Weight Of Bees

An in teresting note about the weight of boes .ippears in an American jonrnal devotêd to agricultura, says .Dr. Andrew Wüson. It seems that an ordinary bee, not carrying any load of pollen, weighs tlie one five-thousandth of a pound. Five thousand bees thus make up a pound weight. When, however, the bce is carrying1 his load of pollen or honey. as he retiirns from foraging araid the flovvers. his wcight is increased nearly three timss. He carries thus about twice his own vveight, a resiilt not surprising to those who have studied the muscular powers and ways of insects at large. When bees are loaded it rcquires only eighteen hundred of them to make up the pound. Details are also given regarding the nnmber of bees which may exist in a hive. From pound tsi flve-poTlD(l weight of bees are found in an ordinary colony. This means in figures of population F.ome twenty thousand to twenty-live thousand individuals. A big swarm, it is said, (vill of teo doublé this estimate. Talking of bees, if any of my readers wish to indulge in a very curious and fascina ting1 bit of zoolo.ical stildy they sbould read the story of what is called "parthenoffenesis' in bees and other insects, such as the apludes or green flies of the roses and other plants. For such eggs of the queen bee as are fertilized when laid turn out workers (or neuters) or queens, while those which are not fertilized at all develop into males or drones. This is very singular, because fertilization of an egg or seed is regarded ordinarily as necessary for its dne development. I know of nothing more extraordinary than the story biology has to teil regfarding this curious of animal development.