The Life of the Bee 
have seen a colony,” says Langstroth, one 
of the fathers of modern apiculture, “ that 
had not bees sufficient to cover a comb of 
three inches square, and yet endeavoured 
to rear a queen. For two whole weeks 
did they cherish this hope; finally, when 
their number was reduced by one-half, their 
queen was born, but her wings were imper- 
fect, and she was unable to fly. Impotent 
as she was, her bees did not treat her with 
the less respect. A week more, and there 
remained hardly a dozen bees; yet a few 
days, and the queen had vanished, leaving 
a few wretched, inconsolable insects upon 
the combs.” 
[27 ] 
There is another instance, and one that 
reveals most palpably the ultimate gesture 
of filial love and devotion. It arises from 
one of the extraordinary ordeals that our 
recent and tyrannical intervention inflicts 
86 
