BEE-KEEPING. 27 



tion of the then scientific men to the wonderful economy of the 

 "Bee Nation," there were some wonderful flights of conception 

 written. What could not be discovered by actual observation was 

 filled in by imaginary facts. If Aristomachus spent fifty-eight 

 years of his life, and Philiscus the whole of his, in the woods in 

 attempting to unravel the hidden mysteries of bees "at home and 

 abroad," what is there to wonder at that the big bee that was 

 sometimes found in a swarm should be regarded as "the king" of 

 that swarm, or a hive or nest of bees as governed by laws as un- 

 alterable as those of the Medes and Persians. In no sense are beea 

 royalists. The so-called queen before her marital flight is not 

 even noticed by the other members of the household. She is one 

 of them. The working-bees pass her with indifference. Those 

 feeding her are supposed royal suite of attendants. In 

 her maidenly days the bees do not take the trouble to feed or even 

 offer her food, but when the queen's maternity arrives they are 

 most solicitous in offering it to her. They follow her wherever she 

 goes, always anxiously anticipating her every want. If in the days 

 of her maidenhood her stomach be microscopically examined no 

 chyle food that has been siipplied by the workers will be found 

 therein. Undigested pollen-grains in numbers are always there — 

 nourishment that she has obtained direct from the cells. It is not 

 till she is about to become a mother that she is "carefully watched 

 and tended" by the other inmates, and the attentions they then 

 bestow upon her are not those of courtiers to royalty, but for 

 economical reasons. During the queen's laying period she has not 

 even time for her food to digest to form egg-matter. Her time is 

 wholly taken up in her maternal duties. Bees are not even repub- 

 licans. The queen (custom compels me to use the term) is in no 

 way chosen by the citizens. "Mother-bee" is the term used by 

 German bee-keepers, and it is far more expressive than that of 

 queen. She is destined to be the mother-bee from the laying of the 



egg- 



As our families are composed of a father, mother, and sons 

 and daughters, so a colony of bees is similarly constituted ; but 

 with this difference : the mother-bee is always a widow, and is such 

 immediately after the consummation of the matrimonial ceremony. 

 Tlie brood in the hive, both drones and workers, are always post- 

 humous children. — i.e. have no father. 



The mother-bee is a perfect and cumphfe female, and is the 

 only female that is so complete and perfect in a hive. In these 

 characteristics she differs from a working-bee the latter is perfect. 



