CHAPTER III. 



INMATES OF THE HIVE— THEIR NATURAL 

 HISTORY. 



Every colony in a normal working condition, during 

 the swarming season, will be found to contain bees of 

 the three different kinds, the characteristics and relative 

 sizes of which are shown in the illustrations which 

 follow. First, one bee only of the peculiar form which 

 denotes the queen or mother bee (one queen to a 

 colony is the rule — see chapter on " Queen Rearing ") ; 

 secondly, a number of large bees, called drones ; and 

 thirdly, many thousands of the smaller kind, called 

 workers, which are the common bees to be seen on 

 blossoms, as neither the queen bee nor the drones 

 gather honey or work outside the hive. 



The queen is indispensable to the prosperity of the 

 colony. She is the only perfectly developed female, and 

 lays all the eggs, of which she can, on occasions, 

 produce two to three thousand in twenty-four hours. 

 Without her the colony would soon dwindle down and 

 die out, or be attacked and killed for the sake of its 

 stores, as, after being deprived of their queen, the 

 workers generally (unless they are in a position to 

 rear a new one, as will be seen further on) lose the 

 disposition to defend themselves and their home. The 

 queen is not provided with the special organisation 

 which enables the workers to gather honey and pollen 

 and to secrete wax. She is furnished with a sting, 

 which, however, she very rarely uses, except in a 

 struggle with a rival queen. When she has been once 

 impregnated, and has taken her place in a hive, she 

 never leaves it except to accompany a swarm.* Her 



* This has been disputed, but the claim that queens may 

 leave the hive to be impregnated a second time has not been 

 fully substantiated. 



lO 



