INSECTS AND BIRDS. 



301 



SECTION XLVIIL BEE KEEPING. 



By PROF. WILMON NEWELL, 

 Texas State Entomologist. 



The honey-bee is one of the few insects which have 

 been domesticated by man and made to serve him, and 

 they have been kept for their honey since the earliest 

 times. The keeping of bees is a pleasant and profitable 

 occupation. 



Bees and Fruits. Not only are bees useful for the 

 honey they produce, but they render a valuable service 

 to the fruit grower by carrying the pollen from one 

 blossom to another, so that the flowers are " polli- 

 nated." Where bees are scarce and the flowers not 

 well pollinated the fruit crop is poor. Bees do not 

 injure ripening fruits, for the bee's mouth-parts are not 

 strong enough to pierce the skin of sound fruit. 



The Colony. Honey-bees are " social insects," that 

 is, they live in large colonies, and all the bees in the 

 colony work for the common good. In each colony 

 there is a queen, a few drones, or males, and from 

 3,000 to 10,000 workers. 



The queen is the mother of the colony, for she lays 

 the eggs that are to produce the young bees. 



WORKER. 



QUEEN BEE 



DRONE. 



