The Life of the Bee 



all the mysteries of the palace of honey. 

 Before we open it, therefore, and throw a 

 general glance around, we only need say 

 that the hive is composed of a queen, the 

 mother of all her people ; of thousands 

 of workers or neuters who are incomplete 

 and sterile females ; and lastly of some 

 hundreds of males, from whom one shall 

 be chosen as the sole and unfortunate 

 consort of the queen" that the workers 

 will elect in the future, after the more or 

 less voluntary departure of the reigning 

 mother. 



[6] 

 The first time that we open a hive there 

 comes over us an emotion akin to that we 

 might feel at profaning some unknown 

 object, charged perhaps with dreadful 

 surprise, as a tomb. A legend of menace 

 and peril still clings to the bees. There 

 is the distressful recollection of her sting, 

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