486 
ILLUSTRATED STOCK DOCTOR. 
The one duty of the queen is to lay eggs, and the number she will produce^ 
if a good layer, is truly astonishing. Two or three thousand eggs per day 
.will be laid by such a queen, and an extra fertile one will lay three thousand 
or more in a single day. Hence a hive will increase in population very 
rapidly during the working season. At such a time many bees arc lost while 
out foraging, moreover they are short-lived insects, so that the hive needs 
constant and quick replenishment. A worker usually lives but a few weeks or 
at most months, while the average life-time of a queen is about three years. 
Drones are usually found in the hive from May to November, though it is 
the custom of the workers to kill them off early in the summer. 
PRODUCTS OF BEES. 
Bees gather honey, an article too well known to require description. They 
also manufacture wax out of which the cells are made, and which forms the 
bees- wax of commerce. They collect pollen or bee-bread, which forms the 
staple food of young bees. A substance called propolis or bee-glue is gathered 
by the bees. It is the product of various resinous buds, is soft and plastic 
when warm, but hard and very adhesive when cold. It is used by the bees to 
fasten the combs to their supports, to fill up all crevices and rough places 
inside the hive, or to cover foreign substances which cannot be removed. 
The above is only a meagre sketch of the natural history, characteristics, 
and functions of bees, but it must suffice by way of introduction to some 
brief remarks and directions about 
BEE MANAGEMENT. 
Bee-keeping takes rank among the lesser economies of the farm. In Great 
Britain a farm would not be thought properly stocked unless it had a few 
hives of bees upon it. This is doubtless the correct view j but keeping bees 
is engaged in by many persons as an independent pursuit. Skillfully man- 
aged, it is found to be a fairly remunerative business, and, with special 
talent and application, may properly be regarded as a money-making affairJ 
There are men on the continent of America who have amassed respectable 
fortunes out of it. Bees may be kept on a small scale by others besides 
farmers. On a small town or village lot, a few hives well-cared for, may be 
made a source of much pleasure and profit. A vast amount of national 
wealth is being lost through neglect of bee-keeping. It is a suitable avocation 
for women, many of whom are now engaged in it, and some of them rank 
among the best apiarians of the age. 
OLD AND NEW STYLE BEE-KEEPING. 
Until of late years, bee-keeping was a very crude affair. It was usually 
carried on with straw or box hives, to the interior of which the bee-keepet 
