Am  NJ0°vuri884,arm- }        Bee-keeping  Industry  of  America.  589 
working  bees.  Upon  the  workers  devolve  all  the  labor  of  building 
comb,  collecting  the  honey  and  feeding  the  queen  and  brood.  Their 
average  age  varies  from  a  few  weeks  in  summer  to  from  six  to  nine 
months  during  the  remainder  of  the  year.  The  queen's  average  age  is 
from  three  to  four  years,  and  should  her  death  occur  the  workers  con- 
struct large  cells,  supplying  them  with  what  is  described  as  "  royal 
jelly,"  so  that  the  eggs  or  larvae  that  otherwise  would  have  produced 
worker  bees  are  developed  into  queens.  Only  one  queen  is  allowed  to 
remain  in  each  hive.  The  queen  usually  leaves  the  hive  when  about 
five  days  old  to  meet  the  drones  in  the  air  for  fertilization,  which 
being  accomplished,  serves  her  for  life,  as  she  seldom  afterwards  leaves 
the  hive,  excepting  in  company  with  her  first  swarm. 
The  average  time  from  the  laying  of  the  egg  to  the  appearance  of 
the  perfect  insect  is  for  the  queen  sixteen,  for  the  worker  twenty-one, 
and  for  the  drone  twenty-four  days  respectively.  The  cells  in  which 
the  workers  are  reared  are  the  smallest  in  size ;  those  for  the  drones 
nearly  one-third  larger,  and  for  the  queen  still  larger  and  of  peculiar 
form,  requiring  as  much  material  for  their  construction  as  fifty  worker 
cells.  In  strong  colonies,  having  plenty  of  stores,  the  queen  will  often 
deposit  eggs  during  every  month  in  the  year,  the  least  brood  being 
during  the  three  winter  months.  On  the  approach  of  spring  an  increase 
of  brood  rapidly  sets  in,  and  the  bee-keepers  prepare  for  their  annual 
harvest  of  swarms  and  surplus  honey.  From  three  to  ten  queen  cells 
are  generally  constructed  in  each  hive,  and  in  about  eight  days  after 
the  first  queen  leaves  with  the  first  swarm  the  next  queen  is  ready  to 
emerge  from  her  cell. 
An  important  feature  in  connection  with  the  movable  comb  system 
of  bee  management  consists  in  the  old  chance  method  of  swarming 
being  supplanted  by  what  is  called  artificial  swarming.  Instead  of  the 
bees  being  left  to  sw^arm  naturally,  with  the  risk  of  being  lost,  the 
swarming  is  conducted  at  the  will  of  the  operator  by  the  removal  of 
the  queen  to  a  new  hive,  where  she  is  followed  in  a  most  docile  manner 
by  the  swarming  bees.  Another  important  advantage  that  the  new 
system  of  bee-keeping  affords  consists  in  what  is  called  nucleous  swarm- 
ing, by  which  a  queen  is  reared  amid  a  small  cluster  of  bees  in  a  separate 
hive  until  she  matures  and  becomes  fertilized,  when  the  hive  that  is  to 
be  swarmed  is  shifted,  and  the  nucleous  hive  put  in  its  place.  In  this 
way  the  surplus  bees  from  the  shifted  hive  go  out  as  usual,  to  their 
work  of  honey  gathering,  and  according  to  the  law  which  directs  them 
