6 
before hatching, forming a queenless hive, or, feed 
the bees regularly when they are not storing 
hont y. 
There are three classes of bees, one of males and 
two of females. The males are called drones, the 
fully developed females queens, and the balance 
workers, etc. The drones are the largest, the 
queens the longest, and the workers the smallest. 
The drones have no stings, and are helpless and 
defenceless and, like the workers, are short iiyed. 
The worker bees never copulate, but in queenless 
hives they often lay eggs and rear drones. All 
drones are produced from unimpregnated eggs. 
Impregnated eggs produce either queens or work¬ 
ers, that depending upon the manner in which they 
are reared. From the time the eggs are laid queens 
usually hatch on the sixteenth day, workers in 
twenty-one, and drones in twenty-four days. Queens 
when not confined copulate in the open air, 
and within a few weeks after hatching. Their 
eggs are not impregnated at the time of copula¬ 
tion, but at the time of being laid, when passing 
from the ovaries to the ovipositor through the ovi¬ 
duct, to which is connected the sac called the 
spermatheea? containing the male properties of fe¬ 
cundation. Eggs laid in drone cells are never im¬ 
pregnated. Some queens never copulate, and oth¬ 
ers become barren when old, and in either case 
their eggs produce only drones. Queens generally 
commence laying eggs between one and two weeks 
after hatching, and about two days after copulation, 
the time varying somewhat with the weather, etc. 
They seem to be deadly enemies to each other, and 
but one queen can remain long in the same hive 
unless confined, or their stings cropped. They will 
