lO ECONOMY OF THE HIVE. 



Although she is larger than the workers, her wings are much 

 shorter than theirs, and as she carries them closed over her 

 back she is easily distinguished from them. Next in im- 

 portance come the workers, whose numbers may vary from 

 5,000 to 50,000, according to the season and the strength of 

 the stock. The duties pf the workers are to tend the hatch- 

 ing-brood, to gather honey and pollen, and to defend the 

 hive against intruders. Recent investigations have shown 

 that the worker bees are imperfectly-developed females. 

 Last of all come the drones, or male bees, whose only office 

 is to fertilise the queen. Under ordinary circumstances 

 drones are only found in hives between the months of May 

 and September, and their numbers vary from a few hundred 

 to a few thousand, but the fewer of them there are, the better 

 for the bee-keeper^s pocket. 



If a stock of bees in a straw hive be examined about the 

 end of January, the bees will be seen compactly clustered 

 between the combs, to economise heat. On the floor-board 

 will be seen some few hundred dead bees, more or less, 

 which have dropped out of the cluster, and it will be noticed 

 that the hive and combs weigh much less than in the pre- 

 vious October, when the gross weight was probably 25lbs or 

 thereabouts. As the days become warmer, the bees fly more 

 frequently in search of honey and pollen, the coloured dust 

 seen on the anthers of flowers. When honey begins to 

 come in, the queen begins to deposit eggs in the cells of the 

 comb which is found to be in the warmest part of the hive, 

 the eggs being deposited in a small patch on each side of the 

 comb, but as the weather gets warmer she enlarges the 

 sphere of her operations until she extends them to the next 

 comb. The bees crowd themselves on the part of the combs 

 containing the eggs, so as to confine the heat as much as 

 possible. On the third day after being laid, the egg hatches, 

 and a tiny white worm or grub makes its appearance. 

 These grubs are tended assiduously by the workers, who 

 feed them with a mixture of honey and pollen, which they 

 have partly digested in their own stomachs. Under this 

 treatment the grub grows in size rapidly, until the sixth day, 

 when it aknost fills the cell, the mouth of which is theu 

 sealed or capped over by the workers with a mixture of 



