II 

 THE BEE MINT) 



" Oh wonderful ! Hath the All- Wise Creator plac'd such Wis- 

 dom, such Curious Art, such Fortitude and Foresight, so Polite a 

 Government ... in Creatures so small as the Bees ! " 



JOSEPH WARDER. 



THERE is no familiarizing the honey bee. I never take 

 the quilt off those glistening combs without a slight 

 feeling of awe it is as if one were opening the door of 

 a chamber of mystery, stealing across the threshold 

 into a place unknown, darkly wonderful. But the 

 mysteries of the bee do not blind us to the plain fact 

 that her intelligence runs in grooves ; is of a strictly 

 limited character. Of this there have been fresh illus- 

 trations during swarming time. 



By the side of the overcrowded hive, out of which 

 the old queen comes, with her great following, is often 

 an empty hive, admirably suited to the new monarchy 

 or republic for, despite tradition, it more nearly 

 resembles a republic. Often, before the swarm comes 

 forth, this vacant hive has been long and critically 



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