Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1871-06-17
OLYMPIA WASHINGTON TERRITORY SATURDAY MORNING. JUNE IT, 1871
Facts About the Honey Bee.

dCIS ABDUL inc money bces
There are three classes of bees in hive
the worker, queen and drone.
Queens are raised by peculiar food and
treatment from eggs that would otherwise
produce workers.
The worker is an undcveloped female.
Workers, in the absence of the queen,
sometimes lay eggs. These invariably
produce drones.
The queen lives from two to FIVE years.
The worker from two to three months in
the working season, and from six to eight
during the season of rest.
The queen is perfected in fifteen or six.
teen days from the egg, the worker in
twenty to twenty one, and the drone in
ty-four.
The queen usually commences laying
from two to three thousand eggs in a day.
The impregnation Of the queen always
takes place outside the hive, on the wing,
aud generally the fourth or fifth day after
leaving the cell. Excepting in rare cases,
one impregnatiou answers for life. The
drone she has mated with dies immediate.
ly.
The eggs of an unimpreguated queen
produces nothing but drones and it is
generally conceded that impregnatiou does
not affect the drone progeny; consequent
ly, the male progeny of pure Italian
queen is pure without regard to the drone
she has mated with.
The queen aud worker are provided
with stings but while the latter will use
it upon any provocation, the former will
only use it on her own rank. The drones
have no sting.
One queen, as a rule, is all that is tol-
Grated in hive; but previous to throw
ing off " after swarms," two or more queens
are permitted in the same hive for short
time; but the extra ones are disposed Of
In case of superseding a queen, the old
one is preserved until the new one is fitted
to take the place. Queens have o deadly
hatred for each other, and will destroy, if
permitted, all queen larvae or cell in the
hive, and will fight each other until there
is but one living one left.
Bees gather three kinds Of products ;
Propolis, from the gum trees and shrubs,
for fastening the joints and cracks Of their
hives; pollen, or bee bread, from flowers.
for feeding their young and themselves ;
and honey, which constitutes the main
food Of the hive. Water is also carried
into the hive during the breeding season,
for mixing with the food for their young !;
salt is also made uso Of for the same pur-
pose.
Wax, like fat, is an animal product and
is secreted by the bees in thin scales from
tho underside of the body. While doing
this, they consume large quantities of
honey-from fifteen to twenty pounds for
every pound of wax secreted.
A frightened bee, or one filed with
honey, is not disposed to sting.
"A good swarm contains about twenty
thousand bees.
A strong or medium hive, with good
laying queen, is never seriously troubled
with the moth worm; but hive without
a queen or means of raising one is sure
to be taken by them.
Bees recognize each other by their
scent.
The first one or two weeks of the young
bees life is spent inside the hive, as
nurse of a wax worker.
The range of bees fight for food is
generally within two or three miles; much
greater range is but of little benefit to
them.