The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1868-08-08
Bees.

Bees.
When colony of bees are about to swarm
if the inmates of the hive are examined vo,,
VIII ind three kinds of bees-the queen, tn.
drones and the workers.
QUEENS.
The queen reigns supreme and will not al
low rival. She is longer than the others.
has shorter wings and mouth or proboscis
too short for gathering honey, and has no
baskets ON her thighs for carrying pollen.
She is cons family attended by number or
workers, and fed with honey from their
mouths. She has larger sting but will suf-
Ter herself to be torn limb from limb without
Offering to use it, unless she comes in con.
tact with royal rival, for when two queens
meet they Immediately clinch and tustle un-
til one gets chance to sting the other and
the death of one ends the fray.
when the young queen first emerges from
her birth place she sallies forth on what is
called by the Germans her "wedding tour
where meeting with drone, she returns to
the hive, never again to leave it unless in
disgust she emerges with a swarm because
her subjects have thought proper to raise
another queen whom they will not suffer her
to approach or destroy. Then the old queen
leaves the hive, taking with her the most O,
the old btes Wherever she all ghts they will
custer, and even where in some cases being
disabled from flying she has started on foot
oy crawling along on the ground her path
may be discerned by a line of bees following
In the footsteps of their "illustrious prede.
cessor."
Their senses of sight and smell are very
keen, so much so that a stranger bee from,
another hive cannot ordinarily gain admit
tance, and it you catch the queen and hold
her in your hand for few moments and
then let her go and present your hand to the
bees they will gather on it.
WORKERS.
The workers are sma Her than the queen OF
drones and are females; really, undevelopel
queens. The same egg that matches worker
with proper care and food produce queen.
1t is singular fact that bees step asid,
from the usual laws of reproduction, for Will,
as general rule all insects reproduce thei
like, the bees cannot do it. The family dwin
| die away and become extinct if the queen anC
her eggs are removed. Some workers can la,
eggs but l think never when they have {
| queen, and workers egg always hatche.
drones.
| DRoNEs.
| The drones are the male bees, much large
than the workers, have no stings, gather nj
honey, and to all appearances are a useles!
race, yet one would think TO see them ON
pleasant day taking an airing in their Ion,
coats, by their pompous bearing and loud tall
that they were really the shack bone an,
muscle" of the hive. Why so many drone
are reared is still a mystery. The yirtuou
queen never uniting with but one of then
md that only once during her lite time. Sev
eral hundred and sometimes thousands ar
bred in single hive and it probably arise
rom the fact that they are not fully in stat
OF nature since they have been domesticateC
| In the spring the laborious little worker
| gather pollen and honey and rear the drone
wi h the greatest but it ilascarcty of he ne
appears and the bees abandon the idea {
swarming all their affections turn TO hat,
The drones are numerically driven from th
hive, their wings bitten, and they tumbl
headlong from the alighting board, even tn
little limo ;eDts yet unfedged dragged iron
their cells and relentlessly thrust from tn
hive.
The cells ofthe comb are of two sizes, work
er and drone cells. The queen deposits he
eggs in eacb but ,ohy the small cell will prc
duce females and larger ones males l think
still amystery-but knowledge of this fac
combined with the movable frame hive wi
enable the aparian to prevent the excess c
drones,as he can open his hives and cut ou
the drone comb, and thus prevent the real
ing OF a worse than useless surplus OF drOne
REARING QUEENS.
Deprive hive of its queen while there al
eggs in the comb and they will generally in
few hours prepare for raising another que,s
by cutting out the partition and letting thr,
cells into one, removing all but one egg an
making queen cell, but for fear some mi