CHAPTER I, 



HONEY BEES. 



QUEEN BEE. 



^igll SWARM of bees contains one Queen, thous- 

 P^M ands of workers, and in the summer season, 

 c*^^ a limited number of drones. The queen is 

 the only fully developed female in the swarm. She 

 never leaves the hive except on two occasions — 

 when leading a swarm, and w^hen but a few days 

 old, to meet the drone, or male bee, in the air, for 

 the purpose of fecundation. It appears from close 

 observation that only one impregnation is operative 

 during life, as old queens have' never been known 

 to leave the hive for that purpose. 



The natural life of the queen averages from four 

 to six years. Qiieens sometimes become entirely 

 barren before death ; at other times the eggs of old 

 queens are found to produce only drones. No 

 matter whether deposited in drone cells, or worker 

 cells, the progeny will be drones invariably. When 

 drones are reared in worker cells, they will be very 

 much dwarfed in size, notwithstanding the worker 



