The Colony and its Organization 43 



While there is usually but one queen in the colony, it some- 

 times happens that two are found, usually mother and 

 daughter at the time of supersedure. Records of this kind 

 are not infrequent but usually each observer thinks that his 

 observation is unique, v. Buttel-Reepen 1 claims that there 

 are usually two brood-nests. He records one case in which 

 this was not true and several American beekeepers have 

 recorded the same thing. The specialization which normally 

 permits but one egg-producing female is not well understood 

 nor do we know why a queen usually attempts to kill any 

 rivals (except under swarming conditions). Recently, Al- 

 exander 2 has advocated the use of two queens for rapid up- 

 building of the colony in the spring and he brought this about 

 by a special method of introduction. He records that usually 

 but one remains in the fall. 



Workers. 



The larger number of bees in the colony are females whose 

 sexual organs are undeveloped and which are structurally 

 modified in other ways. These are justly called worker bees. 

 These bees feed the growing larvae, clean, guard and venti- 

 late the hive, build comb, gather nectar, pollen, water and 

 propolis and, in fact, do all the work of the hive, except that 

 normally they lay no eggs (p. 187). 



The ovaries are small and there is no spermatheca. The 

 mandibles (Fig. 70) are not notched as in the queen, the legs 

 (Fig. 81) are variously modified, the third pair being modi- 

 fied for the carrying of pollen. The ventral plates of the 

 last four visible segments of the abdomen are modified on 

 the anterior edge to form wax glands (Fig. 53) from which 

 the wax used in comb building is secreted. The sting (Fig. 

 83) is straight and barbed. The antennae have 12 segments. 

 The tongue is longer than in the queen or drones. The 



1 v. Buttel-Reepen, H., 1900. Sind die Bienen Reflex-maschinen ? (Eng. 

 trans., p. 10.) 



2 Alexander, E. W., 1907. A plurality of queens in a colony, without 

 perforated zinc. Gleanings in Bee Culture, XXXV, pp. 1136-1138. 

 See also p. 1496 and Vol. XXXVI, p. 1135. 



