12 AUSTRALASIAN BEE MANUAL 



wards, and the rest are usually destroyed by the 

 workers at the end of the swarming season, having by 

 this time become an incumbrance only. 



The worker bees, the smallest in size, constitute the 

 bulk of the population of the hive. A fair-sized swarm 

 should contain at least from twenty to twenty-five 

 thousand,^ and a well-stocked hive, during the full 

 working season, will have twice, and sometimes nearly 

 three times, that number of Avorkers. They are all 

 females, but not fully developed as regards their sexual 

 organisation — they are incapable of being impregnated 

 by the drones ; but in some rare cases their ovaries 

 are suflficiently developed to admit of their laying eggs, 

 which, however, as will be shown later, are unfertilised, 

 and produce only drones. On the other hand, these 

 workers are specially provided with the means of 

 successfully prosecuting their useful labours. They 

 have a wonderfully constructed tongue, or proboscis, 

 which enables them to suck or lap up the liquid sweet 

 from the nectaries of blossoms, and to store it in a 

 " honey sac," which is, in fact, a first or extra 

 stomach, from which they can again disgorge it at will 

 into the cells of their combs. Their hinder legs are 

 provided with a hollow, or " basket," for carrying 

 pollen, which they are enabled, by the use of their 

 front legs and their proboscis, to work up into little 

 pellets, and pack in these receptacles. They have the 

 power of secreting wax in small scales under the folds 

 of the abdominal rings of their body, and they are 

 furnished with a sting to protect themselves and their 

 stores, and of which they make effective use w^hen 

 provoked. They perform all the work both inside and 

 outside the hive ; collect the materials for honey, bee- 

 bread, and propolis ; carry water, secrete the wax, 

 build the combs, nurse and feed the young brood, 

 ventilate the hive, and stand guard at the entrance 

 when it is necessary to keep out intruders. Although 



* About 4,500 ordinary bees weigh one pound, so that a 

 5 lb. swarm contains about 22,500. Extra large swarms, 

 however, sometimes weigh 7 lb. to 8 lb. 



