1884.] BEES. 65 



would do good ; the one would counteract the good effect of 

 the other. 



Question. Can that degree of heat which you speak of be 

 maintained outside of a cellar ? 



Mr. Jeffries. Not without a house. Whenever packed 

 out of doors, the main object is to keep them as cool as possi- 

 ble, keep them quiet, and prevent their consuming more honey 

 than is in stock; and that same packing that keeps them cool 

 and quiet during the winter time, when they warm up' in the 

 spring, prevents their feeling the changes of weather which 

 keeps them at such an even temperature tliat brooding is 

 carried on steadily. Where they commence to breed pretty 

 freely and there comes a cool spell to such an extent as to 

 cause them to contract their cluster, there are two thinos 

 lost ; one is the loss of the extra amount of honey consumed, 

 and the other is the loss of the young bees that should replace 

 the old ones. It takes one old bee to raise one young one 

 early in the season. 



Question. What is the general age of bees ? 



Mr. Jeffries. During the height of the honey season, the 

 age of the workers is from forty to forty-five days. When 

 they are not gathering honey, they live from five to six 

 months. A young working bee that is hatched in September, 

 October, or November, will live through until March and 

 April, perhaps into May, according to the winter; but one 

 that is hatched the middle of June will not live to exceed 

 forty-five days ; at least, I cannot find that they live longer 

 than that. 



Mr. Van Hoosear. Will you tell us about how many 

 queens are hatched in a hive at a single breeding ? 



Mr. Jeffries. The number of queens hatched in a hive is 

 according to the age of the cells when started. If the eggs 

 are all laid in one day', and there should be fifty eggs laid in 

 queen's cells, and they hatch simultaneously, we should find 

 that number of queens in the hive ; but, invariably, the queen 



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