CHAPTER 1. 



Natural History of the Bee. 



The bee is an insect and as such passes throngli changes analogous to those 

 ■of the silkworm or blow-fly. Every one knows that the former is pro- 

 duced from an egg laid by the moth, and that, after feeding voraciously, 

 it spins about it a cocoon, in which it remains encased until it emerges a 

 perfect insect ; and that the egg of the latter produces the gentle, which 

 "turns into the brown pwpa whence emerges the fly like to its parent. 

 Taking these changes as parallel to those exhibited in the hive, we have 

 a sort of key by which to remember them. 



Honeycomb consists of cells of wax of two sizes, so placed that the 

 hexagonal ends of twenty-seven of the smaller and nineteen of the larger 

 cover a square inch of the surface of the comb on each side. These cells 

 are not used by the bees as storehouses for their sweets alone, as each 

 one may be utilized as a cradle in which the young may be nurtured and 

 matured. 



Each hive in a normal condition contains but one mother bee, com- 

 monly called the queen ; who alone has the power of laying eggs, and 

 <!onsequently of producing young. The mass of the population receive 

 the name of worker-bees, because upon them falls the labour of feeding 

 -the young, building comb, gathering honey, &c., while generally between 

 the months of March and August, and abnormally at other times, there 

 exists a larger or smaller number of drones or true males. These are 

 distinguished at sight from the workers, which as we shall see presently 

 are undeveloped females, by their rounder form and greater size, and 

 also by their more noisy buzzing flight. 



Let us note the history of a worker from the egg which is left by the 

 mother bee or queen adherent at the end of the cell, and is of pearly white- 

 ness, and long in proportion to its diameter. From this, after three days, 

 a tiny grub emerges, upon which food is poured by the younger worker- 

 bees, whilst performing the functions of nurses. This food, which has 

 •undergone digestion in the body of the nurse is absolute nourishment 

 from which the refuse parts have been drained in her body. The grub 

 xapidly grows, at first ourUng itself in the cell, then, as its body becomes 

 ■more bulky, it advances its head, and on the sixth day after hatching com- 



