THE YOUNG NATUEALIST. 



143 



necessary, Fertilization is never effected within the hive. Young queens 

 and drones have great power of flight, in proof of which I may mention that 

 when I introduced the Italian bees to the Holy Loch, the hives with black 

 bees on the Kilmun side were soon filled with them, and a namesake of mine 

 who lived at Kilmun had hybrids the following year. Drones are usually 

 killed so soon as honey gathering ceases, but I have seen on a wet day in 

 J uly, before honey gathering had ceased, the young drones drawn out of their 

 cells and massacred without mercy, though I have also had them in my hives 

 in November. Supposing them to be hatched about May, this gives them a 

 life of about six months. Their fate seems a sad one, but it seems to be 

 the inexorable law of nature. It would appear that drones soon spy out a 

 young queen as she is circling in the air, and procure the meeting of the two 

 insects, which takes place while they are on the wing, when the two may be 

 observed whirling towards the ground, but it is difficult to say how fertiliza- 

 tion is accomplished, though one thing is certain, viz. — that the organ of the 

 drone is so firmly implanted in the body of the queen, that it is torn from his 

 body with all its attachments, and some writers declare that he dies as if 

 struck by lightning, but I am inclined to believe that he has power to crawl 

 about after he reaches the ground, before he dies. One thing is certain that 

 once fertilized, the queen during her life, which may be three years, remains so. 



WORKERS. 



Worker bees and the queen, for the major part of the year are the only 

 occupants of the hive. The workers, also called neuters, are undeveloped 

 females, and a hive may contain from 6,000 to 50,000, according to the 

 season and system of management. They are the smallest bees in the hive, 

 and have very long tongues to enable them to suck out the secretions of 

 flowers and blossoms. They are also furnished with baskets on the thighs of 

 their hindermost pair of legs, to enable them to carry home the pollen they 

 collect from the stamens of flowers. Honey and pollen are prepared by the 

 workers into a pulp commonly called " bee bread " for the food of the larvae, 

 and it is placed round them at the bottom of the cell which is sealed about 

 the 10th day, and about the 20th or 21st the young bee comes to maturity. 

 The worker bee also secretes wax from saccharine substances, and the 

 scales are produced by the wax glands, of which there are eight, situated 

 beneath the abdominal segments. This is wrought between the mandibles 

 and used in making cells for the brood and storage of honey. There are 

 about five worker cells and four drone cells to the lineal inch, but while they 

 do not adhere to a uniform size of cell they keep a uniform distance from 

 centre to centre, viz. — 1£ inches, unless when storing honey when I have 



