122 Trails to Woods and Waters 



are either driven from the hive, or killed, so 

 that it shall contain only the queen and her 

 workers. 



Each hive of bees that is carrying its full 

 complement of individuals contains the fol- 

 lowing: 



First and foremost there is the queen, the 

 gentle ruler of this wonderful kingdom, capa- 

 ble of laying from two to three thousand eggs 

 a day in the laying season, and upon whose 

 fertility the life of the hive depends. But 

 she is not the only egg layer in the hive, for 

 the workers are females as well, some of them 

 capable of laying eggs, but the great differ- 

 ence between the eggs of these two egg-layers 

 is that the queen's eggs may hatch queens, 

 workers or drones, while the eggs of the 

 worker will only hatch drones. 



The drones are of course the males, whose 

 only excuse for living is to fertilize the 

 queen. 



They never gather honey, and feed greedily 

 at the store inside the hive. But their day is 

 only a short one, although they live upon the 



