No. 6. 



DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



34:^ 



hijjjh ui> ill the air. The quoon is fertilized once for life, and never 

 a^ain leaves the hive unless it be to go with a swarm, When the 

 harvest is over, the workers withhold food from the drones and they 

 soon disappear. 



DRONE. 



(By permission from Root's A B C of Bee Culture.) 



THE WORKERS 



Form the great bulk of the colony. They are smaller than the 

 queen or the bulky drones, and are undeveloped females. Aside 

 from the laying of eggs, they do all the work, bringing in nectar, 

 water, pollen and propolis; secreting the wax and building the 

 combs, and feeding the young, so soon to take their places. They 

 are the only ones that sting. The drones have no sting. The queen 

 has a sting, but she is as safe to handle as a fly, for she will sting 

 nothing but another queen. 



DEVELOPMENT OF BEES. 



Three days after an egg is laid, a tiny white grub or larva hatches 

 out of it. For about five days this grub is fed by the nurse bees, 

 when it is sealed up and left to spin its cocoon and develop into the 

 imago or perfect insect. Fifteen days from the time the egg is laid, 

 the queen emerges from the cell. 'At five to eight days of age she 

 is fertilized, and when eight or ten days old she begins to lay. Her 

 span of life is generally two or three years, although queens have 

 been known in rare instances to have lived five or six vears. The 



