Page:Jardine Naturalist's library Bees.djvu/89

Rh that the Queen lays male eggs, and that, as the natural consequence, royal cells are built, in which she lays, and, in due time, she leads off a swarm. Now, does not this fact seem to imply that there is no such arbitrary arrangement of the several kinds of eggs as Huber imagines? and if it would be stretching the inference too far to say, that the Queen has the power of laying those of males or of workers as circumstances may require,—does it not imply that the statement of Huber may admit of very important and frequent exceptions? About the twentieth day from the commencement of the laying of male eggs, the bees begin to lay the foundations of royal cells, and the Queen having resumed laying female eggs, deposits them, at intervals of one or two days, in these cells, from which are hatched, in due time, other Queens. This regular process is, however, sometimes interrupted:—if the Queen be not a fertile one, and the colony is, in consequence, weak in population; if the hive or domicile itself be large in proportion to the number of its inhabitants; or if the temperature of the season has been such as to interfere with the copious collection of honey or farina, in these circumstances no male eggs will be laid, no royal cells founded, and no swarms will issue. But, in favourable circumstances, the laying of royal eggs takes place regularly during the laying of those of males, and swarming is the consequence. The royal cell (Pl. VI.) is an inch in depth, and it has been considered difficult to comprehend how the body of the Queen can reach the bottom, so as to