NATURAL HISTORY 5 



begin to wane more or less, and stocks headed by queens 

 more than two years old are almost certain to swarm. 

 Therefore one of the first conditions essential to success 

 in beekeeping and the prevention of swarming is to 

 always take care that colonies are headed by young and 

 vigorous queens. 



During the winter the queen ceases to lay, but resumes 

 egg laying in the early spring, gradually increasing the 

 number of eggs as the weather grows warmer until the 

 maximum amount is reached, when after the honey 

 harvest is over the eggs decrease in number day by day 

 until ovipositing ceases for the season. 



Queens never leave the hive excepting for the purpose 

 of mating with a drone, or when heading a swarm. 



The Drones. — The drones are the male bees, and are 

 recognisable by their ungainly lumbering motions. In 

 size they are intermediate between the queen and the 

 worker. They are stingless, and their primary function 

 is the fertilisation of the queen bee. Therefore the 

 drone is an essential factor in the perpetuating of the 

 species. This fact is so well known to the bees that 

 no colony will swarm unless drones be present to ensure 

 that the future queen shall be impregnated. Towards 

 the close of the season the drones are ignominiously 

 driven from the hive by the workers. 



Queenless stocks will tolerate drones at a time when 

 colonies headed by a fertile queen have cast out all drones. 

 This unseasonable toleration is due to a lingering hope 

 on the part of the bees of being able to raise a new 

 queen, in which case drones would be required for 

 mating purposes. 



Their note when on the wing is characteristic, hence 

 their name. They gather no honey. 



The Workers. — These constitute the main population 

 of the hive, and during the honey flow may number 

 from forty to fifty thousand and upwards. Physio- 



