NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HONEY BEE. 59 



are none except at a considerable distance. Intercourse 

 takes place very high in the air, (perhaps that less risk may- 

 be incurred from birds,) and this conduces more to the con- 

 tinual crossing of stocks. 



I am strongly persuaded that the decay of many flourish- 

 ing stocks, even when managed with great care, may be 

 attributed to the fact that they have become enfeebled by 

 " close breeding," and are thus unable to resist injurious in- 

 fluences which were comparatively harmless, when the bees 

 were in a state of high physical vigor. In the chapter on 

 Artificial Swarming, I shall explain how bees may be easily 

 crossed, when a cultivator has too few colonies, or is too re- 

 mote from other Apiaries, to depend upon its being naturally 

 efiected. 



The Workers, or Common Bees. 



The number of workers in a hive varies very 

 much. A good swarm ought to contain at 

 least 20,000 ; and in large hives, strong colonies 

 which are not reduced by swarming, frequently 

 number two or three times as many, during the 

 height of the breeding season. We have well-authenticated 

 instances of stocks even much more populous than this. The 

 Polish hives will hold several bushels, and yet we are in- 

 formed by Mr. Dobrogost Chylinski, that they swarm regu- 

 larly, and that the swarms are so powerful that " they re- 

 semble a little cloud in the air." 



The workers, (as already stated,) are all females whose 

 ovaries are too imperfectly developed to admit of their lay- 

 ing eggs. For a long time, being regarded as neither males 

 nor females, they were called Neuters ; but more careful 

 microscopic examinations enable us to detect the rudiments 



