BEES FOB PLEASTTEE AND PEOFIT. 



The queen is the mother bee, and lays all the eggs from 

 which the inhabitants of the hive are produced ; the workers 

 are imperfect and unfertile females ; while the drones are the 

 male bees. The queen, as will be seen from fig. 1, is much 



Fig. 1.— Queen. Drone Worker. 



larger than either the workers or drones. She does no work, 

 lier sole duty being to lay eggs ; and in the summer she will 

 lay as many as three thousand of them a day. She lives four 

 or five years. 



The drones are produced at swarming time, their sole use 

 being to mate with the young queens, as they do no work at 

 all. They, however, consume a great deal of honey, and for 

 this reason the bee-keeper should limit the number of drones 

 in his apiary by allowing the bees to build but little drone-comb. 

 In flying the drones make a very loud buzzing, and the novice 

 will at once learn to distinguish them from the workers when 

 on the wing by the great amount of noise which they make. 

 They are considerably larger and stouter in appearance than 

 the workers. 



The workers, or "neutrals " as they are sometimes called, 

 attend to all the business of the hive, as it is they who rear 



Fig. 2 — ^Development of the Bee. Brood in various Stages, from tlie Egg to the Imago. 



the brood (fig. 2), feed the queen and drones, gather the honey 

 and pollen, build the combs, and defend the hive from robber 

 bees and other hostile insects. On their hind legs are what are 

 known as " pollen baskets." 



