The Western news. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1933-current, 1941-10-16

out WHEN his SERVICES diU ho nv
needed
If the queen does not rule or boss,
what does she do? She lays the
eggs, one or two thousand day,
and If she falls down on the job she,
too, is kicked out and another takes
her place. The slogan is efficiency.
II you don't work or can't work,
keep up your end of the job IN
that bee city, you shall not eat and
so the halt, lame ana inefficient
most die that others may live; and
SO the slaughter of the innocents
goes on. This, in short, is the po-
litical economy of the bee city. In
some respects it may be emulated
by man. In others, it is too cruel
and heartless. Man wouldn't stand
for it, but he will receive a dole,
even though in many cases able to
! work.
Interesting Facts About Bees
There are from 10000 to $4,000
inmates in the bee city known as
colony"
The Queen
| Normally there is but one. queen
bee in a colony or city.
AS rule, two queens do not
get along peacefully in the same
city at the same time One usually
kills the other.
Queen mother and queen daugh-
ter may, however, live peaceably
together for some weeks, but moth
er-in-law and daughter-in-law
never.
When two queen bees start fight
ing, they not only try to sting each
other, but they will pull each 9TH
er's hair in real women fashion.
The queen stings only rival queen.
| A queen bee can lay her own
weight Of eggs, in one day. She will
lay, in the first two months in the
spring, from 300 to 1000 eggs in a
day; and in the next month. or
just before the main hnoney flow,
she may lay 1000 eggs day. She
can be the mother Of 100,0 900 work
ers (undeveloped females) in one
beehive. II the old bees did not
die off at the age Of a month or
six weeks in the height Of the honey
flow, she might have twice that
number
| The same egg that will produce
a queen will produce a worker-bee
in 81 days. The larva OF the work
er bee is fed q coarser food by the
nurse bees in the hive and for that
reason it is not developed into a
perfect female like the queen and
not SO quickly In this Way the bees
can Of their own will produce either
a queen bee or q worker-bee from
one and the same egg.
The Workers
The life OF worker-bee in the
Northern States, where the winters
are cold, may be six or eight
months, extending over the less
active season Of the year-fall, win
/ ter and early spring. But q worker
fbee Matched just at the honey gath
ering season in the summer is like
/ ly to wear out its wings and life
in a few weeks in the intense work
of filling the hive with honey. It
often falls exhausted outside the
hive and there dies. If it does not
leave the hive, the younger bees
push it out Of the hive as Of no
further use. If the old bees at
tempt to 60 back, the young ones
without gratitude or conscience,
pick them up, carry them on the
wing perhaps half mile and drop
them. They can't walk back. They
can't fly back, and SO they die.
The bees that gather the surplus
crop of honey do not eat it, The
bees that eat it did not gather it
because the generations change 50
rapidly. But the colony lives on.
The same rule applies in the hui
man family. .
| The Drones
A drone. which is the male bee,
has no father; but, strange to say,
he always has a grandfather Ia ma
ternl grandfather). The queen bee
lays an unfertiized egg to produce
a drone-a clear case of partheno-
geneses, or virgin birth.
The drone bee is not permitted by
the worker-bee ever to live more
than one summer season He dies
after mating with the queen, or Is
driven out of the city or killed by
the worker-bees at the close of the
honey gathering season to save
boarding him. He is a happy loaf
err, never working, always fed BY
others, regular man about town,
until fall comes-and then suddenly
nobody cares for father.
The drones are always killed Of
or starved by the bees themselve.
after the main honey flow unles!
the hive is queenless or has an I'm
mated queen.
Bees To Garry \ Pound Of Honey
| Actual weighings have shown
that it takes about 20, COO bees 4
bring in pound OF nectar, which
will make about one-fourth as mucl
honey. It would, therefore, take 90,
600 bees to bring in enough nectar
when evaporated and modified b.
bees to equal pound of honey
1t has been estimated that it take
10000 more bees to evaporate an.
modify four pounds of nectar int
honey. According to these figures
it takes 10000 bees to gather AM