40 THE HONEY-BEE. 



The birth of a fertile worker in a hive is a great 

 misfortune ; for, not merely will the population 

 diminish, and at length altogether fail, from the 

 production of drone-brood only, but, as it is im- 

 possible to distinguish the offending worker, it is 

 difficult to get rid of her. It has been recommended, 

 on the discovery that she exists, to amalgamate the 

 stock with another having a queen. This may 

 answer, but there is a danger that when the battle 

 comes to be fought between the actual sovereign 

 and the fertile worker, who will try to maintain her 

 prerogative, the latter, as the more active, and as 

 possessed of a more formidable sting, may prove 

 victorious. A safer plan, therefore, is to turn out the 

 whole stock from their hive, comb by comb, if the 

 bar-frame system is used, and allow them to return 

 to the old place where the cleared combs may be 

 put to receive them. The fertile worker, never 

 having left the colony, will not know her way back, 

 and so will be happily got rid of, and will probably 

 perish. Her place must, of course, be supplied by 

 an introduced queen, or the stock must be united 

 with another. 



The age to which the workers live varies accord- 

 ing to the amount of labour they undergo. During 

 the winter and the early spring, when little or no 

 work is done, there is small drain on their vital force, 

 and they may live for six or seven months. In the 

 height of summer, when long days and abundant 

 supplies invite them to many hours of continuous 

 toil, the industrious insects are believed to exhaust 

 themselves very rapidly, and to perish, as if pre- 

 maturely old, in about five or six weeks. It is quite 



