The Social honeybees and the bumblebees, constituting the varieties which have developed a highly complex communal life, are described by L. O. Howard in the fol lowing words: °Each species is composed Of three classes of individuals—males, females and neuters. They have the power of secreting wax, from which their cells are made and the larvm are fed from time to time by the work ers. The outer side of the dilated tibim is smooth and in the workers is hollowed into a shilling plate for carrying pollen, which is collected by means of the pollen brushes on the basal joint of the hind tarsi. As a general thing the body is covered with hair? Of the two families constituting the social bees the bumblebees are the lower, who build their hives underground. Unlace the bumblebees, the honeybees form permanent colonies, storing food for consumption during the winter. The population of one conununity may sometimes number many thousands. In a wild state they usually build their hives in hollow trees or even in openyiew among the branches. When their propensity to store food, in the form of honey, was first talcen advantage of by man is not known, for there are records of bee-keeping among the early Egyptians and certainly it was an active industry among the Greelcs.
The Keeping of During the long period in winch the honeybees have been semi domesticated, or adapted to the needs of men, several varieties of them have been developed. It is not uncommon for an artificial hive to hold a bee population of 50,000 individuals. These communities are divided into three classes: the drones, or male bees, compara tively few in number; a single individual, a fully developed female, who performs the func tions of a communal mother, laying an unlim ited number of eggs after only one act of fer tilization, commonly called the °queen)); and third, forming the great bulk of the hive's pop ulation, the workers, who perform all the labors necessary to the maintenance of the community. Though also known as aneuters,2 they are in fact females whose generative organs are atrophied, though occasionally some of them will lay eggs.
The Queen A few days after she has emerged from her cell, and if the weather is fine, the queen bee makes her first and only exit from the hive, except when the period of swarming arrives. She stands for a few moments at the entrance of the hive, then, with a buzz, flies rapidly upward, followed by the drones, or males. High up in the air the sexual union between the queen and the swiftest and strongest of the male bees takes place. Hardly has the act been consummated when the father of the coming generation falls back dead in mid-air and drops to the earth, his mission ful filled. Having been fertilized, the queen re turns to the hive and shortly begins the laying of her eggs, sometimes as many as 3,000 or even 4,000 a day. Meanwhile, the other males are quickly killed off by the workers. On her return to the hive the queen is immediately surrounded by from 12 to 15 of the workers who act as her personal attendants, feeding, cleaning and otherwise attending to all her wants, that she may devote all her energies to the important functions of motherhood.
The Eggs.—The queen now begins depos iting her eggs in the waxen walled cells of the comb, of a bluish color and about one-twelfth of an inch in length. Some authorities contend that she can, at will, lay eggs which will hatch out workers or drones, while others are of the opinion that this depends on the lcind of food fed by the workers. At any rate, the cells for the eggs of queen bees, workers and drones differ, but never does the mother bee make a mistake in the lcind of egg that each cell de mands. In about three days the eggs hatch out and the worm-like larvm appear. For five days they are carefully fed by the attending workers. At the end of that period they have grown so large as to completely fill their cells, whereupon they refuse further nourishment and the workers immediately seal them up in their cells. The little larva then spins itself into a silken covering or cocoon and trans forms itself into a pupa. Thirteen days later the pupa breaks forth from its cell and emerges a perfect bee. Immediately it is waited upon by the attending workers and for several days, until it makes its first flight, it is fed by its nurses. Meanwhile its cell is thoroughly cleaned out and the queen, making her rounds, deposits another egg in it. The cell in which the coming queen is developing is larger than the others and oval in shape. On nearing ma turity the mother makes repeated attempts to break it open, to destroy her coming rival, but the attending workers of her retinue crowd around her and thus protect the royal infant.
Swarming.— As the population of the hive increases the queen bee becomes restless, and this growing agitation extends itself to the workers throughout the hive. Then, one fine day, the queen rushes forth, as she has done only once before, the centre of the swarming buzzing colony, which throngs out after her. Not far off, on some hanging bough of a the, she settles and all the swarm settle on her or on each other, hanging in a long, thick bunch. It is then that the experienced apiarist intro duces the swarming bees into their new hive, where they establish themselves anew. Mean while the young left in the old hive continue the routine of the communal life in their turn. Before many weeks there is a swarming from the newer generation; often there may be three .or four swarms in one season from the one hive.
Wintering.— When cold weather begins, the life of the bee community begins to sub side, the steady hum which can be heard throughout the summer from within dies down and the individuals become iluggish and dull. When the first frosts come they find the bees in a state of semi-hibernation, though not so deep but what they can readily be awakened. A slight jar to the hive, and the low murmur rises and a thermometer placed at the entrance would indicate a steady rise in temperature. During these winter months the life of the hive is in a state of suspension, though occa sionally the queen has been lanown to lay eggs in this period. For other varieties of bees see