1396 



Department of Agriculture 



of age should be kept. Tliej should be replaced bj young ones. 

 The natural life of a queen is often four and occasionally 

 five years, but a few hold out in fertility to the end. Others 

 fail and become so-called drone layers, since tliey lay eggs 

 which produce drones only. Still others are superseded by the 

 workers by constructing queen cells over workers eggs or laiwae, 

 the old queen, in some cases, remaining in the hive until a young 

 queen is hatched and laying. In other instances the old queen 

 disappears suddenly, before the workers have made preparations 

 to replace her. Under any of these conditions, the colony is more 

 or less disorganized, and if they take place early in the season, 

 are likely to prove a handicap. 



The queen possesses a curved sting v^hich she will use only on 

 a rival. 



workers 



True to name, the workers are the people of the hive who 

 work, and furnish to their owners and all others a beautiful ex- 

 ample of what may be accomplished by diligence and persever- 

 ance. They perform all the labor both in and out of the hive. 

 The young build comb and feed the larvae. The older 

 ones forage in the fields, gather the product of the hive and de- 

 fend it from intruders. They must necessarily be very numerous 





Fig. 53. Drone and Worker Comb, Drone Fig. 54. Brood in different 



Comb at left stages of development 



to store honey in sufficient quantities for their own needs and 

 afford a goodly surplus for their keeper besides. They are 

 undeveloped females or neuters, and are equipped with a sting 

 which they use freely for defense. Wlien a colony becomes hope- 

 lessly queenless, a few of their number, usually called fertile 

 workers, try to become reproducers by laying eggs. These eggs, 

 although usually laid in worker cells, produce only drones, since 



