86 BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 



taken as a model of perfection ! He who arranged 

 the universe, was their instructor. Yes, a profound 

 geometrician planned the first cell, and knowing 

 what would be their wants, implanted in the seuso- 

 rium of the first bee all things pertaining to their 

 welfare ; the impress then given, is yet retained un- 

 impaired !" 



How little does the epicure heed, when feasting 

 on the fruits of their industry, that each morsel tasted 

 must destroy the most perfect specimens of work- 

 manship ; that in a moment he can demolish what 

 it has taken hours, yea, days and perhaps weeks of 

 assiduous toil for the bees to accomplish. 



CHAPTER IV. 



POLLEN, OR BEE-BREAD. 



Pollen, in common parlance, has been very gen- 

 erally called bee-bread; this is what almost every 

 person who has seen bees working on a fine day, in 

 summer, has observed them carrying into the hive, in 

 the shape of little pellets, on the hindmost pair of legs. 

 These yellow pellets have been, and are yet, looked 

 upon as being wax, to build combs with. Very few 

 careless observers, perhaps, ever noticed that just as 

 many of these little loads are carried into a hive that is 

 already full of combs as into one in which a swarm has 

 been recently put, and in which combs are being rap- 

 idly built. If these pellets were examined, and their 



