6 ARKANSAS EXPERIMENT STATION 



end of six days the young larva is full grown and the cell is now 

 sealed up. After seven more days the larva has passed thru its 

 transformation and the fully developed queen is ready to e- 

 merge. The queen that emerges first may destroy all the others 

 in their cells. 



The Workers. The workers furnish all the labor for the 

 colony. The development of the worker from the egg till it is 

 ready to emerge is 21 days. Young workers, up to two weeks 

 old, are employed feeding the larvae, secreting wax, and building 

 combs. When the workers have reached the age of seventeen 

 days they begin to gather nectar and pollen. A few of the work- 

 ers are used as guards, guarding the entrance against intruders. 



The workers are the smallest individuals of the colony. 

 They differ in appearance from the drones in having a pointed 

 abdomen while that of the dfones is blunt at the posterior end. 

 The workers are equipped with a sting, the purpose and effect 

 of which is well known to all of us who have come in contact 

 with bees. 



The length of life of a worker is not measured in time but 

 in the amount of work done. Workers emerging late in the fall 

 live thru the winter, while those emerging shortly before a 

 heavy honey flow live only about six weeks. 



The Drones. The drones are the males and their only 

 function is to mate with virgin queens. The drones usually 

 appear in April and May at the height of brood rearing. They 

 are larger than the workers and clumsy in appearance. 



Drones develop from unfertilized eggs. For three days 

 after hatching the larvae are fed on the same material as are 

 the workers and queens; after that the food consists of a mix- 



PIG. 2. Drone cells in the lower left hand corner, queen cells belnw 

 The others are worker cells. (From Sladen, "Bees and How to Keep Them") 



ture of half-digested pollen and honey. The develonment nf the 

 drone requires 24 days. development of the 



The drones have no sting and are therefore quite harmle^^ 

 They are also rather helpless creatures. They seem to "e aWe 



