130 
Apiculture. 
BEE-KEEPING FOR EXTRACTED HONEY. 
By H. STEPHENS. 
Parr II. 
THE WORKER. 
Tue worker bee, as its name implies, does all the work in connection with the 
hive, and is a fine example of what united industry can accomplish. A worker 
bee hatches in about twenty-one days from the time that the egg was laid, 
and the first thing it does is to dip its tongue into a cell of unsealed honey, and 
- will begin to help feed the unsealed larve. When a week or ten days old, 
they will take their first flight outside and bring in their first load of pollen, and 
when a month old they are at their best as honey-gatherers. The average ag® 
of the worker bee is (during the summer) about three months, and att 
height of the honey season it is only six or eight weeks. The worker bee of 
neuter is an imperfect female, and in exceptional cases has the power of layimg 
eggs, as in the case of a fertile worker. It is also provided with a sting that 
is barbed like a fish-hook and prevents its withdrawal from the wound, and®# 
the other end is the bag that holds the poison which gives the unpleasant 
feeling when the sting is inserted. It is said that bee-stings are good tor 
rheumatics. The bee does not breathe out of its mouth, but by means © 
fourteen little openings called spiracles. ‘Ten of these are in the abdomen—five 
on each side, the other four being on the thorax—two on each side; so thatit§ 
bee is placed in a cup of water, even if its head be out, it will be drowned. 
In the worker bee, the proportion of the brain to the body is ;4, part; in the 
ant it is ;4;; and in man about -3,; the worker bee having the largest bral 
among the insects. 
ABOUT QUEENS. 
A queen bee is hatched from a worker egg in sixteen days from the time 
the egg was laid, and in a vertically suspended cell which is marked on the out 
side with miniature corrugations, something resembling a thimble. It may 
happen that a colony has no worker eggs or larve with which to raise a queet 
They will then attempt to rear one with drone eggs; but if the drone dies before 
it is hatched, or if the cell does hatch, it produces only a drone. ‘The bees 4 
not mark the sides of the cell that has a drone, but leave them smooth, so that 
it can be seen to be no good, and they provide another cell. After the quee? 
hatches out she has a taste of honey, and then looks for other queen-cells an 
destroys them ; or if another queen is hatched at the same time both will fight 
until one kills the other, except (as mentioned previously) in the case of after 
swarms. Then for the first week she is always travelling about the combs, a0 
at about the end of that time she will go outside and try her wings a little 
usually at the warmest part of the afternoon, and she is very careful in taking 
the bearings of the hive. After she is satisfied that she knows the place, 88? 
will fly right away, and in about half-an-hour, more or less, will return with te 
organs of the drone attached to her body, which are either absorbed or fall off. 
Then in about three days more, or on an average when about eight or te? 
days old, she will commence laying. 
