The "workers" are the most numerous as well as the most active 

 class among the bees. How many should yoii think there were in a 

 good, strong colony? The number varies, of course, but usually there 

 are from 30,000 to 40,000, and each bee has its own particular work 

 to do. If you could look into the hive when they are all busy you 

 would find the young bees building the comb, feeding the larvm, and 

 doing general housework; those a little older would be secreting wax 

 and helping their elders in shaping the pockets for storing the honey 

 which these older bees bring in. 



We have learned that the queens sometimes live four or five years, — 

 now, how long do you suppose these workers live? It depends a good 

 deal upon the time of the year at which they are hatched; if late in 

 the fall, they will live until the next spring, but if during the busy 

 season in summer, they work so hard that they wear themselves out 

 and live only forty or fifty days. 



And now there remains only our third class of bees — the "drones." 

 These are the male bees. They are larger than the workers, but have 

 no sting and are altogether very lazy, useless fellows. We might call 

 them the "tramps" of the bee family. Sometimes the "workers" 

 grow tired of feeding and caring for them; they will then kill them 

 and throw them out of the hive. 



How much honey do you suppose is made in one summer by a 

 good hive of bees? The amount will depend very much, of course, 

 as to whether or not there has been an abundance of flowers for the 

 bees to work upon, but I know that a great many pounds, often 

 twenty-five or thirty, have been taken from one hive, and that when 

 swarms of bees have wandered off to live in a hollow tree the hollow 

 has been found to be full of delicious honey. DifEerent varieties of 

 bees vary in their ability to produce honey. I presume your father 

 would tell you that the Italian bees are the best kind to have, because 

 they begin their \york earlier in the morning and continue it later in 

 the evening. Then, too, they have a longer tongue than the black 

 bees and can get nectar from flowers which the black bees can not 

 reach. Best of all, they are much more gentle and easy to handle. 



I think, perhaps, the silkworm is next in interest of our 

 insect friends. Not many of you will be able to see just how silk is 

 made, so I will talk about it a little while. In the first place there 

 is a beautiful large moth which lays the eggs which hatch into the 

 larvw or silkworms. These worms are then fed all the mulberry 

 leaves that they can eat until they are full grown, when they spin a 

 silken cocoon around themselves, completely shutting themselves in; 

 then they change to the pupm state and remain quiet for a few weeks. 



