THE HONEY-BEE. 23 
generally followed pursuit, and those who were familiar 
with his line of thought, will remember the enthusiasm 
with which he always encouraged its adoption as a means 
of increasing the revenues of the country, and at the 
same time, saving a product that was annually going to 
waste. 
If this work shall, in any degree, carry out his wishes 
in performing this office, I shall feel amply repaid for the 
embarrassments under which I have labored, not only 
in the consciousness of having fulfilled a duty to him to 
whom I have been under so many obligations, but in the 
gratification of having, ever so slightly, advanced a call- 
ing that is not only honorable and lucrative, but elevat- 
ing and ennobling. 
CHAPTER I. 
THE HONEY-BEE. 
SIMPLE FACTS IN ITS NATURAL HISTORY. 
In its natural state, a colony of bees consists of a 
queen, several thousand workers and, during a part of 
the year, a few hundred drones. 
THE QUEEN. 
The Queen is the mother of the entire colony. Her 
only duty seems to be to lay eggs, of which she sometimes 
deposits two thousand in twenty-four hours. In shape 
(fig. 1), she resembles the worker more than the drone, 
but is longer than either, and, like the worker, possesses 
a sting, but seldom uses it, except in combat with a rival 
queen. Her color upon the upper side is darker than 
that of the others ; the two posterior legs and under-side 
are of a bright copper color. In some queens a yellow 
