HOW TO KEEP BEES FOR PROFIT 



the field to its hive. The heart of the honey 

 bee is made up of five elongated sections, re- 

 sembling in appearance a clinical thermometer ; 

 beginning in the head, it extends through the 

 thorax clear to the extremity of the abdomen. 



The blood of the bee is colorless, and is 

 oxygenated by the air coming in contact with 

 it through the many tracheae, or breathing- 

 holes, with which the outer shell of the bee is 

 pierced. 



Extending from the lower extremity of the 

 abdomen of the bee is its sting. It is barbed 

 like a spear, so that the bee can seldom with- 

 draw it when once it is inserted, and it is the 

 tearing away of its sting that so mutilates 

 and cripples the bee that it usually dies after 

 stinging. The poison of the sting is similar to 

 that of the bite of the rattlesnake, and it is esti- 

 mated that if a person should be stung by five 

 hundred bees at a time the poison injected 

 into the system would be about the same in 

 quantity as that from the bite of a rattlesnake. 

 The drones have no stings, and the queen 



16 



