CHAPTER I, 
HONEY BEES. 
SWARM of bees contains one Queen, thousands 
A of workers, and in the summer season a limited 
number of drones. ‘The queen is the only fully devel- 
oped female in the swarm. She never leaves the hive 
except on two occasions—when leading a swarm, and 
when 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 a queen averages from four to six 
years. Queens 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 
