THE WORKING BEES. 13 



their hives. Whenever white drones are seen being cast 

 out, the owner may he pretty certain that his bees are on 

 the border-land of starvation. The lives of drones being 

 always cut short, no one can say how long they would 

 live if let alone. 



CHAPTER III. 



THE WORKING BEES. 



The common working bees are twenty-one days in their 

 cells, and live nine months. Probably nine-tenths of 

 them die, from some cause or another, before they reach 

 their allotted span ; but at the end of nine months or 

 thereabouts, after their birth, all perish. The working 

 bees are considerably smaller than either queens or drones. 

 They do all the work and drudgery of a hive, and do it 

 with a wiUingness and activity that baffies and beg- 

 gars description. They manufacture the wax, bmld the 

 comb, gather honey by day, and store it away by night. 

 It is hard to believe that they never sleep, though we 

 have never seen one either sleepy or asleep, in winter or 

 summer. 



The working bees are female in character, and are pro- 

 duced from the same kind of eggs as queens. The 

 queens are of course fully developed, and have their 

 reproductive organs in a normal or perfect condition ; 

 whereas the working bees are undeveloped females, with 

 reproductive organs imperfect. The treatment which the 

 eggs receive in their cells determines whether the bees 

 shall be born perfect or imperfect. This is one of the 

 many interesttag things in bee-history which is at present 

 veiled in mystery. The same egg may be reared into a 



