DOMESTIC ECONOMY OF THE HIVE 1 1 



The influence of the Italian drone, as regards the 

 drones, would only manifest itself in the offspring of a 

 queen raised from the worlcer brood of the original 

 crossed queen. 



Paradoxical as it may seem, it would appear that the 

 drone has no father, his nearest male parental relative 

 being his grandfather. 



As the season advances the queen continues laying 

 eggs, and the young brood hatch out in continually 

 increasing numbers until overcrowding presents a serious 

 problem. The workers solve the difficulty by com- 

 mencing the construction of queen cells (the presence of 

 drones being assured) and the rearing of young queens. 

 These queen cells after completion become an object of 

 considerable interest to the reigning queen, who tries 

 by all means in her power to tear them open and destroy 

 the young queens therein. This she is prevented from 

 doing by the worker bees, who consistently defend them 

 from all onslaughts. Meanwhile the hive is getting 

 more and more crowded, and its capacity is strained to the 

 utmost, so much so that clusters of bees may be observed 

 hanging around the entrance like miniature bunches of 

 grapes, until one fine day, generally between the hours 

 of lo A.M. and 4 p.m., the swarm pours out of the hive 

 like a living liquid stream, the old queen amongst them. 

 There seems to be no law governing what bees shall 

 remain behind and what shall join the swarm. Old and 

 young pour out indiscriminately, and pollen-laden bees 

 returning from the fields at the critical moment when 

 the swarm is issuing readily join the excited throng of 

 bees. 



The swarm, after circling about in the air for some 

 little time, finally selects an alighting place (such as the 

 bough of a tree) near at hand, the cluster growing 

 larger and larger as the flying bees join their already 

 settled comrades. 



