SOCIAL LIFE 



73 



CHAPTER V 

 SOCIAL LIFE 



For where 's the state beneath the firmament, 

 That doth excel the bees for government ? 



Du Bartas. 



So work the honey-bees, 

 Creatures that by a rule in Nature teach 

 The act of order to a peopled kingdom. 



Shakespeare. 



* f 

 *+- 



ITIIIN reach of almost every school- 

 house in the land then 1 exists a 

 colony of bees. Every school-In v 



t/ / i' 



and school-^irl knows the honey- 

 bee, and many of them have be- 

 come familiar by experience with 

 some of its traits. The busy bee has method in its 

 business, and its mode of life is worthy of our careful 

 study. 



The Colony. A colony, hive or household, consists of 

 from twenty-five thousand to thirty-five thousand worker 

 bees, a few hundred drones, and a queen. The greatest 

 number of bees are present in the hive during the 

 honey-gathering season, when their services are must 

 needed, and the least number of bees will be found in 

 the hive during the winter months, when the fewer the 

 mouths there are to feed, the longer will last the food. 

 It frequently happens that during the honey season 

 the number exceeds thirty-five thousand, and in the 



