THE PEKFECT SOCIALISM 69 



carry the wax to the mouth, and chew it for a time, 

 thus changing it chemically. Thus it may be seen that 

 wax-making is a great expense to the colony, for it 

 costs not only the time of the workers but it is esti- 

 mated that twenty-one pounds of honey is required to 

 make one pound of wax. As a matter of fact much of 

 bee labor is that of the manufacturing chemist. Raw 

 material does not suit their fastidious taste; thus all 

 the honey, their chief food, they take from the nec- 

 taries of flowers as cane sugar, and in the honey 

 stomach mix it with a secretion which changes it into 

 grape sugar. 



Bees are unwearying workers; they share with the 

 workers of other insect societies an utter recklessness 

 as to their own individual safety and preservation. 

 When a bee goes out for honey she also collects pollen, 

 so that she comes back heavily laden and flying low 

 and slowly. It is no wonder that an ancient Greek 

 writer, noting the pollen upon the legs of a laden bee, 

 states that on Hymettus the bees tie little pebbles to 

 their legs to hold them down. The lavish wastefulness 

 of individual life is shown by the relative longevity of 

 bees during the working and resting season. Those 

 individuals matured in the fall will live eight or nine 

 months, while in the height of the honey season a bee 

 will wear herself out in a month. 



