The suburb of this straw-built citadel — 
—Milton: Paradise Lost 
II 
FROM OLD TO NEW 
B EEKEEPING is an ancient art or industry. 
The Egyptians, four thousand years ago, made 
long tubes of reed and mud in which to keep their 
honey bees and out of which they would now and 
then cut a comb of honey. Present-day beekeeping 
in Egypt scarcely varies from that of forty centuries 
ago. But during the last hundred years bees in 
European and Anglo-Saxon countries have been 
kept quite differently. 
Of course the organization and life of a colony 
of bees continues the same. But through scientific 
observation and study we know more about them. 
We know how to take care of them in order to 
secure for ourselves more of the precious sweet they 
store so abundantly. 
Sketched briefly, a colony consists of from thirty 
to seventy thousand bees. Among these there is 
one—and only one—perfect female, the queen, who 
lays all the eggs. During the summer months there 
are about four hundred drones, the males, one of 
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