THE WORKER-BEE. 77 
entrain which is truly admirable. They know each other, 
probably by smell, for it is very rare to see a bee of the 
hive treated as a robber (664). They never use their 
sting except to defend themselves, when hurt, or their 
home, when they think it is threatened. 
182. Their life is short, but their age depends very much 
upon their greater or less exposure to injurious influences, 
and severe labors. ‘Those reared in the Spring and early 
part of Summer, upon whom the heaviest labors of the hive 
devolve, appear to live not more than thirty-five days, on an 
average ; while those bred at the close of Summer, and early 
in Autumn, being able to spend a large part of their time 
in repose, attain a much greater age. It is very evident 
that ‘‘the bee’’ (to use the words of a quaint old writer) 
‘Cis a Summer bird;’’ and that, with the exception of the 
queen, none live to be a year old. 
If an Italian queen be given, in the working season, to a 
hive of common bees, in about three months none of the 
latter will be found in the colony, and as the black queen 
removed has left eggs in the cells, which take twenty-one 
days to hatch, it is evident that the bees all die from fatigue 
or accident in the remaining seventy days, making their 
average life thirty-five days in the working season. 
The age which individual members of the community may 
attain, must not be confounded with that of the colony. 
Bees have been known to occupy the same domicile for a 
great number of years. We have seen flourishing colonies 
more than twenty years old; the Abbé Della Rocca speaks 
of some over forty years old; and Stoche says, that he saw 
a colony, which he was assured had swarmed annually for 
forty-six years! ‘‘Such cases have led to the erroneous 
opinion, that bees are a long-lived race. But this, as Dr. 
Evans* has observed, is just as wise as. if a stranger, con- 
* Dr. Evans was an English physician, and the author of a beautiful poem 
on bees. 
