ORDER HYMENOPTERA 311 



The cycle as applied to the queen would involve three to 

 five years. They live that long and deposit millions of eggs 

 during that time. The drones live but a short period. The 

 workers live a few weeks or months through the summer 

 and in the more inactive parts of the year. The queens from 

 the egg stage to the adult stage occupy about sixteen days, 

 the workers twenty-one days, the drones twenty-four days. 

 There is a distinct difference in the eggs that produce workers 

 and drones. The worker eggs are fertilizecl and the drone 

 eggs are unfertilized. This is apparently controlled by 

 the queen and dependent upon the kind of cells in which 

 the eggs are laid. The exact method of control by the 

 queen is not fully understood. The size of the cells may have 

 some effect by the pressure on the abdomen. The accelera- 

 tion of the queen may be because the workers feed them with 

 a richer sort of food. They develop more rapidly and the 

 reproductive organs are fully developed. There is colony 

 reproduction as well as individual reproduction, that is, an 

 increase in the number of colonies. They die off from old 

 age, loss of queen, cold weather, etc., and if there were no 

 process for increasing the number of the colonies they 

 would be exterminated. This is provided for by swarming. 

 The queen and a large number of workers issue from the 

 colony and form a new colony. The old colony is provided 

 for by other young queens in the cells or else fertilized. 

 There is a loss of honey but no break in the life of the colony. 

 Bee-keeping is an important industry and there are many 

 books dealing with the subject. Among those of special 

 value are the following: 



Cheshire, Honey Bee. Root, Bee-keeping. Langstroth, Hive and Honey 

 Bee. Snodgrass, Anatomy of the Bee. Benton, The Honey Bee. Cook, 

 Manual of Bee-keeping. Conistock, How to Keep Bees. Phillips, Bee- 

 keeping. Pellett, Productive Bee-keeping. 



