little compassion? This queenly creature leads a life of toil. Six months of the year does she move from comb to comb, and from cell to cell, minding her own business. Thus she travels up and down the hive, seeking empty cells in

which to lay her eggs. Her eggs are of some size and substance, in shape somewhat akin to birds' eggs. When she finds a cell empty, she inserts her abdomen and then drops an egg, which adheres to the bottom of the cell by the small end. The eggs come so fast from her that she has neither time nor strength to lay one in each cell: often two and sometimes three drop into one cell. An amateur bee-keeper in this neighbourhood came to see me a few months ago, and said, "I believe all you say about bees but one statement as to the number of eggs laid by a queen. I think it is not possible for a queen to distribute 2000 eggs in twenty-four hours." He was told that the working bees helped to distribute and deposit the eggs in their cells; that where two were laid, the bees removed one and placed it in another cell. He was asked if he ever watched the queen's attendants in a leaf or unicomb hive. He said he had observed how they kept their heads towards her abdomen, and moved around her with the greatest vigilance. He was then told that these attendants nimbly caught the eggs as they came from her body. He at once acknowledged that his doubts were removed, and now understood how the cells were furnished with 2000 eggs daily.

It is always pleasant to meet with honest, intelligent inquirers, men that will not believe a thing without a reason. And what reason have you for saying that a single queen bee lays 2000 eggs every day in the height of the season? A very satisfactory one. We have seen hives containing more than 2000 square inches of combs each. Let us suppose that only half of these combs were filled with brood, and the rest filled with honey and beebread: that is 1000 inches of comb for brood in each hive. One inch of comb. has fifty worker-cells in it, twenty-five on each side. Very well, 1000 inches of comb con

tains 50,000 young bees, in all stages, from the egg up. These 50,000 young bees came from one queen in three weeks. Divide the 50,000 by 21, and it will be found that the average number laid per day for three weeks amounts to some hundreds beyond 2000 per day. What prodigious fertility! What generous feeding of the queen is necessary to repair the waste and wear of such fertility! We have not yet seen a hive large enough to overtax the laying powers of a queen bee.

THE SEXES OF EGGS.

Most writers on this subject believe that a healthy and timely-impregnated queen bee lays both male and female eggs-that the male eggs hatch into drones only, and that the female eggs may become either queens or working bees, according to the treatment they receive in their cells. These writers maintain that a queen is a perfect female, and a worker an imperfect one. They hold that the food supplied to the little worm does not alter the sex, but simply develops its organs of reproduction; in other words, makes it a perfect female. In the case of workers, it is said, the same food is not supplied; that though the eggs from which they come are identically the same as those which yield queens, they are fed differently, and hence are born imperfect, with organs undeveloped. It is questioned by some whether the special treatment is given to the young that become perfect and fully developed females, called queens, or to the young that are dwarfed and crippled into workers. The reader is earnestly requested to bear in mind that all enlightened bee-keepers as well as all bee-historians have not a doubt, or the shadow of one, as to the capability of these female eggs becoming either queens or workers. Six-and-twenty years ago I wrote a short treatise on bees which appeared in