408 



AGRICULTURE ON THE PACIFIC SLOPE 



females which lay no eggs. Egg-laying is the exclusive 

 business of the one queen bee of each hive, and she 

 may lay as many as 3000 eggs in one day, and she may 

 live for five years. When she dies or gets too old, 

 the workers make another queen 

 from an egg that ordinarily would 

 hatch into a worker, by specially 

 feeding it in an enlarged cell. They 

 also do this when the bees of one 

 hive become too many for it ; and 

 then, when the new queen is fully 

 grown, she leaves the old hive with 

 a swarm of workers, which always 

 cluster around the queen, and must 

 then be caught and settled in a new 

 hive. One hive or stand may have 

 from 15,000 to 40,000 bees. 



The male bee is called a drone. 

 It has no sting and has to be fed 

 by the workers. It makes a loud 

 buzzing noise in flying, and when 

 there get to be too many drones 

 in the hive, the workers carry them out and sting or 

 worry them to death, as being of no use. (See page 200.) 

 Read what is said about bees in Kellogg's " Insect 

 Stories.' 7 



The wax from which the honeycomb is made is produced 

 from honey by the bee itself, and comes out as wax scales 



Drone 



FIG. 208. Queen 

 worker, and drone. 



