ead, and should remain in the
old stock until the bees can provide themselves with a sufficient quantity
of that article to feed their young bees with; for bread is not collected
early enough and in sufficient quantities to feed their young as much as
nature requires. If the bees fail in filling the drawer, one should be
used that is filled by another swarm.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.

The reader might have expected many things demonstrated in this work,
which are omitted by design.

The structure of the worker is too well understood by every owner of bees
to need a particular description. So also of the drone; and the Queen has
already been sufficiently described to enable any one to select her out
from among her subjects. If any further description is desired, the
observer can easily satisfy himself by the use of a microscope.--Every
swarm of bees is composed of three classes or sorts, to wit: one Queen or
female, drones or males, and neuters or workers. The Queen is the only
female in the hive, and lays all the eggs from which all the young bees
are raised to replenish their colony. She possesses no authority over
them, other than that of influence, which is derived from the fact that
she is the mother of all the bees; and they, being endowed with knowledge
of the fact that they are wholly dependent on her to propagate their
species, treat her with the greatest kindness, tenderness and reverence,
and manifest at all times the most sincere attachment to her by feeding
and guarding her from all danger.

The government of a hive is nearer republican than any other, because it
is administered in exact accordance with their nature. It is their
peculiar natural instinct, which prompts them in all their actions. The
Queen has no more to do with the government of the hive than the other
bees, unless influence may be called government. If she finds empty cells
in the hive, during the breeding season, she will deposit eggs there,
because it is her nature to do so; and the nature of the workers prompts
them so take care and nurse all the young larvae, labor and collect food
for their sustenance, guard and protect their habitations, and do and
perform all things, in due obedience, not to the commands of the Queen,
but to their own peculiar instinct.

The drone is probably the male bee, notwithstanding the sexual union has
never been witnessed by any man; yet so many experiments have been tried,
and observations made, th