1908. 



THE ^1 VERICAy REE. KEEPER 



265 



knowing the sex of tlie large -bee thej' 

 saw in every colony. The general pop- 

 nlation of the bive is made up of im- 

 perfectly developed females, known as 

 "worker bees," and these are the hon- 

 ey producers, who alone range the 

 fields in quest of hidden sweets. 



In the early spi'iug, the queen, or 

 "mother" be, as she is often called, 

 lays a number of unfertillzeit eggs. 

 and, strange to say, they will hatch, 

 and the bees that come from them are 

 "drones," or male bees, whose sole pur- 

 pose in life is propagation. The worker 

 bees permit hundreds of these big lazy 

 fellows to live in the liive during the 

 swarming season of May and June, to 

 insure the fertilization of the young 

 queens, but when that season is pass- 

 ed they wage relentless warfare upon 

 them, driving them from the hive to 

 perish with cold and hunger. The 

 drone is not a producer of honey, but 

 a heavy consumer, and the "workers" 

 seem to realize it. It is amusing to see 

 them hustle the big lazy fellows out 

 of the hive and hold them while others 

 chew their wings off. so that they can 

 not fly back; when this is accomplish- 

 ed, they are dropped to the ground to 

 die. These drones or male bees are 

 very large and easily recognized, being 

 not unlike a big blow-fly. and, imlike 

 the woiicers, they have no stings. 



The average life of a worker bee 

 during the working season Is about 

 five weeks, as she literally works her- 

 self to death laying pp stores for bees 

 yet unborn, and will die having con- 

 sumed but a small part of what she 

 made — illustrating perfectly the altru- 

 istic spirit. A bee will gather about a 

 teaspoonful of hone.v in its life time. 

 a strong colony bringing in often as 

 much as fifteen pounds in a single day. 



The bees that live over the winter 

 are those that were hatched toward 

 the last of the season, and they form 

 the nucleus of the working force for 

 the coming spring. The queen, how- 

 ever, lives for three or four years, as 

 she does not work in the fields and 

 leaves the hive but twice in her life- 

 time — 'first, wlien she flies forth to 

 meet her mate in the air, and again 

 when she comes forth the following 

 spring leading a "swarm." She is the 

 only perfectly developed female in the 

 colony, and upon her fails the task of 

 keeping up the population of the hive 

 to take the places of the bees that are 



constantly dying of old age; thus we 

 find her busily engaged in going from 

 cell to cell, depositing her eggs, laying 

 as many as three thousand in twenty- 

 four hours. She is greatly revered by 

 her subjects, wlio supply her every 

 need, even feeding her, and this watch- 

 ful care on their part is not strange, 

 for they seem to realize that should 

 she die the population in a short time 

 would become extinct. Therefore, she 

 Is most cai'efully guarded as she moves 

 from cell to cell, being followed by a 

 constant retinue of attendants. On 

 very warm days they will form tliem- 

 selves in parallel lines, from where she 

 is to the entrance to the hive, and, 

 by rapidly fanning with their wiiigs. 

 will send a current of cool air to her 

 in orier that she may be comfortable; 

 the writer has frequently seen them 

 doing this. When as a virgin queen 

 she sailies forth on her matrimonial 

 flight, the whole colony are greatly 

 agitated, and when she finally returns 

 they set up a perfect bedlam of delight 

 to know that some ravenous robin has 

 not with one gobble deprived them of 

 their sovereign mother. The writer has 

 frequently opened a hive that had 

 been made queenless; their mournful 

 hum of grief is then unmistakable; and 

 when a new queen is supplied them 

 their joy is unbomided. 



What is commonly known as "swarm- 

 ing" is simply an overflow of the old 

 bees led by the old queen, and is not, 

 as is popularly supposed, made up of 

 the young and newly hatched bees. In 

 the spring, the population of the hive 

 rapidly multiplies, and the honey is 

 brought in in large quantities. The 

 result is that the hive becomes crowd- 

 ed, and to relieve this congested con- 

 dition the ol-d queen, with about two- 

 thirds of the old bees,, saunters forth 

 in quest of a new home. In a few min- 

 utes the air is full of thousands of 

 bees, the humming of which can be 

 heard a great distance. After flying 

 for a few minutes the bees finally set- 

 tle on the branch of a tree and await 

 the return of "scouts" that have been 

 sent off to find some old tree in the 

 woods in which to begin housekeeping 

 anew. If the swarm is not soon hived 

 it will, upon the retnrn of the scouts, 

 abscond. 



The foolish custom of ringing din- 

 ner bells and banging the pans has no 

 part in causing the swarm to settle; 



