Bee

This was probably the first insect which gained any attention from humanity. Aristotle, Virgil, and Pliny mention bees, and at the Renai ance they were studied. There hives must not face sunwaref, or they will come out in the winter to sun themselves and get frozen. The ordinary hive contains a queen bee (the mother of the next brood), the males or drones, and the army of workers or undeveloped females. Bees feed mostly on the nectar and pollen of flowers. Their cells hang perpendicularly from the hive, and arc used for storing noney and as cradles for the young. Each ‘comb’ consists of a double row of cells. There is a marvellous accuracy in the formation. The bees drop poison into the cells containing honey, which keeps it from fermenting. Sir John Lubbock is the great authority on the subject. The death’s-head moth is their great enemy. They exclude it now by a barrier of wax and propolis. They often pull down and re-build bad workmanship, and show much intelligence in their mode of working. There are solitary, social, and honey bees. A pound weight of bees contains about 5000 of them.