, there was no
difference, they were on hand.

A very early swarm in good seasons, will often fill the hive, and send
out an issue in from four to six weeks: the usual amount of drone-brood
may be found in these cases. The following circumstance would appear to
indicate that all the eggs are alike, and if they are laid in
drone-cells, the bees give the proper food and make drones; if in
worker-cells, workers, just as they make a queen from a worker-egg,
when put in a royal cell.

In a glass hive, one sheet of comb next the glass, and parallel with
it, was full size; about three-quarters of this sheet was worker-cells,
the remainder drone-cells. The family had been rather small, but now
had increased to a full swarm; a few drones had matured in the middle
of the hive. It was about the middle of June, 1850, when I discovered
the bees on this outside sheet, preparing it, as I thought, for brood,
by cutting off the cells to the proper length. They had been used for
storing honey, and were much too long, being about an inch and a half
deep. In a day or two after I saw a few eggs in both worker and
drone-cells; four or five days afterwards, on opening the door, I found
her "majesty" engaged in depositing eggs in the drone cells. Nearly
every one already contained an egg; most of these she examined, but did
not use them; six or eight, it appeared, were all that were unoccupied;
in each of these she immediately deposited an egg. She continued to
search for more empty cells, and in doing so, she got on the part of
the comb containing worker-cells, where she found a dozen or more
empty, in each of which, she laid one. The whole time perhaps thirty
minutes. Query? Was her series of drone eggs exhausted just at this
time? If so, it would appear that she was not aware of it, because she
examined several drone-cells after laying the last one there, before
leaving that part of the comb, and acted exactly as if she would have
used them had they not been pre-occupied. Did the worker-cells receive
some eggs that would have produced drones, but for the circumstance of
being deposited in worker-cells? I know we are told that an egg may be
transferred from a worker-cell to one for drones, or an egg taken from
a drone-cell and deposited in a worker-cell; that the exchange will
make no difference, the bee will be just what the first deposit would
have made it. How the knowledge for this assertion was obtained, we are
not informed, at least