CHAPTER III 



THE HONEY BEE FAMILY 



With all the multitude of species of insects, 

 man has been able to adapt very few to his own 

 immediate needs. Hundreds of insects render 

 an indirect service, such as the poUenation of 

 blossoms, and a few have been used for food, as 

 John ate locusts in the wilderness. Because of 

 the social habit whereby thousands of bees live 

 together in a single community and lay up a 

 common store of honey, man has been able to 

 provide them with a suitable home, in the hive, 

 and so to manipulate the combs which they 

 build as to greatly increase the amount of honey 

 stored and to profit thereby. By the preven- 

 tion of swarming at the time when the honey 

 harvest is at its best, by reducing the number of 

 non-producing drones which the colony is per- 



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