A SWARM of bees contains _one_ Queen, thousands of workers and in the summer season a limited number of drones. The queen is the only fully developed female in the swarm. She never leaves the hive except on two occasions--when leading a swarm, and when but a few days old, to meet the drone, or male bee, in the air, for the purpose of fecundation. It appears from close observation that only one impregnation is operative during life, as old queens have never been known to leave the hive for that purpose. The natural life of the queen averages from four to six years. Queens sometimes become entirely barren before death; at other times the eggs of old queens are found to produce only drones. No…
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