2 HANDY BOOK OF BEES. 



working bee. In shape she is more like a worker than a 

 drone, hut more genteel and beautiful than either. Her 

 abdomen or belly is comparatively very long, and gradu- 

 ally and gracefully tapers to a point — giving her an ap- 

 pearance quite distinguishable and different from all in 

 the hive. She is really a queenly creature, and modest 

 and graceful in all her movements. 



Mother and Monarch. — Being mother and monarch of 

 the hive, her life is very precious. The loyalty of her 

 people, and the activity and vigilance of her " body-guard," 

 are most remarkable. No human monarch was ever half 

 so well attended to by his subjects as a queen bee is by 

 hers. The life and prosperity of a hive depend on the 

 presence of a queen — a queen moving and reigning in the 

 hive — or in prospect — that is, in embryo ; for when a queen 

 dies, or goes with a colony or swarm, she leaves behind 

 her some princesses in their cells, or infant state; or eggs 

 which the bees hatch into queens. If a hive lose its 

 queen without expectation of getting another, aU pros- 

 perity comes to an end -^ the contentment, loyalty, and 

 industry of the bees depart from them : their stores of 

 honey are often undefended and unprotected in such 

 queenless hives, and stolen by the bees of prosperous 

 ones. 



THE AGE OF QUEEN BEES. 



They live four years. In this fact the worth of their 

 lives to the community is seen. The working bees live 

 but nine months, and the drones are permitted neither 

 to live nor to die ; they are destroyed. The climax of 

 their history is a chapter of horrors. But queens, gene- 

 rally speaking, live four years. A few die when they 

 are three years old : scarcely one dies a natural death, 

 sooner. It is of great importance to a bee-keeper to know 



