148 Domestic ANIMALS. 
: IX. 
BEE-KEEPING. 
Oh, Nature kind! Oh, laborer wise! 
That rvuam’st slong the summer ray, 
Glean’st ev’ry bliss thy life sapplies, 
And meet'st prepar’d thy wintry day: 
Go—envied, go—with crowded gates, 
The hive thy rich return awaits ; 
Bear home thy store in triumpb gay, 
And shame each idler on thy way.—Anon. 
L—THE WONDERS OF THE BEE-HIVE. 
HE accounts given, by naturalists and writers on 
bee-keeping, of the instincts and habits of the 
bee seem truly fabulous; and yet they are all 
founded on observation, and there seems to be 
no reasen for calling them in question. 
A hive of bees, we are told, consists of three kinds—females, 
males, and workers. The females are called queens, and only 
Fig. 45. 
THE QUEEN BEE. Tae Droneg. 
one is permitted to live in the same hive; but one is essential 
to its establishment and maintenance. The males are called 
drones, and may exist in hundreds, or even thousands, in a 
