Here I propose to deal with the queen from the extrusion of the egg to the mature and perfect insect; may, in one sense it will be necessary for me to deal with the egg prior to extrusion. We speak of the inmates of the hive as the queen, drones, and workers. There is nothing wrong in it. We also refer to the queen as having the power to lay eggs that will produce these three beings. Drones are male bees; the queen and workers females. The former has power to reproduce her species; the latter have not that power. Nevertheless, these conditions may be, and frequently are, changed --sometimes by the act of the bees themselves, and at other times artifically; that is, at a certain stage in the development of the egg, the queen structure may be advanced or checked, so that the egg shall produce a working bee or a queen, as may be required, either by the bees themselves or by the bee master. Note this transposition for a reproductive female or for a non-productive female takes place after the egg has been deposited in the cell by the queen--that is, the change or transition does not take place _within_ the ovary. In the case of the production of the drone, the sexual character of the innate of the egg is fixed _within_ the ovary. The spermatheca of a virgin queen is void of female life-germs; but, notwithstanding this, the ovary is sur-charged with embryo ovules. Each one of these contain a male germ, and each one, if laid by the queen in the same state as it is whilst in the ovary, would produce a male bee. It is immaterial as to where the queen deposits that egg either in a drone, a worker, or a queen cell, the result of development is fixed--it can hatch out nothing but a drone, a perfect male bee. But, for the production of a female bee, all the conditions for the production of the male are followed by Nature up to one point, when under certain conditions the sexual character of the egg changes. This sexual change takes place whilst the egg is in transition from the ovary to extrusion, during its passage through the ovducts of the mother bee. The egg is an elongated sac, one end of which is much larger than the other; in the larger end there is an aperture (micropyle). 'This aperture is extremely minute; but the uninteness of the opening does not prevent its being continued through the underlying egg nenbranes, and giving an opportunity of entrance to the spermatozoa (the life germs contained in the spermatheca), whose rhythmic movements, as though guided by intelligence, conduct it to the micropyle when the egg passes within the fertilising pouch, on its road towards being laid in a worker cell. The wondrous thread enters, coalesces with the germ (of matter within the egg), brings about fertilisation, and affects the resulting sex in a female bee, either a worker or a queen.''*Had not this egg passed within the fertilising pouch, and had not the wondrous thread referred to entered the micropyle of the egg, it would have passed out through the ova-depository, and its sexual characteristic would have been masculine; but that ''wondrous thread'' differentiates the whole creature, and an egg is deposited that will produce a queen--a perfect and complete female, capable of sexual intercourse and capable of reproducing its species, but unable to administer in the slightest degree to the wants of its progeny; or a female, a working bee, perfect in all her anatomical parts, but incomplete--that is, the spermatheea is incapable of reception, and the only female instinct she possesses is that of nursing. We know little of the growth of the egg from its embryonic stage to its maturity other than that which dileerentiates its sex. I have already explained that an egg which is to produce a male bee in whatsoever cell it is laid, the result is the same--a drone. Not so with the egg under review. Contact between that ''wondrous thread'' and the aperture in the egg does not fix the question whether it shall be a queen or a worker; it only fixes the fact as to gender. The egg taut has received the life-germ from the spermatheca will produce a female; but it does not settle the question as to its future destiny. The queen, the workers, and the bee-master have that under control. [The question whether the queen can lay an egg at will that shall produce a male or female bee will be dealt with when treating of droues.] Under ordinary circumstances the locality in which the egg is laid determines the position the bee will occupy in the future domestic economy of the hive. The laying of the egg in the cell in the first instance is controlled by the queen. Circumstances only decide whether it shall be deposited in a worker or a queen cell. If the egg be permitted to remain in the worker cell, it will develop a worker bee; but if it retains its position in the queen cell, a queen bee is the result. The circumstances that control these productions are many; naturally, the seasons; but even these are subject to great variations. An early spring, with an abundance of bee fodder, both in honey and pollen, results in the early development of queens. In fact, queens are bred naturally according to requirements. If there be a prospect of the brood multiplying to the extent that swarming will be necessary, queens are produced to meet this contingency. The brighter the prospects for a large and continuous honey flow, the greater is the eagerness among the bees to rear queens. One fertile queen is required for every swarm that issues forth from the parent live. But, many queens are developed where only one is required. The reason of this is obvious. When it is remembered that every queen bee is an enemy to every other queen bee, the destruction of queens must be frequent. The fight is always to the finish. No matter what the conditions are ; the developing queen larvae is as much an object of hatted to the reigning queen as is a healthy fertile and fully developed rival.