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The working bees are much less in size than 
the queens or drones ; they are armed with a for- 
midable weapon, a sting, which strikes terror into 
the heart of man or beast, and when irritated are 
very free to make use of it. It is the workers on 
which the welfare of the hive very much depends. 
Without their aid, the males, females, and even 
brood, would soon perish. And while the pres- 
ence of the queen is necessary to their safety, they 
are no less requisite to her preservation. It is the 
workers that procure the honey, by their incessant 
labor, produce the wax, construct the combs, and 
furnish pollen or bee-bread for the brood. While 
some are collecting honey, others are collecting 
pollen, and others guarding the hive ; others 
seldom or never leave the hive, but seem con- 
stantly engaged within ; they seem to be endowed 
with a peculiar instinct, directing each one its dif- 
ferent task, and without a sufficient number of 
this class, no colony can possibly prosper. It is 
the part assigned to the workers also, to clean and 
prepare the cells appropriated for the embryos, of 
their own kind, of the queen, and of the drones. 
After the queen has deposited her eggs, she has no 
more concern for their welfare, but assigns the 
task of rearing the young to the workers, which 
furnish them with pollen, feed them, water, nour- 
ish, and keep them warm. A certain degree of 
animal heat is required, to produce the young, 
which the bees have the power to regulate, in a 
well constructed hive, by clustering by numbers 
about the cells, more or less as the temperature of 
the hive requires. If a stranger bee, wasp, or 
noxious insect, appear, it is soon repelled, or de- 
stroyed. It is a part of their economy to procure 
a resinous substance called propolis, or bee glue, 
