HOW TO KEEP BEES FOR PROFIT 



While the average age of a worker bee is 

 about five weeks, queens have been known 

 to live for a period of as many years, though 

 as they grow older their powers of reproduc- 

 tion grow less. When the queen shows signs 

 of failing the workers will rear another to super- 

 sede her, and under these conditions we often 

 find two queens present for a limited time. 



The cells in which the workers rear their 

 queens are entirely different in shape from those 

 in which they rear their workers and drones, 

 and are very similar in appearance to a peanut 

 hanging from the bottom of the brood comb. 



The eggs from which the workers produce 

 their queens are identically the same in char- 

 acter as those from which they raise the workers, 

 but being deposited in the larger queen cells, 

 and being fed a more stimulative food rich in 

 royal jelly, the larva is enabled to expand to 

 its proper size and permit the full development 

 of its ovaries. In fifteen to sixteen days from 

 the time the eggs were laid the matured virgin 

 emerges, and is ready for mating in a few days, 



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