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 (OG4). 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) 

 "is 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 

 swarm 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 Abbe DeUa 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 erroneoui 

 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. ErauB waa an English physician, and the anthor of a beantlfnl poem 

 on bees. 



