OF MANAGING BEES. 79 



• 



public. We do not fear that they will be contradictory to 

 the principles we have already laid down, as they have already 

 been abundantly verified. 



We shall not attempt to describe the structure of the 

 comb ; its shape is familiar to all. It will be sufficient to 

 say, that the utmost economy of space and material is ob- 

 served, and its mathematical accuracy has excited the wonder 

 of philosophers. 



The structure of the worker is too well understood by 

 every owner of bees to need a very particular description. 

 So also of the drone ; and the queen has already been sufli- 

 ciently described to enable any one to select, her out from 

 among her subjects. [Cuts of the three classes of bees can 

 be found in the Appendix to this work.] If any further de- 

 scription is desired, the observer can easily satisfy himself by 

 the use of a microscope. Every swarm of bees is composed 

 of three classes or sorts, to wit : one queen, or female, drones, 

 or males, and neuters, or workers. The queen is the only 

 female in the hive, and lays all the eggs from which all the 

 young bees are raised to replenish their, colony. She pos- 

 sesses no authority over them, other than that of influence 

 which is derived from the fact that she is the mother of all 

 the bees ; and their instinct teaches them that they are wholly 

 dependent on her to propagate their species, and they treat her 

 with the greatest kindness, tenderness and reverence, and 

 manifest at all times the most sincere attachment to her by 

 feeding her, and guarding her from all danger. 



The government of a hive of bees is not one of force, but 

 one of mutual benefit, as a republican government should 

 be. The instincts of the different orders of bees are so made 

 to harmonize, that, while each seeks his own good and plea- 

 sure, he promotes that of others. The queen is as much the 

 creature of necessity as her subjects 



