8 
** fertile workers,’’ are most undesirable occupants of a hive ; 
they are rarely found in hives occupied by queens. All the work 
of the hive is performed by the worker bees: they make wax, 
which is secreted from their bodies, build the cells, fill them with 
honey which they alone collect, feed and nurse the young brood, 
collect propolis, a resinous substance which they find in trees, 
and which is used for closing chinks and holes, defend the hive 
from enemies, etc., etc.; they also gather the pollen of flowers, 
which, when mixed with honey and partially digested, is fed 
to the young brood. The length of life of a worker bee varies 
very much. Bees that are employed to the fullest extent of 
their powers in making wax and afterwards collecting honey, 
do not live for more than six or eight weeks of the spring or 
summer: the making of wax is a greater tax upon their strength 
than any of their other numerous duties; therefore the life of 
a bee can be much lengthened by providing it with “ comb 
foundation” (32). Bees hatched in autumn may live for 
eight or nine months, having neither to make wax nor to collect 
honey until the following year. A worker bee is provided with 
a barbed sting, which is used as a weapon of offence or defence ; 
being barbed it cannot easily be withdrawn when inserted 
in the flesh of a human being. Workers carry honey in the 
“honey sac,” and pollen on their hind legs. 
Drones (Fig. 2), or male bees, are hatched early in summer, 
at which period there may be several hun- 
8. Drones. dred in a hive, but only a few of them are 
apparently required as mates for the young 
queens. The drones lead an idle life; the principal object 
of their existence is to fertilize young queens; they also, to 
some extent, assist in keeping up the temperature of the hive. 
During autumn, or even earlier if the honey flow has ceased, 
the workers turn them out of the hive to perish, provided that 
the stock has a fertile queen: if this does not occur, the bee- 
keeper may conclude that the queen is either dead or unfertile. 
It should be the object of the beekeeper to keep down drone 
breeding as much as possible. 
The comb (Fig. 8) consists of six-sided wax cells, sloping slightly 
upwards from base to mouth. A midrib 
9. Comb. of wax forms the base of the cells on both 
sides of the comb. Worker cells measure 
about one-fifth of an inch, and drone cells about a quarter of 
an inch between their parallel sides. Honey and pollen are 
stored in worker and drone cells. Another cell, called the 
“* queen cell” (A, B, and C, Fig. 3), made specially for cradling 
young queens, is much larger in every way than worker or drone 
cells, and in no way resembles them. Queen cells are some- 
what like an acorn in shape, more or less pitted on the surface, 
about an inch long, and usually attached to the outer edges of 
combs. 
