78 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



other. Should they during the fight happen to find themselves 

 in such a position that by closing each would kill the other, they 

 withdraw and begin the combat afresh. Should either secure 

 such an advantage of position that she can sting without being 

 stung, the fatal thrust is immediately given. 



The queen is easily recognised among the other Bees by her 

 shape and movements. Her body is more wasp-like than that of 

 the common Bee, and her back of a much brighter colour. Her 

 legs are longer, and she seldom uses her sting except when fighting 

 with a rival. 



Impregnation takes place on the wing, and as in the case of 

 many other insects, one occasion lasts for life. Queens may live 

 three to four years. 



The drone is the male Bee, whose sole end seems to be to 

 fertilize the virgin queens, and keep up the temperature of the 

 hive. They are larger and more bulky than either queen or 

 worker Bees, but having no sting to defend themselves, they fall 

 an easy prey to the workers when the swarming season is 

 over. 



The worker, or undeveloped female, is the smallest Bee, and is 

 by far the most industrious member of the hive, as its name 

 implies. Nothing in the entire range of the history of Bees excites 

 so much astonishment as the power which they possess of replacing 

 the loss of their queen, in other words, of being able to develop 

 a worker egg into a queen, by placing it in a suitable cell, and 

 feeding it with royal jelly. How this comes about has puzzled 

 the apiarian in all times, but the bee-keeper can easily verify the 

 fact by removing the queen in midsummer. So soon as the Bees 

 discover their loss they are in a state of great excitement for 

 twenty-four hours, after which they select one of the worker 

 eggs, make a queen cell, feed it with royal jelly, and raise a fully 

 developed female in sixteen days. The workers may be divided 

 into nurses, builders, wax secretors, honey gatherers, scavengers, 

 sentinels, but it would fill a volume were I to enter into their 

 various duties. The tear and wear of body to which they are 

 exposed accounts for the very short life the worker Bees enjoy — 

 from three to, at most, about nine months. 



A Honey Bee filled with honey will not sting of its own accord, 

 and herein lies the art of taming. When frightened, Bees 

 generally eat honey, so that the operator by blowing a little 



