BEES — FRUIT — HONEY AND MONEY 



engaged in sipping from the flowers the nectar 

 awaiting them. 



At the entrance of each hive is a number 

 of sentinel bees, armed with their sharpened 

 spears, ready to repel robber bees from strange 

 hives, or whatever else may threaten to dis- 

 turb them. No bee returning from the field 

 can pass the vigilant sentinels without the 

 proper countersign, and that countersign is 

 the distinctive odor of the colony to which it 

 belongs, for this is the only means of identi- 

 fication the bees possess; and so powerful 

 are their organs of sense, that a strange bee 

 seldom passes by them. These sentinels are 

 relieved from time to time, but at all times, 

 during the genial days of spring, summer, 

 and early fall, the entrance to their little 

 homes is fully guarded. 



With a mother queen to rule them and pro- 

 vide the offspring to take the place of the old 

 bees that are constantly dying (for the average 

 life of a worker bee is only about five weeks), 

 the work of rearing the young, the building 



