BEE BUSINESS 51 



Ms one function as the male of the tribe 

 is utterly useless. When we consider too, 

 that but one drone of an entire colony can 

 possibly be needed to carry on the race 

 and that hundreds and often thousands 

 of others never do any work at all, it 

 seems surprising that the bees should be 

 so lavish in producing this useless mem- 

 ber of their society. 



The queen is the only perfect female of 

 the colony. Her activity has been the 

 source of study by some of the greatest 

 scientists and yet it is still only possible 

 to guess at some of the remarkable things 

 which she does. After a young queen is 

 fertilized by a drone she remains fertile 

 during her life and though she may live 

 for four or five years she will continue to 

 lay eggs which are perfectly fertile and 

 which produce sound healthy workers. 

 When we stop to consider, too, that during 

 the height of the spring season a queen 

 will sometimes lay as many as three thou- 

 sand eggs in a single day we can begin to 



