CHAPTER ir. 



KINDS OF BEES COMPOSING A COLONY— BEE PRODUCTS AND 

 DESCRIPTION OF COMBS— DEVELOPMENT OF BROOD. 



KINDS OF BEES IX A COl^O^Y. 



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&m 



W'^^^j^^ m 



Each coloDv of bees in good condition at the opening of the season 

 contains a hiying- qiieeu and 

 some 3(),()0() to 40,0(H) worker 

 bees, or six to eight quarts by 

 measurement. Besides this 

 there shoukl be four, five, or 

 even more combs fairly stocked 

 with developing brood, with a 

 good sui)i)ly of honey about it. 

 Drones may also be ])resent, 

 even several hundred in num- 

 ber, although it is better to 

 limit their production to se- 

 lected hives, which m the main 

 it is not difficult to accomplish. 



Under normal conditions the 

 queen lays all of the eggs which 

 are deposited in the hive, being- 

 capable of depositing under fa- 

 vorable conditions as many as 

 4,000 in twenty-four hours. Or- 

 dinarily she matvs but once, 

 tlying from the hive to meet 

 the drone — the male bee — higli 

 in the air, when five to nine 

 days old generally, although 

 this time varies under different 

 climatic conditions as well as 

 with diflerent races. Seminal 

 tiuid sufficient to impregnate 



Fig. 5. — Ovaries ofqueeu and workers: A, nbdomeu 

 of queen — under side (magnified eiglit times) . P, peti- 

 ole; 0,0, ovaries; lis. jjosition tilled by honey .-^ae; rf.f, 

 position through whieh digestive system i>asses; od. 

 oviduct: ro.t?, common oviduct: E, eggi>assing ovi- 

 duct; 4-. spermatheca; i, intestine: j»6, poison bag: 

 2>.g, poison gland; *Y, sting; p, palpi. 1?, rudimentary 

 ovaries of ordinary worker; *j), nulinientary sperma- 

 theca. C, ])artially developed ovaries of fertile 

 worker; sp, rudimentary spermatheca. (From Ches- 

 hire.) 



the greater number of eggs she 

 will deposit during the next two or three years (sometimes even fimr 

 or live years) is stored at tlie time of mating in a sac— the si)ermatheca, 

 opening into the oviduct or egg-passage (fig. o, s). The queen seems 



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