. Langstroth on the hive and honey-bee. Bees. THE WOEKEK-BEE. 67 intelligence almost if not quite akin to reason; and we have sometimes queried, whether the workers who are so fond of a tit-bit in the shape of a newly-laid egg ever experienced a struggle between appetite and duty; so that they must practice self-denial to refrain from breakfasting on the eggs so temptuigly deposited in the cells. 157. It is well known to breeders of poultry, that the fertility of a hen decreases with age, until at length she may become entirely barren. By the same law, the fecundity of the queen-bee ordinarily
. Langstroth on the hive and honey-bee. Bees. THE WOEKEK-BEE. 67 intelligence almost if not quite akin to reason; and we have sometimes queried, whether the workers who are so fond of a tit-bit in the shape of a newly-laid egg ever experienced a struggle between appetite and duty; so that they must practice self-denial to refrain from breakfasting on the eggs so temptuigly deposited in the cells. 157. It is well known to breeders of poultry, that the fertility of a hen decreases with age, until at length she may become entirely barren. By the same law, the fecundity of the queen-bee ordinarily diminishes after she has entered her third year. An old queen sometimes ceases to lay worker- eggs; the contents of her spermatheca becoming exhausted, the eggs are no longer impregnated, and produce only drones. The queen-bee usually dies of old age in her fourth year, although she has been known to live longer. There is great advantage, therefore, in hives which allow her, when she' has passed the period of her greatest fertility, to be easily re- moved. The Worker-Bee. 158. The workers are the smallest inhabitants of a bee- hive, a^d compose the bulk of the pop- ulation. A good swarm ought to contain at least 20,000; and in large hives, strong colonies, which are not reduced by swarm- ing, frequently number three or four times as many during the height of the breeding season. p's- 25. 159. Their functions are varied. The young bees work inside of the hive, prepare and distribute the food to the larvse, take care of the queen, by brushing her with their tongues, nurse her, maintain the heat of the hive, or renew the air and evaporate the newly-gathered honey (319), by ventilating (261, 366). They clean the hive of dirt or. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original Langstroth, L. L. (Lorenzo Lorraine
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Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectbees, bookyear1909
