THE WORKER-BEE. 67 



intelligence almost if not quite akin to reason; and we have 

 sometimes queried, whether the workers who are so fond of 

 a tit-bit in the shape of a newly-laid egg ever experienced 

 a struggle between appetite and duty; so that they must 

 practice self-denial to refrain from breakfasting on the eggs 

 so temptingly deposited in the cells. 



157. It is well known to breeders of poultry, that the 

 fertility of a hen decreases with age, until at length she may 

 become entirely barren. By the same law, the fecundity of 

 the queen-bee ordinarily diminishes after she has entered her 

 third year. An old queen sometimes ceases to lay worker- 

 eggs; the contents of her spermatlieca becoming exhausted, 

 the eggs are no longer impregnated, and produce only drones. 



The queen-bee usually dies of old age m her fourth year, 

 although she has been known to live longer. There is great 

 advantage, therefore, in hives which allow her, when she has 

 passed the period of her greatest fertility, to be easily re- 

 moved. % 



The AVorker-Bee. 



158. The workers are the smallest inhabitants of a bee- 

 hive, and compose the bulk of the pop- 

 ulation. A good swarm ought to contain 

 at least 20,000; and in large hives, strong- 

 colonies, which are not reduced by swarm- 

 ing, frequently number three or four times 

 as many during the height of the breeding 

 season. Fig. 25. 



159. Their functions are varied. The young bees work 

 inside of the hive, prepare and distribute the food to the 

 larvae, take care of the queen, by brushing her A\dth their 

 tongues, nurse her, maintain the heat of the hive, or renew 

 the air and evaporate the newly-gathered honey (219), by 

 ventilating (261, 366). They clean the hive of dirt or 



