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TWENTY-FOURTH CHAPTER. 



GENERAL MAXIMS TO BE OBSERVED BY EVERY KEEPER 

 OF BEES. 



A hive is composed of three kinds of bees. 



1st, The queen, who is the only female, and lays every 

 egg in the hive. 



2nd, The drones, amounting in number to from 600 to 

 1000, according to the population of the hive. They fecun- 

 date the eggs of the queen, being the only males in the 

 hive, and are killed by the working bees at the close of 

 the breeding season. 



3rd, The common working bees, who, being of the neuter 

 gender, take no share in the procreation of their species. 

 They collect the honey and make the wax, and may be 

 calculated at from 1000 to 6000 in every hive. In summer 

 the numbers are considerably augmented. 



II. 



The bees never allow of but one queen in a hive, who 

 begins to lay her eggs about the end of January, and finishes 

 about August or September. 



in. 

 The young queens never lay eggs in the parent hive. If 

 there be not a sufficient number of bees to form a swarm, 

 the young queens are killed. 



u 3 



