The study of beekeeping naturally begins with the life history and habits of the queen bee. If a chain is no stronger than its weakest link then a colony of bees is no better than its queen. So I will begin by setting down a few basic facts which form the very essence of the study and around which all the less vital features naturally group themselves. With these fundamental facts and their proper relation to each other fixed in your mind you will find the other whys and wherefores as you encounter them one by one dropping into their proper place in an interesting logical sort of way, thus giving a natural coherence to the entire subject which becomes more fascinating as the study progresses.

The queen is the only reproducing female in the colony. She is the sole egg producer, receiving no aid in the discharge of this function from the other members. Therefore, generally speaking upon the character and prolifiicness of its queen depends the strength and vigor of the colony. This is not only true in point of numbers but in all other characteristics as well. In the vernacular of beekeeping a "cross queen ' means a queen whose bees are especially vicious.

The queen normally lives two or three years during which time she produces upwards of a half million eggs. She lays both male and female eggs apparently laying each gender at will. The bee passes through three stages during incubation, the egg, the larvae, and the pupa. The male egg produces the drone. From the female egg comes the queen and worker bees. Thus from two kinds of eggs we have three distinct types of bees. Let us see how nature accomplishes this marvel. First it must be understood that the workers are non-producing females. Their reproductive organs are negative occuring only in microscopic outline and are without function while, their honey gathering and secreting organs and defensive instinct are fully developed. Now in the case of the queen the very opposite is true. Her reproductive function is positive and the honey gathering organs are negative. This wide difference in development takes place during the incubation period. It is due to the difference in shape, size, and position of the respective cells in which the eggs are laid also to the difference in the quantity and quality of food supplied by the nurse bees. The eggs intended to produce worker bees are laid in worker cells which are the ordinary cells of the honey comb. Now a queen cell is much larger being about the size of an acorn and has a downward falling position. The queen larvae is fed much more lavishly than the worker larvae with a white, creamy substance called royal jelly. The result is that the larvae incubated in a queen cell will emerge a fully developed virgin queen in fourteen days 'time as against twenty-one days required to produce a worker bee from a worker cell. Both are from the same kind or gender of egg. On this point there is not the slightest doubt. The proof is found in the case of a colony that suddenly loses its queen. The colony is said to be queenless. The workers select a number of worker larvae, a half dozen or more, around which they will build queen cells, cutting away the adjoining comb to provide room. The result is that the larvae which ordinarily would have become a worker is now transformed into a queen bee. The first queen to emerge immediately goes about destroying all the remaining queen cells in the hive. If two or more emerge about the same time a battle royal follows. The strongest survives and she will tolerate no other rival in the hive. If weather conditions are favorable the young queen mates when she is about seven days old. The mating takes place on the wing, never in confinement. The queen mates normally but once. There is no doubt on this point.

A purely mated Italian queen will produce pure Italian bees year after year even though she is removed and kept in a country where no bees of her race are to be found.

The sole function of the drone seems to be to act in the male capacity in mating the queen. This as already observed takes place but once, the drone dying instantly. The spermatozoa thus deposited with the queen is absorbed by an organ located in her abdomen where it retains its vitality indefinitely. From this supply of spermatozoa each female egg is fertilized as it is laid. Drone eggs are supposed to be laid without fertilization and therefore the drone may be said to have but one parent. This is borne out by the fact that the drone always resembles his mother irrespective of her mating while the workers resemble both parents. It is now generally conceded that the difference between the female and male egg is that one is fertilized and the other is not. The drone egg is laid in the drone cells which are somewhat larger than the worker cells.

Drones are only raised during the active season and disappear with the approach of winter. The drone has no means of gathering nectar and would starve to death were it not for the stores brought in by the workers. Notwithstanding all this, a colony, if not restricted, will produce thousands upon thousands of these apparently almost useless members. They are much larger than either worker or queen. Their production and maintenance must amount to a considerable drain upon the resources of the hive. Many and novel are the explanations advanced to account for this apparent inconsistency to the otherwise rigid economy of the colony but they are all inconclusive. Queens seem to mate quite as successfully when but one or two colonies in a large apiary are casting drones as when hundreds of thousands are available. Certain it is that the workers do not hesitate to exclude them from the stores or even banish them from the hive when nectar becomes scarce and conservation becomes necessary.

Drone production can be reduced to a minimum by eliminating drone comb by the exclusive use of worker comb foundation. The drone cell measures three to the inch, the worker cell five to the inch. Normal queens will not lay drone eggs in worker cells. When full sheets of foundation are used a few drone cells will be stuck around the edge of the combs but 99 per cent of the normal drone production will be eliminated. The colony seems to prosper as well or better without them as with them.

From the foregoing it will be seen that the bee hive is a female suffrage lay-out from the start to finish. It works surprisingly well. I hear some fair beekeeper exclaim, "Well, the very idea! I fail to see anything surprising in that! "