CHAPTER II. 



KINDS OP BEES COMPOSING A COLONY BEE PRODUCTS AND 

 DESCRIPTION OP COMBS DEVELOPMENT OF BROOD. 



KINDS OF BEES IN A COLONY. 



Each colony of bees in good condition at the opening of the season 

 contains a laying queen and 

 some 30,000 to 40,000 worker 

 bees, or six to eight quarts by 

 measurement. Besides this 

 there should be four, five, or 

 even more combs fairly stocked 

 with developing brood, with a 

 good supply of honey about it. 

 Drones may also be present, 

 even several hundred in num- 

 ber, although it is better to 

 limit their production to se- 

 lected hives, which in the main 

 it is not difficult to accomplish. 



Under normal conditions the 

 queen lays all of the eggs which 

 are deposited in the hive, being 

 capable of depositing under fa- 

 vorable conditions as many as 

 4,000 in twenty-four hours. Or- 

 dinarily she mates but once, 

 flying from the hive to meet 

 the drone the male bee high 

 in the air, when five to nine 

 days old generally, although 



this time varies under different 

 climatic conditions as well as 

 with different races. Seminal 

 fluid sufficient to impregnate 



FIG. 5. Ovaries of queen and workers : A, abdomen 

 of queen under side (magnified eight times) ; P, peti- 

 ole; O, O, ovaries ; hs, position filled by honey sac; ds, 

 position through which digestive system passes; od, 

 oviduct; co.d, common oviduct; E, egg-passing ovi- 

 duct; *, spermatheca; i, intestine; pb, poison bag; 

 p.g, poison glaiid; st, sting; p, palpi. -B, rudimentary 

 ovaries of ordinary worker ; p, rudimentary sperma- 

 theca. C, partially developed ovaries of fertile 

 worker; sp, rudimentary spermatheca. (From Ches- 

 hire.) 



the greater number of eggs she 

 will deposit during the next two or three years (sometimes even four 

 or five years) is stored at the time of mating in a sacthe spermatheca, 

 opening into the oviduct or egg-passage (fig. 5, ). The queen seems 



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