The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1883-04-20
A Few Facts About Bees.


necessity be based on correct knowledge
of the instincts and habits of bees.
Without going into the minute details
which q thorough naturalist would be
curious to master, there are certain
facts capable of being put into small
compass, with which it is absolutely
necessary every bee-keeper. should be
familiar. These we propose to state in
this article. a91"Ef - raH.
Bees are of three kinds. Every COM
plete hive or colony contains one queen.
a number of drones Che fewer the bet
teri, and a multitude of workers (the
more the merrier) TIE queen is the
only perfect female and lays all the eggs
from which all the other bees are pro-
duced. The, eggs are of two different
kinds. The one matches into drones
or male bees, while the 9TH
.er produces workers. These, how.
ever, are simply undeyeloped females,
and every worker-egg is capable, under
special treatment, of developing into 3
perfect female or queen. The special
treatment consists in building what, is
called a queen cell, a roomy, pendant
receptacle, somewhat resembling pea
nut, housing the egg or young larva
therein, and feeding it with peculiar
substance, known among bee-keepers
as "royal jelly" This food has the
effect of fully developing the young fe-
male, so that she comes upon the stage
of life fully qualified to increase and
multiply. Instinct impels bees to rear
queens when the colony becomes very
pOpulous and swarming time is at hand,
also at any time when the colony is de-
prived of its queen. Only one queer
with few exceptions) is required or al
lowed in hive at one time. Sometimes
a queen will wander into the wrong
hive; at other times bad weather pre-
vents swarming, though the prepare
Gons have been made for it, and in suck
cases queen slaughter is very apt to
take place, unless, as often happens, the
workers protect the young queens until
the weather is more favorable and cir
cumstances are more propitious for
swarming. Within few days after being
Matched, the young queen issues from the
hive on what is prettily called her
"bridal tour "-courtship, marriage and
impregnation being all accomplished on
the wing, during brief flight. Only
for this purpose does the queen ever
leave the hive, except when a swarm is
sues. One impregnation lasts for
lifetime. Before it occurs, strange tC
say, the queen has the power to lay
drone eggs; afterward she is capable OF
laying both drone and worker eggs. II
sometimes happens that queen fails tc
nof of fho frxv
fertilization. She then becomes drone-
layer, and with such queen colony il
doomed to extinction. This and other
facts in the natural history of the bee
show the utility of the movable frame
hive, which admits of examination, and
permits the bee-keeper, to remove .
drone-laying queen and give the wasting
colony q fertile queen or brood out Of
which to rear one. The queen bee lie
endowed with wonderful proiifcacy, and
when honey-forage is plentiful, instinct
impels her to put forth all her energies
in the direction of fecundity. 1t has
been ascertained by careful experiments
that fertile queen is capable Of laying
upward of two thousand eggs in . day.
Her prolificacy is regulated by the sup
ply of honey, and, hence, it is the
policy Of all good bee-keepers to feed in
early spring, so the colony will be ready
with strong force of young bees to
take advantage of the honey season.
when it comes.
The average lifetime of queen is
about three years; but they do not lay
so well the third year. Hthey are not
prolific the third year, we remove them
and replace them with q young, prolific
successor. Worker bees are short-lved,
not averaging more than six weeks IN
the busy season. Drones are also short
lived. They are reared in the spring,
when the. colony becomes strong and
the time approaches for swarmlngi and
when the honey season is over the
worker bees drive them out of the hive
or sting them to death.-C. +. Dodd, -
N. Y. Independent.