CHAPTER VI 

 OCCUPANTS OF THE HIVE 



One of the most fascinating studies in all creation is the 

 social insect world. Bees, ants, wasps, and termites all have 

 a good deal in common. The bee, because of its practical value, 

 has attracted more attention than any of the others. Well it 

 may, for the social life of the community is none the less inter- 

 esting because of tlie fact that the honey and wax produced may 

 be made to support the investigator in comfort while he is pur- 

 suing his studies. 



This volume is designed to be a practical book, and so it 

 would hardly be the place to go into detail, except in so far as the 

 knowledge may be applied to practical purposes. Maeterlinck 

 has indulged his fancy in dealing with this phase of the honey- 

 bee with the result that he has produced a most interesting story, 

 based upon the specialized social life of the hive. There is 

 much of truth as well as poetry in that wonderful book, which has 

 perhaps been more widely read than any other volume ever writ- 

 ten about the bee. 



The Queen. — The life of the hive centers in the queen (Fig. 

 46), the mother of the community. Apjiarently her only duty 

 is to produce eggs in large numbers, that the colony may be per- 

 petuated, and that the inmates may be sufficiently numerous to 

 enable them to store enough honey to meet the needs of adverse 

 seasons in summer as well as the long period of cold, dreary 

 winter. She rarely leaves the hive except on her mating trip 

 and to accompany a swarm. Most of her life is spent in the 

 hive, quietly attending to her duties. Apparently the egg from 

 which she hatches is no different from any of the thousands of 

 others that produce workers. The marvelous physical change 

 that takes place when an egg is taken from a worker cell and 



