When the young queen is about a week old she will leave the hive to find a mate. As mating can only take place when the queen and drone are on the wing, she soars into the air followed by the rival and eager drones. When the mating is accomplished the queen returns to the hive and is then capable of laying eggs, both fertile and unfertile, at will. The drone also returns home, but only to die: he has laid down his life for the perpetuation of his race. A queen that has been recently mated can be identified by a white speck on the back near the end of the abdomen--the organ torn away from the drone. Should a queen fail to be mated within six weeks of her leaving the cell she is only capable of laying unfertile eggs. The egg-laying capacity of the queen, under the "chyle-food" treatment is enormous, ranging up to 3,000 eggs per day. When a ruling queen realises that a queen grub is being reared in the hive, the sex-hatred of a possible rival soon manifests itself, and were it not for the watchful care of the workers the young queen's career would soon be ended. But the old queen is put virtually under arrest, and not allowed to venture near the queen cells. Her agitation increases until she summons together all who are willing to follow her and leaves the hive. This exodus of a queen and her adherents is known as "a swarm." (See page 44.) The queen bee can always be distinguished by her greater size, while the increased length of her legs makes her still more prominent among the workers. If it is wished to prevent the rearing of queens in the hive, all that is necessary is for the bee-keeper to cut out the queen cells from the combs, and give the bees additional room to store the food they gather. =The Worker Bee.=--The normal worker bee is an undeveloped female and a true amazon. She is utterly indifferent to the drone, and is, of course, unable to propagate her species. In some cases, however, the ovaries of a worker are so far developed that she is able to produce eggs which are necessarily unfertile. Such a worker is a nuisance in a modern hive worked for profit. As we have already seen, the egg from which the worker develops is precisely similar to that from which a queen springs; the rôle of worker or queen is determined by the cell in which the egg is deposited. A grub in a worker cell gets but little "chyle" food--it is stopped altogether on the third day--and a mixed diet of honey and pollen. The drone is brought up entirely on the latter food.