May, 1930 



GI. EANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



295 



wax and liber is plaeed over the cell. On 

 the 24th or 25th day from the laying of the 

 t'gg, the drone leaves the cell and about two 

 weeks later takes his first flight. The drones 

 are entirely dependent on the workers for 

 tlieir food; and, whenever stores are short, 

 the drones are driven outside to perish. 

 Life of the Queen. 

 Whenever, for any reason such as a defi- 

 cient queen or a crowded condition in the 

 supers or brood-chamber, a colony feels the 

 need of a new queen, the bees begin the 

 construction of long peanut-shaped queen- 



^§^^-^^-y 





Sealed drone brood at lower left corner ; above this 

 sealed worker brood; and at the lower right, three 

 quoeii cells in process of construction. "When com- 

 pleted the queen-cells will be long and peanut-like 

 in appearance. 



cells. As soon as they are nicely started the 

 (|neen deposits a fertilized egg in each. 

 After three days these eggs hatch into 

 white larvte, which may be seen floating in 

 a white thick milky substance. The larva, 

 cell, and amount of royal jelly increase un- 

 til the sixth day from the hatching of the 

 egg, when the cell is sealed. The fif- 

 teenth or sixteenth day after the egg was 

 laid, the queen by means of her mandibles 

 cuts a neat circulsr door at the lower end 

 of her cocoon, and, pushing her way thru, 

 emerges a full-fledged queen. Usually she 

 helps herself to honey soon after leaving her 

 cell and then makes a search for any possi- 

 ble queen or queen-cell that may be present, 

 for all other queens and queen-cells must be 

 destroyed if she is to reign supreme. Al- 

 tho a queen very rarely uses her sting on a 

 person, she uses it unhesitatingly on a rival 

 queen. From five to ten days after leaving 

 her cell, the queen takes her wedding flight 

 and in a day or two increases considerably 

 in size and assumes a more stately bearing. 

 During the breeding season she may 

 lay 3,000 or more eggs daily and perhaps 

 as many as 200,000 annually for several 

 years. Ordinarily, however, queens are not 

 at their best after the first two years and 

 many beekeepers, therefore, requeen every 

 two years. Those queens that fail to mate 

 j)roperly, lay eggs, but the eggs being un- 

 fertilized produce drones only. Such a queen 

 is caileil a drone-layer, and, unless replaced 

 by a good queen, will soon render the colo- 

 ny worthless, since the workers are gradual- 

 ly dying and no others are coming on to take 

 their places. If one is to succeed with bees, 

 he must keep each colony always supplied 

 with a good laying queen. 



The Worker. 

 The egg that produces the worker is fer- 

 tilized and is exactly like the egg that pro- 

 duces the queen, but because of different 



food and a different-sized cell it results in 

 a worker instead of a queen. The egg 

 hatches in three days, and for the next three 

 days is fed the same kind of food as the 

 queen larvag, only in smaller amounts. After 

 this the worker larva is fed honey and pol- 

 len. In 21 days from the laying of the egg 

 the bee hatches. 



The young bee is at first downy in appear- 

 ance and easily distinguished. The first 

 day or two she walks about eating honey 

 and smoothing down her feathers. After 

 this she acts as nurse bee, partially digest- 

 ing honey and pollen and feeding it to the 

 young larvae, and also does other work 

 about the hive such as comb-building, house- 

 cleaning, etc. Her first flight or "play- 

 spell ' ' is taken about the eighth day. This 

 is one of the prettiest of sights, to see the 

 young bees circling about their doorstep in 

 merry flight, getting a view of their home 

 from every angle so that, in their later more 

 distant flights, they may have no difficulty 

 in recognizing their home. In two weeks 

 after leaving the cell, the worker goes to 

 the field for honey and pollen. Sometime 

 when the beginner has the hive open he may 

 perhaps notice some of these young bees 

 returning to the hive with their first load of 

 honey or pollen. What a commotion there 

 is, to be sure! What an eager running 

 about this way and that before the load is 

 deposited! And then out the bee goes for 

 another load. Soon other bees may be seen 

 entering these same cells and carefully pack- 

 ing the pollen. One may perhaps also note 

 workers carrying propolis in their pollen 

 baskets. This propolis is a sticky, gluey 

 substance which the bees gather from buds 

 and use in filling in spaces about the hive. 



From Nectar to Honey. 



When a bee arrives in the hive with a 

 load of honey, she searches until she finds 

 a cell to her liking and then enters the cell 

 with feet upward. Her mandibles touch the 

 cell where the load is to be deposited. Then 

 the mouth and mandibles open, and a drop 

 of nectar appears. With the mandibles con- 

 stantly in motion while quite likely some se- 

 cretion is added to the nectar, the head is 

 moved from side to side and the nectar 

 spread over the upper cell wall. When this 

 honey is first stored it is quite thin, but 

 later the bees evaporate or "ripen" it un- 

 til it contains less than 25 per cent of water. 

 This work is done mostly at night, the bees 

 standing on the combs with heads upward 

 and then forcing a drop of nectar to the 

 mouth and mandibles where it gently pul- 

 sates for about 10 minutes when it is swal- 

 lowed and another drop appears. This work 

 continues sometimes for nearly half the 

 night. Anyone entering the apiary at this 

 time will note the pleasant odor of the new 

 honey and will also enjoy the drowsy sound 

 of the millions at work ripening the honey. 

 Wax Production. 



While the honey is being ripened and the 

 nectar changed to honey, wax in the form 



