MAN'S WINGED ALLY, THE BUSY HONEYBEE 



405 



they are found in the deserts, cm the moun- 

 tains, in the plains, and in swamps, and as 

 far north as Alaslca. 



Scattered over the world are several dis- 

 tinct races, such as the Italian, Carni- 

 olan, Caucasian (Color Plate VII), and 

 Cyprian. All races, everywhere, react in 

 almost the same manner. A skillful bee- 

 keeper can succeed in Australia as well as 

 in Ohio, provided he keeps an eye to the 

 weather and studies the local flora. 



If honeybees are properly handled, there 

 is no more danger in caring for them than 

 in raising chickens. However, the belief 

 that bees learn to know their master and 

 will not sting him is without foundation. 



During the active season the average life 

 of a bee is six weeks. The first two weeks 

 are lived almost exclusively within the hive 

 (Plates II and VI), but thereafter the bees 

 pass most of the daylight hours in the 

 fields when the weather is good, in search 

 of pollen and nectar. Since the beekeeper 

 rarely opens the hive more than once a 

 week, there is little opportunity for the bees 

 to become acquainted with their owner. 



Some persons are so constituted that one 

 sting may prove highly dangerous to them 

 and require immediate medical attention, 

 but these cases are rare. Although it may 

 not be dangerous to most persons, a bee 

 sting on the eyelid, the lip, or the face does 

 not enhance a person's beauty. 



THE WEDDING FLIGHT OF A QUEEN 



During the active season, a normal col- 

 ony contains one queen, a fully developed 

 female ; thousands of unreproductive worker 

 bees, which are females only partly devel- 

 oped; and several hundred drones, or male 

 bees (Plate II). The queen is endowed 

 with great powers of reproduction, since she 

 can even produce male progeny without 

 mating, but she cannot produce female bees, 

 workers or queens, without going through 

 the marriage ceremony. Thus, the maligned 

 drone is indispensable to the completion of 

 the immortal cycle of the honeybee. 



Upon the wedding flight of the queen de- 

 pends the subsequent development of the 

 colony. On a bright spring day the virgin 

 queen emerges from the hive and soars away 

 to seek a mate from among the hundreds 

 of drones cruising about in the warm sun- 

 shine. Blissfully, perhaps, the drone is 

 seeking an encounter that will cost him his 

 life but insure the perpetuation of his 

 race. 



A moment after mating, the drone dies 

 and the newly mated queen at once becomes 

 a widow. But this one mating enables the 

 queen for the rest of her life, three or four 

 years, to perform her maternal duties. 



A few days after returning to the hive, 

 she begins egg laying, slowly at first; but 

 at the height of her career she may lay as 

 many as 1,500 eggs a day and maintain 

 this rate for days at a time (Plate III) . 



She lays two kinds of eggs. One kind is 

 unfertilized and hatches into a drone, or 

 male bee. Mating has no influence upon this 

 part of her family. Her sons are not the 

 sons of her mate or husband, and are con- 

 sequently fatherless, but they can claim a 

 grandfather. 



The other type of egg is fertilized by the 

 queen with a male cell, of which she retains 

 an almost unlimited number in a special 

 organ of her body. The fertilized egg 

 hatches into a female bee, usually a worker. 



Thus both workers, or neuter bees, and 

 queens come from the same kind of egg. 

 Yet the two show marked differences. The 

 queen has the function of reproduction; the 

 worker bee has not. The queen bee pos- 

 sesses teeth on her mandibles, or jaws; the 

 worker bee has smooth jaws. The worker 

 bee has pollen baskets (Plate V) ; the queen 

 lacks them. The worker bee has a straight, 

 barbed, unretractable sting; the queen has 

 a curved, smooth sting. The worker bee 

 loses its life after stinging, but the queen 

 does not (Plate IV). 



A worker bee takes 21 days to develop 

 from the egg to the adult, while a queen, 

 who is much larger, requires only IS or 

 16 days. The colony itself has the power 

 of determining whether a fertilized egg shall 

 develop into a queen or a worker bee. 



During its normal existence, only one 

 queen is necessary to maintain the popula- 

 tion of a colony. Unlike the worker bee, 

 who lives but six weeks, the queen may live 

 two, three, or more years, but eventually 

 she also becomes old and decrepit. Then a 

 new queen must be raised to carry on the 

 life of the colony. 



HER MAJESTY IS FED "ROYAL JELLY" 



The raising of a new queen is entrusted 

 to the worker bees. An egg or a newly 

 hatched larva less than three days old is 

 selected. The cell in which the larva 

 is deposited is broken down and enlarged 

 and the heiress apparent is given special care 

 and attention from this time on. For the 



