1884.] BEES. 67 



putting a new piece of comb into the center of the brood- 

 comb, taking it out after a certain length of time, and meas- 

 uring a given number of cells that have eggs in them. 



Mr. Bill. If a working bee lives but the short period of 

 time of which the speaker has told us, I would like to make 

 the inquiry where he "shuffles off his mortal coil," whether 

 in the field gathering honey or around the hive ? 



Mr. Jeffries. I never have been able to find out yet, and 

 I doubt if anybody else has decidedly found out, that bees stay 

 in the hive to die, unless it is in the winter time. I have 

 noticed a great many bees that appeared as though they were 

 troubled with some disease, or were going to die, that would 

 crawl out of the hive to the ground, perhaps but a few feet from 

 the hive, and there die. A great many bees that come out 

 in the morning never get home ; and not only in the morning, 

 but all through the day. If a bee dies in the hive he is 

 immediately carried out. 



Question. I would like to ask the gentleman if he ever 

 finds a stock that is dead in the spring, with plenty of honey 

 in the hive, and if he can give any cause for it ? 



Mr. Jeffries. Yes, sir. One reason assigned for a stock 

 of bees dying out during the winter, leaving a hive full of 

 honey, is that the stock is weak in the fall, and another 

 is that they become queenless. When a stock of bees casts a 

 swarm, the old queen leaves that hive, and, after leaving the 

 hive, there are no queens for the hive except in the embryo 

 state. These chew their way out of the cells after the old 

 stock leaves, and when they are from three to five, or perhaps 

 eight days old, they fly out of the hive to seek mates. That 

 mating time is a critical period with the old stock. If the 

 queen is caught by a bird or insect or fails to arrive safely at 

 her own hive, that swarm is queenless, unless the apiarist 

 replaces the queen or furnishes the means to raise another. 

 A stock in a box hive in that condition will very often con- 

 tinue to work as though they had a queen, and, there being 

 no queen to replace the old bees with young ooes, and the old 



