BEEKEEPING IN ARKANSAS 5 



after she has emerged and during her flight mates with one of 

 the drones. The drone dies as a result of mating and the queen 

 is now fertilized for life, or perhaps better, for her entire period 

 of usefullness. She does not as a rule leave the hive again ex- 

 cept in case of swarming, when she leaves with the swarm. It 



FIG. 1. A. Worker, B. Drone, C. Queen. 

 (From "A B C and X V Z of Bee Culture") 



has been held, and is still held by many text book writers that 

 the queen can control the fertilization of the eggs that she is 

 laying. It is well known that the drones hatch from eggs not 

 fertilized and the workers from fertilized eggs. IThe significance 

 of this is that in the light of these facts the beekeeper can estab- 

 lish pure stock more readily than in the case of poultry or cattle. 

 If, for instance, he introduces an Italian queen that has mated 

 with an Italian drone all the virgin queens reared will be pure 

 Italian. If these mate with black drones, as may happen, the 

 workers will be a mixture of Italians, blacks, and hybrids but the 

 drones will be pure Italians, (because they receive none of the 

 male characters), then if later more Italian queens are reared 

 they mate with the Italian drones and pure Italian stock is the 

 result. 



When a queen ceases to perform her duty properly or dies 

 for some cause or another, or when the bees are preparing to 

 swarm, the workers proceed to rear another queen. The egg 

 from which the queen is reared is one that would ordinarily de- 

 velop into a worker, that is, it is fertilized. This egg, or a worker 

 larva less than three days old is placed in a specially constructed 

 cell somewhat resembling when completed a small peanut, and 

 the larva, or larvae, since the colony usually rears a number of 

 these when there is need for a queen, are fed on royal jelly. 

 This is predigested food produced from a mixture of honey, pol- 

 len, and a secretion from glands in the head of workers. At the 



