The Colony and its Organization 39 



tural fitness and age. While an individual worker bee may 

 live if forcibly isolated from its mates, it cannot reproduce 

 itself, fails to care for itself adequately and soon dies. Most 

 insects have the ability to hibernate in winter but the honey- 

 bee seems to have lost that ability. Since at low tempera- 

 tures the bee becomes numb and finally dies, it must have 

 the ability to make its own environment, so far as tempera- 

 ture is concerned. This makes a colony necessary in winter 

 so that the bees may mutually and collectively warm each 

 other. Efficiency, if not necessity, demands that the work 

 of the colony be divided and such a division of labor tends to 

 develop into a condition demanding the maintenance of the 

 colony. The honeybee is further modified for the defense of 

 the colony rather than of the individual. The barbed sting 

 is used but once and is more effective because it is left behind 

 while the former owner dies. Such a weapon of defense is of 

 no service to the individual. 



Size of the colony. 



This varies according to the season, the smallest number 

 being usually found at the close of the winter in the North, 

 when the number may be reduced to 10,000 or even much 

 less. At the height of the season, the number may reach 

 70,000, and while a larger number may be possible it is unu- 

 sual. Swarms sometimes issue which contain 35,000 individ- 

 uals. Such niunbers usually surprise the uninitiated. It is 

 not, however, necessary for bees to exist in such large numbers 

 to constitute a colony. A mere handful of bees (perhaps 200) 

 may constitute a small colony (usually called a nucleus ^ and 

 if favorable conditions were to continue such a nucleus would 

 become a full-sized colony. 



TYPES OF INDIVIDUALS IN A COLONY 



A normal colony at the height of the summer season of 

 activity is composed of three kinds of individuals, (1) the 



• The unusually small colonies are known among beekeepers as "baby 

 nuclei." 



