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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



her honeymoon is short, and she must make 

 the most of it. Only when she leaves the 

 hive with a swarm, probably a year hence, 

 will she have another occasion to fly. 



Mating always takes place on the wing, 

 and if conditions are such that the queen 

 cannot fly she will die a virgin. The 

 strongest drone is her mate, for the queen 

 is a good flyer, and the weak are thus elim- 

 inated in this wise provision to maintain 

 the strength and vigor of the race. 



Before the queen has had time to re- 

 turn to the hive after the mating flight, the 

 drone will have fallen to the earth dead. 

 There is an old saying that the drone no 

 sooner becomes a husband than he is a 

 corpse, and the queen no sooner a bride 

 than a widow. 



Because of her specialized duties and the 

 fact that she does not engage in outside 

 work and is not subject to the hazards of 

 weather and enemies that might prey upon 

 her, the queen may live to the ripe old age 

 of three or four years. When she becomes 

 too old, or when she can no longer pro- 

 duce queen and worker bees, or if she be- 

 comes accidentally crippled, the bees will 

 raise another queen to replace her and for 

 a while both mother and daughter may 

 work side by side in the hive. But this 

 arrangement does not last long. The old 

 queen will shortly disappear. 



The marked differences between the 

 queen and worker bee, both of whom come 

 from the same kind of fertilized egg, have 

 already been mentioned (see text, page 

 405). Their difference in behavior is even 

 more pronounced. The worker bee is armed 

 with a straight sting, the end of which is 

 barbed like a harpoon (Plate IV and page 

 427). When a worker bee stings, it cannot 

 disengage its sting. The violent efi'ort of 

 tearing itself loose from the well-anchored 

 sting so severely damages the tissue of its 

 body that it dies within a few minutes. 

 Normally it can sting only once, and in 

 doing so it defends not itself but the colony. 



A QUEEN FIGHTS ONLY A QUEEN 



The sting of the queen, instead of being 

 straight and barbed, is smooth and curved. 

 It is constructed so that it can easily be 

 withdrawn when she uses it. The queen 

 seemingly does not realize that she pos- 

 sesses this very effective weapon. She may 

 be picked up and handled as harmlessly as 

 a kitten. Her instinct to battle is aroused 

 only in the presence of a rival queen. 



If the queen gets into the wrong hive in 

 returning from her mating flight, a royal 

 battle is sure to ensue, and the two queens 

 fight it out until death comes to the weaker. 

 The worker bees make no attempt to pro- 

 tect their own mother. Here again is the 

 survival of the fittest. Close observers say 

 that when two queens in a rough-and- 

 tumble battle get into such a position that 

 both are apt to receive a fatal thrust, the 

 bees separate the two and then let them 

 come together again until one or the other 

 has the advantage. If the mother queen is 

 slain, the intruder, having proved her 

 superiority, is allowed to take the place of 

 the former queen. 



If the queen used her sting indiscrim- 

 inately, she might easily lose her life in 

 meeting an enemy with which she could 

 not cope. If she were being handled by 

 her keeper and attempted to free herself 

 by stinging him, he might instinctively re- 

 taliate by crushing her frail body. Should 

 he do so, it would jeopardize the future 

 life of the colony, especially if there were 

 no larvae in the hive from which a suc- 

 cessor could be raised. For her protection, 

 therefore, she depends upon her own daugh- 

 ters or sister workers, who far outnumber 

 her and whose sacrifice is not so fatal to 

 the well-being of the colony. 



THE DRONE IS A DINER-OUT 



The drone usually is regarded as a lazy 

 individual, but, after all, he is the father 

 and is entitled to certain respect. He 

 gathers no food, nor does he help defend 

 the family; he has no tools to collect 

 sweets nor has he a sting to defend even 

 himself. During his brief existence, how- 

 ever, he has certain privileges not ac- 

 corded his sisters. He can safely visit 

 neighboring colonies. Neither workers nor 

 queens are accepted in other hives, but dur- 

 ing the breeding season drones are allowed 

 to come and go as they please. 



When the breeding season is over, and 

 the honeyflow comes to a close, the bees 

 become more economical with their food 

 supply, which must carry them through the 

 long, cold winter. Then they drive all the 

 drones from the hives, thus dooming them 

 to perish soon for lack of food and shelter. 



The person who can recall the names and 

 faces of several hundred acquaintances is 

 unusual: yet in a family of 80,000 individ- 

 uals the bee instantly recognizes every mem- 

 ber. It is evident that recognition is not 



