12 THE HIVE AND THE HONEY-BEE. 



ever, and their own deficiency, not being furnished with a sting, 

 they have not a shadow of chance. 



It is, perhaps, unnecessary to observe that the Drones do not 

 work for the support of the hive, but lead an idle life, feeding 

 upon the produce of others' labor. 



We now come to the most interesting inmate of the hive — the 

 Working-Bee. 



The Working-bee is considerably less 

 than either the Queen-bee or the Drone. 

 It is about half an inch in length, of a 

 blackish brown color, covered with closely 

 set hairs all over the body, which aid it in 

 carrying the farina it gathers from the 

 flowers ; and on the tibia, or forearm, as it 

 were, of the hind leg, is a cavity of cup- 

 like form, for the reception of the little kneaded ball of pollen. 

 It is the Working-bee which collects honey and pollen, and 

 which forms the cells, cleans out the hive, protects the Queen, 

 looks after the condition of the young brood, destroys or expels 

 the Drones, when these are no longer necessary to the well-being 

 of the community ; who, in short, performs all offices connected 

 with the hive and its contents, save only those which have refer- 

 ence to the reproduction of the species. The Working-bees are 

 of no sex, and are furnished with a horny and hollow sting, 

 through which poison is ejected into the wound it makes ; this 

 poison is of an acrid character, and of great power in its effects, 

 proving fatal to any insect, and instances being on record of its 

 proving so to horses and cattle, nay, even to human beings : 

 when human beings, however, are stung (an accident that will 

 happen very seldom, if they use the precautions, in manipulating 

 with their bees, that shall be detailed in the course of this 

 volume), they can instantaneously obtain relief by pressing upon 

 the point stung with the tube of a key ; this will extract the 

 sting, and relieve the pain, and the application of common spirits 

 of hartshorn will instantaneously remove it ; the poison being of 

 an acid nature, and being thus at once neutralized by the appli- 

 cation of this penetrating and volatile alkali. 



I may here describe the structure of the bee. The one descrip- 

 tion answering, with some exceptions, to be pointed out as I pro- 

 ceed, for the three classes — Queen — Drone — and Workers. 



The bee is, like insects generally (which derive their name 



