AGE OF BEES. 



5 



ALFALFA. 



qiuen in September, we shall find black bees 

 in the hive until tlie month of May follow- 

 ing—they may disapiiear a little earlier, or 

 may befouml even later, depending upon the 

 time they commence to rear lirood largely 

 The bees will live considerably longer if no 

 brood is reared, as has lieen several times 

 demonstrated in the case of strong queenless 

 colonies. It is also pretty well established 

 that black bees will live longer in the spring 

 tliaii Italians— probably because the latter 



ALFALFA BLOSSOM. 



are more inclined to push out into the fields 

 when the weather is too cool for them to do 

 so with safety; they seldom do this, how- 

 ever, unless a large amount of brood is on 

 hand, and they are sufl'ering for pollen or 

 water. 



During the summer months, the life of 

 tlie worker-bee is probably cut ^ll()rl l)y the 

 wearing-out of its wings, and we may, at 

 the close of a warm day, lind hundiedsof 



these heavily laden, ragged-winged veteran.; 

 making their way into the hives slowly and 

 painfully, compared with the nimble and 

 perfect- winged young bees. If we examine 

 the ground around the ai)iary at nightfall, 

 we m;iy see numbers of these hopping about 

 on the ground, evidently recognizing their 

 own inability to be of any further use to the 

 community. We have repeatedly picked 

 them up, and placed them in the entrance, 

 l)ut tie;, usually seem only bent on crawling 

 and hopping off out of the way 

 where they can die without hin- 

 deiing the teeming rising gen- 

 eration. 



AGE OF DRONES. 



It is somewhat difficult to 

 decide upon the age of drones, 

 because the poor fellows are so 

 often hustled out of the way, 

 for the simple reason that they 

 are no longer wanted; but we 

 may be safe in assuming it is 

 something less than the age of 

 a worker. If kept constantly 

 in a queenless hive they might 

 live for three or four months. 



AGE OF THE QTJBEN. 



As the queen does little or no 

 outdoor work, and is seldom 

 killed by violence as are the 

 drones, we might expect her to 

 live to a good old age, and this 

 she does, despite her arduous 

 e^g-laying duties. Some queens 

 die, seemingly, of old age, the 

 second reason, but generally 

 they live through the second or 

 third, and we have had them 

 lay very well even during the 

 lourth year. They are seldom 

 profitable after tlie third >ear, 

 and the Italians will sometimes 

 li:ive a young queen •helping 

 her mother" in her egg-laying 

 duties, befoie she becomes un- 

 profitable. 



i^If a very large amount of 

 brood is found in a hive, two queens will 

 often be found, busily employed, and this 

 point should be rememliered while seeking 

 to introduce valuable queens. 



:^: ALT ALFA, OR LUCERNE. {Medlcago 

 satini). This one of the clovers is very 

 closely related to, and indeed greatly resem- 

 bles, sweet clover, which latter is de-crihcd 

 under the head of Clovku. Allalfa lias. 



