1230 CYCLOPEDIA or LIVE STOCK AND COMPLETE STOCK DOCTOR. 



IV. The So-Called Queen or Mother Bee. 



The mother bee has no sovereign attributes, though the ancients called 

 her the King, and hence our name Queen, adopted since her true gender 

 became known. She is simply a perfectly developed female with ova- 

 ries occupying nearly the whole of her abdomen, which, as shown in the 

 cut, is of great length ; and the spermatheca, capable of being compressed 

 at will, is capable, according to Lenckart, of containing 25,()()0,()()0 sper- 

 matozoa. Hence, the mother bee may lay fertile or infertile eggs at pleas- 

 ure. She is longer than cither the drones or workers ; her wings are 

 shorter; and although armed with a [)owerful .sting, .slic seldom uses it. 

 It has been a mooted question, whether it be possible for the mother ])ee 

 to be impregnated except while on the; wing; the i)robal)ility is that she 

 can only be thus rendered fertile, the male losing his life with the 

 accomplishment of the act. 



V. The Number of Eggs Laid. 

 The energy Avith which the mother bee lays eggs is startling. It is her 

 sole province to keep the colony populous, and since the life of the worker 

 is short, her activity nmst be fully employed, during mild weather. She is 

 capable of laying from 2,000 to 3,000 eggs a day when necessary, and has 

 been known to lay six eggs in one minute. That most careful observer, 

 Berlej^sch, says he had a queen that laid 3,021 eggs in twenty-four hours, 

 by actual count, and 57,000 eggs in twenty days ; that this queen con- 

 tinued prolific for five years, and must have laid more than 1,300,000 

 eggs at a low average during this time. Other careful observers, notably 

 Dzierzon, say queens may lay over 1,000,000 eggs. 



VI. Drones or Male Bees. 



The drones are the male bees, and their presence or absence often 

 seems to be determined by the necessities of the colony. It is probable 

 that, if allowed, the drones would live as long as the worker bees ; but 

 from May to November is the time when they are usually found in the 

 hives. The usual number in a hive is from two hundred to three hun- 

 dred, but less than half this number may safely be left by the bee keeper 

 to ensure the impregnation of the young queens at swarming time. The 

 worker bees kill all remaining drones in the autunm, usually before hard 

 frosts occur. An unimpregnatcd queen will lay eggs producing drones 

 only, but after fertilization can lay either worker eggs or those producing 

 male bees, apparently at will. 



VII. Neuter or Worker Bees. 



The worker bees are undeveloped females, that is with abortive ovaries ; 

 sometimes, though rarely, they become so far developed as to lay drone 



