BEE-KEEPING. 443 



1327. Of the working* bees there are in a hive from 6,000 to 70,000. 



1328. The queen requires from the egg ten to seventeen days to her full 

 development, when she will fly out about from one to three da5's, after her 

 creeping out of the egg, to be impregnated ; and then, after the lapse of sis 

 or ten days more, she commences to lay eggs. Then she will not fly out 



again imless with a swarm. The queen is only once impregnated during the 

 whole course of her life, which lasts from about three to five years. 



1329. The drones or males in a hive are about 2,000, and then only in 

 summer ; for, as soon as the swarming and honey-carrying time is over, 

 they are turned out as useless eaters. They serve only to impregnate the 

 queen. The drones requu-e from the egg to maturity twenty-one to twenty- 

 four days. 



1330. The working bees, according to Hermann, probably mate with the 

 drones, and are, therefore, capable of laying eggs, which produce only drones ; 

 a hive in which the working bees lay eggs is going to destruction. It 

 can soon be observed, as they lay often two, three, to twentj' eggs, without 

 order, in one cell. In such a hive there is no longer a queen, and it is best 

 to separate it at once or to unite it with a healthy hive, for such demoralized 

 people generally kill their new queen. Those who dispute the mating' of 

 the working bees with the drones are in error. Only place young bees 

 without a queen in a place distant from any drones, and no eggs are ever dis- 

 covered ; but, as soon as they are brought in the neighbourhood of drones, 

 and they have no queens, they lay drone eggs. 



1 33 1. The first thing for consideration in forming an apiarj' is situation, 

 especially the aspect. An apiary would not be well situated near a great 

 river, unless well sheltered ; neither is proximity to the sea-shore desirable. 

 In windy weather, the homeward-bound bees would be blown to sea and be 

 drowned ; for, in spite of Virgil's assertion that — 



*• They, with light pebbles, like a balanced boat. 

 Poised through the air, on even pinions float," 



the hive-bee has no such contrivance for ballasting her tiny form when on the 

 wing. For these reasons an apiary would be badly placed either on the sea- 

 shore, or near an exposed and broad river ; yet it should be near to some brook 

 or rivulet gliding over its pebbly bed, so shallow as to permit of their resting 

 on the stones to sip the passing- element. The directions given by Virgil, 

 although not free from error, aro very practical : — 



" First for thy bees a quiet station find, 

 And lodge them under covert of the wind, 

 For winds, when homeward they return, will drive 

 The loaded carriers from their evening hive ; 

 Far too from cows and goats, insulting crew, 

 That trample down the flowers, and brush the dew ; 

 But near a living stream their mansion place, 

 Edged round with moss and tufts of matted grass ; 

 Wild thyme and sav'ry set around their cell. 

 Sweet to the taste and fragrant to the smell ; 

 Set rows of rosemary, with flowering stem. 

 And let the purple violets drink the stream." 



Georgics, Book iv. 



