State Bee-Keepers' Association, ioi 



female bee in the colony, and hence the name of queen or mother bee. In 

 form she is longer than either of the other species. She is usually of a dark 

 color, except the under side of the abdomen, which bears somewhat on the 



golden shade. All her colors are bright and glossy, and she has but little of 

 the down or hair seen on the drones or workers. Her wings are short, 

 reaching a little more than half way back. Her posterior is more pointed 

 and has the a">earance of curving under more than that of the workers. She 

 has a sting, but never uses it, except in combat with a rival queen. 



THEIR AFFECTION FOR THEIR QUEEN. 



The queen is always treated with the greatest affection by the bees. If 

 she is removed from them the whole colony is thrown into a state of the 

 most intense agitation. All labor is abandoned and the bees run wildly over 

 the comb and rush from the hive in anxious search fortheir beloved mother. 

 If they cannot find her, they returned to their desolate home and manifest by 

 their sorrowful tones their sense of this great calamity, as no colony can long 

 exist without the presence of the mother bee. 



THE AGE OF THE QUEEN. 



The average age of the queen is about three years. None should be 

 allowed to become older than that, as after that age they often become 

 barren, or deposit eggs which produce only drones, and the colony soon 

 wastes away without being replenished with worker broods. 



Like the drone, the queen never goes to gather honey, her only duty 

 being to deposit the eggs, both male and female. Yet she is as dependent 

 on the workers as they are upon her, and both are dependent upon the 

 drones, notwithstanding they are the acknowledged idlers of the colony. 



DEPOSITING THE EGGS. 



In all well populated hives young broods may be found in different stages 

 of development, every month in the year, with few exceptions. The queen 

 carefully examines each cell by trusting her head in, before depositing the 

 egg, to see if it contains bee breed or honey, as she never uses a cell partly 

 filed . If she finds the cell clear she immediately curves her abdomen and 



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