< SWEATING' BEES 145 



and his thoughtful owner respectively, the joy of 

 4 observing ' bees and beekeepers mainly consists. 

 Practical people, who desire to get more work out 

 of the bee than heretofore, do not deny that he is 

 naturally industrious. Mr S. Simmins, the author 

 of A Modern Bee-Farm, notes that * bees are never 

 idle except from sheer force of circumstances ; when 

 it is cold in winter they simply cluster in one com- 

 pact mass ; but with each returning spell of milder 

 weather this living ball expands, and many of the 

 insects travel to the most distant sealed combs of 

 honey, and commencing on the outer surface of each 

 outside comb, the whole of the honey there stored is 

 carried to those cells in close contact with the cluster.' 

 The bee code of industry will not even permit it to 

 begin work at the easiest end. If this mental attitude 

 were constant, it would baffle the aims of the modern 

 bee-owner who seeks to provide his insects with the 

 means to do more work in Jess time. They might 

 refuse to use the labour-saving apparatus provided, 

 on the ground that hard work was their summum 

 bonum. But the bees are not so perverse. On the 

 contrary, they welcome any contrivance which will 

 enable them to do the maximum of work, and then, 

 disdaining the temptation of shorter hours, use it 

 for the maximum of time, day by day. The ' per- 

 sonnel ' of the hive being thus disposed, the object 



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