BREEDING. 23 



maturing progeny, we are constrained to regard them as the 

 most wonderful class of this insect family. The average age of 

 the worker is but a few ■weeks during summer, and from six to 

 nine months during the cooler part of the year. 



As regards the sex of the workers, modern writers agree in 

 classing them as undeveloped females. They are incapable of 

 fertilization by the drone, yet, occasionally in queenless colonies, 

 one will be found laying eggs, which, being unfertilized, never 

 produce workers but drones only. 



This laying need not be mistaken as the work of a fertile queen, 

 for, unlike her uniform laying, these eggs are deposited regard- 

 less of order, some cells containing several and others none. The 

 bees destroy the excess, and the remaining eggs produce perfect 

 drones. 



The workers are so well known that a minute description 

 would seem superfluous in a Hand Book. Upon them devolves 

 all the labor of collecting and defending the stores, building 

 comb, feeding and protecting the queen and brood, and expelling 

 the drones when they are no longer necessary to the well-being 

 of the colony. In short, they rule and regulate the whole econ- 

 omy of the hive, performing all its offices except those which 

 have direct reference to the reproduction of the species. 



BREEDING. 



The yield of honey, strength of the colony, the season of the 

 year, and other circumstances have considerable influence, both 

 on the amount of brood reared and the time required for its de- 

 velopment. In this latitude, the average time from the laying if 

 2 



