1908] Life History of the Honey Bee. 207 



them and should be carefully guarded against. The conditions 

 necessary for safe wintering are briefly as follows: A drv. 

 frost-proof cellar with a temperature between 38 and 45, 

 sufficient honey (say 25 pounds), perfect freedom from any 

 shaking or jarring, complete darkness, sufficient ventilation to 

 allow the moisture in the hive to escape, and freedom from rats 

 or mice, which work great havoc with both combs and bees 

 during the winter. 



The time when colonies should be removed from their 

 winter quarters depends almost entirelv on the weather. If 

 the ground is free or almost free from snow and the temperature 

 fairly warm, the sooner they are placed on their summer stands 

 the better. After such a long period of inactivity manv of the 

 bees have lost their full power of flight, and it is therefore 

 advisable to choose a warm still day, with sunshine, on which to 

 give them their liberty. After even one day of exercise the 

 bees are able to take care of themselves and do not leave their 

 hives unless the weather is favorable. If thev are given their 

 first flight on a cold windy day, even if the sun is shining brightly, 

 the chances are that hundreds of bees, if not thousands, will 

 fall to the ground and never regain their hives, particularlv 

 if rain or snow should follow the next day. 



A colony of bees should, in the early spring, consist of a 

 queen and 25 to 30 thousand worker bees. The drones,^ or 

 male bees, do not usually appear in the hive until the middle 

 or end of May, though they are sometimes found in very strong 

 colonies much earlier. The queen is the mother of the entire 

 colony. Her one and only duty seems to be to lay eggs, and it 

 is said on the best authority that to lay two thousand in 

 twenty-four hours is quite within her power. In shape the 

 queen resembles the workers more than the drones but is longer 

 than either, and like the workers she possesses a sting but will 

 not use it on anything below bee royalty that is to say, on 

 some other queen. Unlike the workers and drones a mated 

 queen never leaves the hive except with a_ swarm. The average 

 age of a queen is probably three years, but modern bee-keepers 

 re-queen their colonies oftener as a young queen is usually 

 much more prolific than an old one. The worker bees, as their 

 name implies, perform all the duties of the hive. The average 

 life of the workers during the summer months is probably not 

 more than eight weeks, and often less. It seems as though they 

 actually work thetnselves to death, as those that are hatched 

 late on in the summer live much longer, in fact through the 

 six months of winter when they have no work to do. The 

 duties of the worker bees from spring to fall are manifold, 



