BEE-HOUSE FOR TWELVE HIVES. 127 



have a distinctive mark by which each may know its 

 own home, and not wander into its neighbour's house. 

 Bees readily enough receive a honey-laden labourer into 

 a hive ; but if the wanderer be poor and empty, he will 

 be promptly repulsed, and may have to forfeit his life 

 for his mistake. Queens returning from their wedding 



Back view of Bee-house, showing the Interior. 



trip are liable to mistake their hive if all the entrances 

 are so much alike that a noticeable difference is not 

 easily aparent. A queen entering a hive already sup- 

 plied with a fruitful sovereign would be certain to be 

 killed. The loss to the hive to which the queen belonged 

 is a serious one. Hives are often made queenless from 

 this cause, and thereby reduced to utter ruin, the bee- 

 master perhaps attributing his failure to something alto- 

 gether different. 



