CHAPTER VI 
OCCUPANTS OF THE HIVE 
One of the most fascinating studies in all creation is the 
social insect world. Bees, ants, wasps, and termites all have 
a good deal in common. The bee, because of its practical value, 
has attracted more attention than any of the others. Well it 
may, for the social life of the community is none the less inter- 
esting because of the fact that the honey and wax produced may 
be made to support the investigator in comfort while he is pur- 
suing his studies. 
This volume is designed to be a practical book, and so it 
would hardly be the place to go into detail, except in so far as the 
knowledge may be applied to practical purposes. Maeterlinck 
has indulged his fancy in dealing with this phase of the honey- 
bee with the result that he has produced a most interesting story, 
based upon the specialized social life of the hive. There is 
much of truth as well as puetry in that wonderful book, which has 
perhaps been more widely read than any other volume ever writ- 
ten about the bee. 
The Queen.—The life of the hive centers in the queen (Fig. 
46), the mother of the community. Apparently her only duty 
is to produce eggs in large numbers, that the colony may be per- 
petuated, and that the inmates may be sufficiently numerous to 
enable them to store enough honey to meet the needs of adverse 
seasons in summer as well as the long period of cold, dreary 
winter. She rarely leaves the hive except on her mating trip 
and to accompany a swarm. Most of her life is spent in the 
hive, quietly attending to her duties. Apparently the egg from 
which she hatches is no different from any of the thousands of 
others that produce workers. The marvelous physical change 
that takes place when an egg is taken from a worker cell and 
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