One's Own Back Door-yard 179 



honey. So all the honey that we get is partly 

 digested, and that is why sick people can eat 

 it." 



" How many are there in the little white 

 house? " I asked. 



" That depends," replied Ben. " Perhaps 

 there are fifty or seventy-five thousand, if it is 

 a very large swarm, or maybe there are only 

 ten or fifteen thousand. But there are as 

 many bees in a hive as there are people in a 

 good-sized city, so you see it is quite a 

 family." 



" What do they all do? " I asked. 



"Different things," replied Ben. "The 

 queen lays eggs and her duty is to keep laying 

 eggs so that the hive shall keep up its num- 

 bers. You see, Harry, an ordinary bee lives 

 only sixty or ninety days, so the queen must 

 be diligent to keep their numbers good. In 

 the autumn there are no bees left in the hive 

 that were there in the spring, except the 

 queen. They are all dead and new ones have 

 taken their places. 



" So the queen lays eggs. The workers 



