The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1897-01-28
Honey Bees,

Honey Bees.
ne queen honey bee is the motneE
~ tne swarm or colony, writes g. "
ssll in Rural World. The num lI
= Dees in colony varies accor'dlng
ne time Of year. In the height q g
re eeding season, say in the m %
. - : ullne, q large colony Of bees may con
eain nfty, and even sixty THOUSAND
workers., the progeny Of one mother
ps'e, called the queen. In the swarm
- season strong queen in her prlanie
VII VI lay from two to three THOUSAND u
eggs In twenty-four hours. AS M
cieulD1e as It may look to the unlnltl-
a ~ very prolific queen can lay ner
own Weight in eggs in a day. The sex
u y pee economy is the same as In other
ANIMALS. there is no such thing as
neuters among bees. The queen
lays best two kinds OF eggs. male and
female. The worker bees are unde-
yeloped females and the drones are the
males. The queen is highly developed
female. She is reared in a cell one
third OF an inch in diameter, and is
highly fed on royal jelly while in
the larval state: on the sixteenth day
from the laying Of the egg, she emer-
ges from her cell queen indeed.
When i've to seven days old she takes
her tlrst fight into the open air in
search OF mate. On the first day Of
her bridal trip she may take two
nisnts, and be absent two to five min
utes each time. On the following day,
= the observer will take his position
IN front Of the hive at o'clock p. M,
II VIII not be long till he sees a slight
commlot1on at the front Of the hive:
the Worker bees running excitedly
ABOUT the entrance; this warns him that
ner royal highness is making ready for
her wedding tour. On the previous
DAY her flights were in circles, her
mead all the while turned toward her
o'o'mlclle, but now she appears finely
lnnated and bravely dashes into space.
Inc observer keeps his eyes on her
TIL she passes out of sight, with watch
IN hand nd he counts the minutes. Il ten
OF twelve minutes expire and she de-
lays her coming, it may prove her
last trip, though she may return once
or twice in less time. On her final trip
she will be absent from 10 to % min
utes, and when she returns to the evil
dent JOY Of the bees who watch for her
return, she brings with her the visible
evidence of having mated From
that day she never leaves the hive, ex-
cept to go out with swarm, though
she may live and deposit eggs, two,
three or four years. owned one
queen Of the Italian race, a daughter
OF queen imported from Italy, that
lived four years and two months. !
clipped one of her pairs Of wings, so
that could identify her. I now clip
all my queens. This is done to prevent
the sWarms deserving at sWarming
time. The worker bees is produced
from the egg in 81 days. It requires
three days for the egg to hatch into a
minute % I'M larva (worm). The larya state
lasts about seven days, when the cell
is sealed Over by the nurse bees; then
follows the chrysalis or nymph state
/ the greatest Of ALI mysteries ID insect
life-and this Is followed by the per-
| feet fmago-the worker bee. The drone
is produced in his season, in % days
from the laying of the egg. Queen bees
live on the average about two and ohe-8
half years. Worker bees in the work
ing season, live about 60 days, but in
| state Of rest, as when in winter
months, and in some cases longer. It
is more difficult to ascertain the ma
tural life of the drones or male bees, as
the workers will not tolerate them aft
ter the sWarming season is past But
have kept them in queenless colonies,
and found that they will live two or
three months. It could never be
known to a certainty, how long bees
live under natural conditions, until
bees differing in color from our COM
mon black or brown bees were import
ed to this country. and the art Of in
producing one queen in the place OF
another was discovered. If we capture
and remove the queen from colony
Iof black bees and introduce queen of
one of the yellow varieties Italian.
Cyprian or Syrian in her place, it will
be found that the colony will be
changed to colony Of yellow bees in
shout two months from the time the
last of the progeny Of the black queen
matches out, nearly all the black bees
will die in that interval Of time.
The sheep Tick.
Everyone who has sheep knows the
tick, the worst pest Of this animal.
that does serious harm to the young
lambs without suspicion Of the cause
ord ,ie,E, =