THE WORKER-BEE. 119 



of the hive can be kept up, without taking into account 

 the large numbers required to make up the two or three 

 swarms annually sent out to commence house-keeping on 

 their own account. 



However, nothing seems to us so pitiable as an aged 

 worker-bee with its torn wings striving some warm day in 

 early spring to again attempt the collection of pollen or 

 honey; rising feebly from the entrance, it sinks to the 

 ground to die a miserable death — a sad end after its fruit- 

 ful toils. 



The worker is the stinging bee ; by the sting it defends 

 the hive to the death, and it never survives the use of this 

 weapon of defence. 



We need say but little about its well-known industry. 

 Pettigrew thus touchingly notices this grand trait in their 

 character: " Imagine a large and prosperous hive full of 

 comb, bees, and brood; fancy 20,000 little grubs in this 

 hive requiring constant attention and proper food, and all 

 receiving them in due season ; fancy the care and diligence 

 of the bees in mixing and kneading this food before they 

 give it to their young; fancy 2,000 of these grubs daily 

 requiring and receiving beautiful lids on their cells, to 

 cover them up whilst they pass into the insect form and 

 chrysalis state; fancy 800 or 1,000 square inches of this 

 brood being built up every three weeks ; stand and look at 

 that beehive, and remember that all therein goes on with 

 unerring exactness and without light; then think of the 

 untiring energy and perseverance of the bees outside the 

 hive, ranging fields and woods from morn till dewy eve, 

 gathering up the sweets and pollen of flowers, storing the 

 one in sacks the other in baskets, returning to their home 

 laden as donkevs with panniers, increasing their honey- 

 store in weight from two to six pounds per day, securely 

 locked up after it has been twice swallowed and disgorged, 

 and thus made into honey proper." What a world of 

 wonders is in a beehive! ! The more we think over it? 



