The Busy Bee. 201 



that gathers wisdom, changing form and habit of exist- 

 ence to fit environment. 



It is as certain as anything can be that at one time the 

 bee was simply male and female. The irresponsible male 

 buzzed about getting his own living, marrying and dying. 

 The responsible female not only got her own living, but 

 that of her children. Somehow, they came to see the ad- 

 vantage of communal effort, and, just as women say now, 

 " If you'll wash the dishes, I'll wipe 'em," one female 

 bee said to the others, " I'll be the mother, if you'll get 

 the living." It was a bargain, and they took the drones 

 to board. Somebody had to look out for them. The 

 queen of a beehive does not rule; she lays eggs. She 

 does not mind the babies. She does not even do her 

 own digesting, let alone getting the food. The attend- 

 ants that surround her are not continually bowing and 

 scraping and saying, ' Your Majesty : "; they are feeding 

 her with bee-milk, secreted by glands in their heads. It 

 is like the chyle poured into our blood, food so perfect 

 that the queen does not need to leave the hive from time 

 to time to keep it clean and sweet. She has to be fed 

 continually, for at certain periods she has the power of 

 producing from 2000 to 3000 eggs a day- -twice her own 

 weight four times, indeed, for more than half her weight 

 is eggs. In her lifetime a very prolific queen will lay 

 1,500,000 eggs. Put each of these little grains, one-four- 

 teenth of an inch long, end to end, and they will make a 

 line of a mile and three-quarters. 



She possesses the power of choosing which of her off- 

 spring shall be drones and which workers. Some have 

 thought that this was automatic, and that the narrower 

 worker cell touched the button, so to speak, that brought 

 forth a fertilized egg. But the queen will lay worker 

 eggs in drone cells if she thinks fit, so that settles that. 



