THE BEE. 281 



SEES. 



TIIEIE HABITS AND MANAGEMENT. 



THREE CLASSES OF BEES.— The Queen Bee is the sovereign, and lit- 

 erally the prolific parent of all her subjects. She is the sole monarch. 

 Her body is longer, larger, and more pointed than that of 

 the others, and her wings are much shorter than theirs, 

 hardly reaching beyond her middle, whereas those of the 

 others cover the entire body ; her belly and legs are of a 

 deep golden color, and the latter are not furnished with 

 the little brushes which those of the workers have, to help 

 them in collecting the floury matter which they require for 

 making honey. 

 Anecdote of two Queen Bees. — The queen bears no rival authority. If 

 there should be a second queen, she is either sent forth with an attend- 

 ant swarm of colonists, or put to death by the other bees. 



Huber gives an account of a duel between two queens, w^ho, issuing 

 from their nurseries in the same hive, rushed into deadly conflict, catch- 

 ing each other with the teeth. As if they dreaded the fatal conse- 

 quences to themselves, which would follow from unsheathing their 

 darts, they had the prudence to separate at the height of their fury 

 and fly away. But the other bees compelled them to decide the point 

 of sovereignty on the spot, and then forced them to the contest again. 

 This was done repeatedly, after intervals of breathing time, until the 

 stronger of the two, seizing the other by the wing, stabbed her to 

 death. 



The queen-bee commences depositing her eggs when about fiv^e days 

 old; during the lieat of the season she lays from one hundred and fifty 

 to two hundred eggs per day, and lays with little or no intermission 

 from early spring to the middle of autumn. 



Drones. — The second class of bees are the drones. They are bulkier 

 in the body than either the queen or the w^orking-bee. 

 Their head is rounder, proboscis shorter, eyes fuller, an 

 additional articulation to the antennae, and no sting. They 

 also make more noise in flying than the other bees. The 

 drones are the males of the hive ; by them the royal 

 mother is impregnated and her eggs fertilized. How or 

 when this intercourse takes place has long furnished phi- 

 losophers with a subject for controversy and inquiry ; 

 and it has not even yet been set at rest in such a manner as to admit 

 being proved to a positive demonstration. 



The drones form about a tenth part of the population of a hive. 

 They are certainly idle and lazy, as are the husbands of other queens; 

 yet they fulfill the objects of their creation. They cannot collect honey, 

 for they have not the necessary organs for the purpose ; their teeth are 

 too little and too short for breaking off" the ca})«ules, their mouths are 

 not well formed for sucking the sweets of flowers; and their legs have 

 not those brushes or powder-putfs which enable the other to bring home 



