48 BEE-KEEPING FOR PROFIT 
destroyed for the time, precluding the members 
of it from recognising their fellows under the 
stress of the fright. 
The scent of the queen is different from that 
of the workers. This can be noticed especially 
in the case of a swarm, for workers will often 
be seen ‘‘retrieving’’ the place over which the 
queen has passed, even though the trail may be 
broken: should they fail to find her they will 
often cluster and die. Because of this it is 
never advisable to handle a queen, for the bees 
will notice the change of scent caused thereby 
and often will kill a queen they do not own; to 
stranger drones, however, they raise no objec- 
tion during a honey-flow. 
Honey—It should be clearly understood that, 
contrary to the assertion of the poet, bees do 
not ‘‘ gather honey all the day, from every 
opening flower.’’ Honey is essentially a pro- 
duct of the bee from the nectar provided by 
the flowers as an inducement to the visitation of 
bees and other insects—not for the benefit of 
the bee but to serve the purposes of the flowers 
themselves of cross-fertilisation. (See Chapter on 
‘‘Flowers and Bees,’ page 53.) The nectar is 
assimilated by the bee and regurgitated in the 
form of honey. 
Honeycomb.—The honeycomb is doubtless 
