This section is from the book "A Living From Bees", by Frank C. Pellett. Also available from Amazon: A Living From Bees.
Many a time have I watched beside a busy hive and seen the bees dragging out the unfortunates who were no longer able to go to the field in search of nectar. In many cases the old bees seem to go forth voluntarily and to seek a secluded spot in which to die. One cannot but wonder what measure of consciousness the bee must possess and to what extent these workers who have fallen upon evil days are conscious of their fate. How hard must seem the lot of one who has spent a lifetime in stocking the storehouse of the community, only to be denied the warmth of the hive and the bit of food for a few hours or a few days at the end. To die of cold and hunger, after being driven out by those for whom she has labored seems like a bitter end.
It is this very trait that enables man to profit so much by the labor of the bees. Nothing is wasted in the economy of the hive. Food is only for the young and growing members of the community who will return it with usury to the common store. Man has invented hives which permit him to do what he will with the inmates. All the honey which they store beyond their own needs he takes for his own use. A knowledge of the behavior of the insects enables him to live by their labor.
The length of life of a worker bee depends upon the conditions under which she lives. The worker that emerges at the beginning of a good honeyflow expends her supply of energy within a few weeks and dies. A bee may be compared with a dry battery with so much stored up energy. When it is exhausted, nature has made no provision for restoring it as in the case of the higher animals. Worn tissue is not replaced and every hour of labor brings that much nearer her certain end. Probably the average length of life during the active summer season does not exceed six weeks. Young bees that appear in late summer when there is no honey to be gathered may live for six months or more and have a part in the beginning of the next season's labor. There is a heavy mortality in winter where hives are unprotected from the cold. To warm the hive the bees consume honey and develop heat by muscular activity. This, of course, consumes the life forces the same as does the field work. The beekeeper therefore profits greatly by proper protection from the winter winds.
It sometimes happens that a colony will lose their queen either by accident or old age. If young larvae less than three days of age are present in the hive a new one will be reared and no harm done. If she is lost at a time when no brood is present in the hive, the colony is doomed unless the beekeeper comes to the rescue and provides another. In such cases worker bees are likely to make the attempt to replace the lost queen. Some workers with ovaries more developed than others begin to lay. These are called fertile workers. Lacking a normal sexual development and being unmated, their efforts are in vain. However, a curious thing often happens for some of these imperfect eggs hatch. The offspring are always small and inferior appearing drones. No females appear and consequently the population of the colony rapidly diminishes until it is no longer able to defend its store. The honey is robbed out by stronger hives and the combs destroyed by the wax moth.
High arched cappings like rifle bullets indicate drone brood. These drones in worker cells are the result of laying workers in a queenless colony.
The population of the hive varies greatly at different times of the year. In early spring, after the vicissitudes of a long winter, the number of bees is often greatly reduced. In the height of the active season a strong colony will often have more than 50, 000 workers and the amount of honey stored during the harvest is surprising.
 
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