18 i KEY. n. K. I'KKL — BEES AND BEE-KEEPIXG. 



met with in England. There are several varieties of solitary bees, 

 which lay one egg in a little chamber at the end of a tunnel which 

 they make in the ground, and store up with it a supply of pollen 

 gathered from flowers, to be the food of the grub when hatched. 

 There are, moreover, social bees, which live in families, such as 

 the humble-bee, of which alone there are eighteen varieties. These 

 make their nests in the ground, which proof of humility may have 

 something to do with their name, if it does not originate entirely 

 from the humming sound which the insect makes in its flight. 

 There are many points of resemblance between the ways of these 

 bees and those of the honey-bee. In all cases it is the female bee 

 which lays the egg or eggs and rears the young brood; it is the 

 female, also, which is armed with the sting, whilst the male bee 

 is born defenceless; but there is on the other hand this great 

 difference : as winter approaches the worker-bees of these families, 

 as well as the males, all die off, and the mother, or queen, as we 

 call her, does not attempt to pass the cold winter months in the 

 nest, M'hich she has constructed during the spring on the ground or 

 elsewhere ; but retires into the hollow of some tree or into the 

 thatch of some roof to remain in a torpid state until the return of 

 summer calls her to life again, when she commences her labour 

 anew. 



The queen-bee in one of our garden-hives acts very diff'erently 

 as the winter draws near. She has no intention of deserting the 

 combs which her daughters have constructed with such care during 

 the summer. A certain store of provision has been accumulated 

 and laid up in the cells, and on this she relies to stand the siege of 

 frost or snow. The worker-bees live on with her, but the drones 

 or male bees are not to be found in the hive during the winter. Just 

 as in the case of a beleaguei'ed fortress, the governor or commander, 

 before the enemy has entirely surrounded him, sends forth all 

 useless non-combatants, who will only consume the stores without 

 contributing to the defence ; so, when the flowers droop and die 

 down, and the days are shortening, and the winter commences the 

 siege of the hives, the females or workei'-bees give the drones 

 notice to quit. The queen in the words of Shakespeare "delivers 

 o'er to executors pale the lazy yawning drone." Out he must go; 

 driven from home to perish from starvation and cold. He will not 

 work, neither must he eat. If he resists, and refuses to go, he is 

 dragged out by force or pierced by the stings of his sisters. Now 

 it is seen why Nature has not armed the male bee with a sting, and 

 why the loss has made him powerless against the attacks of his 

 Amazonian sister. The drone might protest against this somewhat 

 cruel sentence, and refuse to leave the hive where he is not wanted. 

 One use, indeed the main use, of the sting given to the female is to 

 enable her to guard her nest or hive, and to protect it from foreign 

 invaders. In the summer the drone was taking his pleasure abroad 

 instead of doing the work at home, or defending it. And here, 

 perhaps, it may not be inappropriate to supply an answer to that 

 often asked question, do humble-bees sting ? Many persons are 



