338 DOMESTIC ANIMALS 



are of various sizes, and they are somewhat hexagonal in form. 

 Some are made for holding the eggs which the queen lays, and some 

 for holding honey. In the young bee cells there is also placed the 

 beebread, which is a pasty mass made by the workers from the 

 pollen gathered from flowers. The young bees hatch out and 

 remain in the form of grubs or larvse for approximately three 

 weeks, when they change their form and become perfect or adult 

 bees. About two weeks later they take to their wings and go out 

 to the field to begin their labors. On account of their strenuous 

 habits the workers live only a few months, but other young bees 

 come on and take their places. Each worker is armed with a sting 

 which she does not hesitate to use when necessary. Since the 

 workers are sterile they are sometimes erroneously called neuters. 



The Drones. The drones are the male bees of the hive and are 

 somewhat larger than the workers. They gather no honey and 

 have no sting. In the fall they are driven out of the hive by the 

 workers, when they starve to death or fall a prey to insect-eating 

 animals. If they attempt to return to the hive, the workers 

 sting them to death. 



The Queen. The queen is mother of the colony, and there 

 is only one to each hive. When the workers desire to produce a 

 queen they usually form a vertical cell and place in it an ordinary 

 worker egg and feed the larva or young bee on a special kind of 

 food known as royal jelly. The queen may be distinguished from 

 the other bees by her long, slender body. A queen bee is very 

 prolific and often lays as many as four thousand eggs in a 

 single day. 



Swarming. As soon as a new queen is produced, the old queen 

 often leaves the hive and a considerable number of bees accompany 

 her. They settle on a tree or some other object that may be 

 convenient. The limb on which the swarm has gathered may be 

 sawed off and the bees shaken down into a new hive. If other 

 queens are produced, another swarm will follow the second queen 

 from the hive as soon as the third queen is produced. Finally, 

 when the hive has been sufficiently reduced in numbers, the workers 

 after accepting a new queen destroy the remaining queen cells, 

 and the ruling queen seeks out the young queens and destroys them 

 by stinging them to death. The queen usually begins to lay her 



