CHAPTER I 
THE ECONOMY OF THE HIVE 
BEFORE commencing an explanation of the prac- 
tical operations connected with bee culture, it will 
be well to devote a few lines to a brief description 
of the bee with which we have to deal, and which 
is indigenous to these islands. 
The honey-bee is classed by entomologists as 
follows: Class, Insecta; Order, Hymenoptera ; 
Family, Apide; Genera, Apis; Species, Mellifica ; 
and finally. the various varieties—English, Car- 
niolan, Italian, etc., as the case may. be. 
The honey-bee is possessed of six legs—anterior, 
intermediate, and posterior. The posterior legs in 
the case of workers are fringed with stiff bristles, 
forming the well-known pollen baskets, in which 
the pollen is conveyed to the hive. They have 
two pairs of membranous wings, while the frame- 
work of the body consists of an external skeleton 
composed of a horny. substance known as chitine, 
arranged in the form of segments in the abdomen, .’ 
each segment being formed by. a dorsal and ven- 
tral plate. The whole body is more or less thickly 
covered with hair. There are three distinct kinds 
of bee in a hive, all of which have much in 
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