What gives added force to this view, is the fact that other bees, wasps and ants exercise the same volition, and can have no aid from cell-pressure, as all the eggs are laid in receptacles of the same size. But the Baron of Berlepsch, worthy to be a friend of Dzierzon, has fully decided the matter. He has shown that old drone cells are as small as new worker-cells, and yet each harbors its own brood. Very small queens, too, make no mistakes. With no drone-cells, the queen will sometimes lay drone-eggs in worker-cells, in which drones will then be reared. And will, if she must, though with great reluctance, lay worker-eggs in drone-cells. Before laying an egg, the queen takes a look into the cell, probably to see if all is right. If the cell contains any honey, pollen, or an egg, she usually passes it by, though when crowded, a queen will sometimes, _especially if young_, insert two or three eggs in a cell, and sometimes, in such cases, she drops them, when the bees show their dislike of waste, and appreciation of good living, by making a breakfast of them. If the queen finds the cell to her liking, she turns about, inserts her abdomen, and in an instant the tiny egg is glued, in position (Fig. 26, _b_) to the bottom of the cell. The queen, when considered in relation to the other bees of the colony, possesses a surprising longevity. It is not surprising for her to attain the age of three years in the full possession of her powers, while they have been known to do good work for five years. Queens, often at the expiration of one, two, three or four years, depending on their vigor and excellence, either cease to be fertile, or else become impotent to lay impregnated eggs--the spermatheca having become emptied of its sperm-cells. In such cases the workers usually supersede the queen; that is they destroy the old queen, ere all the worker-eggs are gone, and take of the few remaining ones to start queen-cells, and thus rear young, fertile and vigorous queens. It sometimes happens, though rarely, that a fine-looking queen, with full-formed ovaries, and large spermatheca, well-filled with male fluid, will deposit freely, but none of the eggs will hatch. Readers of the bee-publications know that I have frequently received such for dissection. The first I ever got was a remarkably fine-looking Italian, received from the late Dr. Hamlin, of Tennessee. All such queens that I have examined seem perfect, even though scrutinized with a high-power objective. We can only say that the egg is at fault, as frequently transpires with higher animals, even to the highest. These females are barren; through some fault with the ovaries, the eggs grown therein are sterile. To detect just what is the trouble with the egg is a very difficult problem, if it is capable of solution at all. I have tried to determine the ultimate cause, but without success.