20 



MANUAL OF APICULTURE. 



to be able to control this opening so as to fertilize eggs or not as she 

 wills at the time of depositing them. If fertilized they develop in;o 

 workers or queens according to the character of the food given, the 

 size and shape of the cell, etc. ; if unfertilized, into drones. The queen's 

 life may extend over a period of four or five years, but three years is 

 quite as long as any queen ought to be kept, unless a particularly valu- 

 able one for breeding iHirposes and not easy to replace. Indeed, if 

 full advantage be taken of her laying powers it will rarely be found 

 profitable to retain a queen longer than two years. 



Upon the workers, which are undeveloi^ed females, devolves all the 

 labor of gathering honey, i)ollen, propolis, and bringing water, secret- 

 ing wax, building combs, stopping up crevices in the hive, nursing the 

 brood, and defending the hives. To enable them to do all this they 

 are furnished with highly specialized organs. These will be more fully 

 referred to in connection with the description of the products gathered 

 and prepared by the workers. 



Fig. 6. — A, Head of queen, magnified teu times, showing smaller conii)ound eyes at sides, and three 

 ocelli on A-ertex of head; n, jaw notch. B, head of drone, magnified ten times, showing larger com- 

 pound eyes at sides, with three ocelli between ; n, jaw notch. (From Cheshire.) 



The drones, aside from contributing somewhat to the general warmth 

 of the hive necessary to the development of the brood, seem to have 

 no other office but that connected with reproduction. , In the wild state 

 colonies of bees are widely separated, being located wherever the 

 swarms chance to have found hollow trees or rock cavities, hence the 

 production of many drones has been provided for, so young queens 

 flying out to mate will not run too many risks from bird and insect 

 enemies, storms, etc. Mating in the hive would result in too continuous 

 In-and-in breeding, producing loss of vigor. As we find it arranged, the 

 most vigorous are the most likely to reproduce their species. 



At the time of the queen's mating there are in the hive neither eggs 

 nor young larvae from which to rear another queen ; thus, should she be 

 lost, no more fertilized eggs would be deposited, and the old workers 

 gradually dying off without being replaced by young ones, the colony 

 would become extinct in the course of a few months at most, or meet a 



