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emerge the other occupants of the hive — workers and drones. 

 A good queen in the summer will lay from two to three thousand 

 eggs per day. She will live from 3 to 5 years, but it is found 

 that a queen in her second year has attained her maximum 

 power of egg-production. To secure the best results from a 

 colony of bees, it is therefore essential that a young queen 

 should always be at the head of the colony. For example, a 

 queen reared in July, 1915, is at her best during 1916. The 

 queen deposits eggs of two kinds, those which give rise to 

 workers and those which give rise to drones. Worker eggs are 

 laid in worker cells, and under ordinary treatment produce 

 worker bees, but under special treatment can be made to pro- 

 duce queens; drone eggs are deposited in drone cells. 



Worker. 



The worker bee is an undeveloped female. Workers are 

 smaller in size than the queens or drones. They have a sting 

 which deters many prospective bee-keepers from taking the 

 subject in hand, but nature has given this weapon to the insect, 

 not as a means of offence, but for the purpose of protecting 

 itself from its natural foes. The workers have many enemies, 

 and were it not for the sting, the race would soon become 

 extinct. In a prosperous colony in the summer, the workers 

 number from 40 to 60 thousand. They build the cells, collect 

 the nectar and pollen, feed the young larvae, and perform 

 practically all the work in the beehive. Their span of life is 

 short — from 6 to 8 weeks in the summer. _ During that period 

 they work incessantly, and wear themselves out in their arduous 

 labours. Those workers that are reared in the late autumn live 

 through the winter, and perform a little work in the early 

 spring. It takes about 3 weeks from the time the egg is laid 

 to produce a worker bee. When the worker bee emerges from 

 the cell it is very weak, and for the first week or so acts in the 

 capacity of a nurse bee in the hive, i.e., to feed the grubs or 

 larvae. After this period it is strong enough to take its place 

 with the other workers in the fields. It naturally follows that, 

 to obtain the maximum production of honey in a single colony, 

 it is important to have the hive teeming with worker bees at a 



