The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1861-10-16
Honey Bees.
WHAT A SWARM CONSISTS or.

\ swarm Of Bees, in working order. con
si,ts of one queen, two or three hundred
dronls, and from ten 70 fifty thousand wur.
kers. The queen would more properly be
called the mother, as she is so, N fact, of all
the colony. The drones are the males; they
never work or fght--they are stin-leSs Tina
workers are imperfectly developed females.
The swarm, in the spring, consists Of g queen
| and about two thousand workers, and these
increase as soon as food can be prosiiei In
the Spring, enough to make new SWARM
which goes off led BY the old queen, while
NV one is provided for the old colony,
which also goes OF, sometimes, with another
! swarm; and occasionally third one is sent
off and finally the swarm remaining consists
OF about q, 900 bees All but two or three
thousand die off before spring, the life ofa bce
bciny ct!cll,tsi at on'y nins mo,;,s
queen bee is so distinguished from 9th.
er bees, By her shade size and color, that
when YOU have once learned how. you can
always distinguish her. So ycu can by Il o
noise she makes. A queen bee is larger than
a worker, but not as large around the body
as drone, though longer, and the rings OF
her abdomen are less fully developed, and
consequently not so plainly disceinable.--
In short, queen il more wasp like in her
form than dronc, and is of darker color,
particularly upon the back part Of the abdc-
men, while on its under side it is ola yellow.
ish hue. The wings Of the queen, in proper
ticn to her body as compared to either Of
the thers, are wider, stoutcr and shorter
She is seldom on the wing only at swarm.
ing time, and then she cohabits with the
males. II is supposed that she il always
impregnated during her fight and that i'm
pregnatlon during the fall. before the drones
are destroyed. serves for the eggs she will
Law in the spring. Those who have ma,lo
observations upon them, declare that queen
bee is capable of laying hundreds, pcrha,a
thousands Of eggs day.
Drones nre idle fellows, their only scrsi.
ces being attendanc, upon the queen Their
life is very short one-gererally from
April to August say four months None
are allowed to live over winter. You mus.
not mistake the slaughter of the drones for
war upon the other bee, wl..', Something's
occurs.
The workers are always br:y when yer it
is possible for them TO carry on t',eir labors.
They very often begin the very lour they
enter a new life to build comb, III tho sec.
ond day the pollen and honey ga,hcrers be-
gin to gather in their stores To work to
advantage they must have good house..
Sometimes, when swarm goes into hall
low tree the labor is immense, to clear OFT
and fit the room for use. So Il is when put
into mean, dirty hive. 1t requires great
deal of labor, sometimes, for the bees to stop
up the cracks Of an old hive with bce.glue,
substance gathered in the forest, ard not
made by the bees. il is harder and sitter
when dry than wax, and unlike it.
1t is estimated that full swarm Of bees
should weigh eleven to twelve pounds
Hence all excess over that is honey and
comb, so that the quantity can be ascertain
ed by weighing hive, if the weight Of
that IS known, as it always should b., and
marked upon it when new.