Deborah: " The Honey-Bee" 269 



by the workers from the old one, and she soon flies abroad 

 upon her wedding tour, and then returns to the hive. 

 Meanwhile, the old queen has been very restless, and after 

 the young queen's return she leaves the hive accompanied 

 by a mob of neuters, to found a new colony. This is a 

 " swarm." The new queen very soon commences her duty 

 of laying eggs at the rate of a hundred an hour, and lay- 

 ing in the course of a year about two hundred thousand 

 and the males, being no longer required, are massacred by 

 the workers. And so the Summer and Autumn pass, the 

 queen assiduously laying eggs; the neuters as diligently 

 rearing the young, piling up honey, and dying. And so 

 to Winter, when the hive becomes partially dormant until 

 Spring comes round again. 



Such in briefest outline is hive-life, and absolutely bare 

 as it is, sufficiently interesting. But the actual details 

 which would fill it out in a completer chronicle (but 

 with which this article has nothing to do, except where the 

 poets refer to them) are such that fancy and legend cannot 

 exaggerate their wonders, and severest science is unable 

 to refrain from admiration and amazement. These details, 

 however, belong to the natural history of bees, and not 

 to the unnatural history of the poets' insect. 



Many poets give sketches of the life of the honey- 

 gatherers : 



" All hands em ploy 'd, the royal work grows warm 

 Like lab'ring bees on a long summer's day, 

 Some sound the trumpet for the rest to swarm 

 And some on bells of tasted lilies play ; 

 With glewy wax some new foundations lay 

 Of virgin comb, which from the roof are hung, 

 Or tend the sick, or educate the young." Dryden. 



" As in the winged commonwealth of Bees 

 (Whose careful summer-providence foresees 

 Th' approaching fruitless winter, which denies 

 The crown of labour) some with laden thighs 



