MANAGING BEES. 65 



GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 



The reader might have expected many 

 things demonstrated in this work, which are 

 omitted hy design. 



The structure of the worker is loo well 

 understood by every owner of bees to need a 

 particular description. So also of the drone ; 

 and the Queen has already been sufficiently 

 described to enable any one to select her out 

 from among her subjects. If any further de- 

 scription is desired, the observer can easily 

 satisfy himself by the use of a microscope. — 

 Every swarm of bees is composed of three 

 classes or sorts, to wit : one Queen or female, 

 drones or males, and neuters or workers. The 

 Queen is the only female in the hive, and lays 

 all the eggs from which all the young bees 

 are raised to replenish their colony. She pos- 

 sesses no authority over them, other than that 

 of influence, which is derived from the fact 

 that she is the mother of all the bees ; and 

 they, being endowed with knowledge of the 

 fact that they are wholly dependent on her to 

 propagate their species, treat her with the 

 greatest kindness, tenderness and reverence, 



