SUCCESSFUL BEE-KEEPING. 
A SWARM OF BEES,—OF WHAT IT CONSISTS. 
A prosperous colony of bees, in-the midst of the 
swarming season, consists of a single queen, from fifty 
to five hundred drones, and twenty thousand to fifty 
thousand workers. 
The Queen, if fertile, is the only perfectly 
developed female in the hive. She is the 
" mother of the whole colony, laying all the 
eges, producing queens, workers, and drones. 
She has six abdominal rings, while workers 
and drones have only five ; and she has over 
the thorax longitudinally a clearly defined 
line—a feature which the writer has never 
seen noticed by any author. 
q Drones are the male bees, and are of 
no use whatever, except to impregnate 
the young queens. This is done upon 
the wing, in the air, and within the 
first twenty-one days of the queen’s 
existence. 
The workers are undeveloped females ; and, 
unlike the queen, they are incapable of fertili- 
zation, by copulation with the drones ; yet 
are capable, under certain circumstances, of 
depositing eggs which will produce perfect 
3.—Worker. drones, differing in no respect from those 
