reater value to man as a carrier of pollen than
it is as a honey gatherer and yet under especially favorable conditions
in one year a strong colony may produce between twenty-five and thirty
dollars worth of honey.

[Illustration: Worker, queen and drone honey bees; all about natural
size. (After Phillips, U. S. Dept. of Agri.)]

The general habits of the bee are fairly well known by all. They live in
colonies consisting largely of workers, one female or queen and males or
drones. Whenever the number of workers becomes sufficiently large to
warrant a division of the colony, a young queen is reared by the workers
and just before she matures, the old queen leaves with about half of the
workers to establish a new colony. This division of the colony is called
swarming. If a hive, box or other acceptable home is not provided soon
after the swarm comes out and clusters, it may fly to the woods and
establishes itself in a hollow tree where the regular work of honey
gathering is continued. This accounts for so many bee-trees in the
woods. The bee has been handled by man for ages, but it readily becomes
wild when allowed to escape to the woods.

[Illustration: Stages of development of honey bee; a, egg; b, young
grub; c, full-fed grub; d, pupa; all enlarged. (After Phillips, U. S.
Dept. Agri.)]

The bee colony offers one of the best examples to show what can be
accomplished by united effort where harmony prevails. Certain of the
workers gather honey, others are nurses for the queen and young brood in
the hive, others guard the hive and repel intruders, and others care for
the hive by mending breaks and providing new comb as it is needed. Each
knows its work and goes about it without interfering with the work of
others. It is one huge assemblage of individuals under one roof where
harmony and industry prevail.

Throughout the long, hot summer days the workers are busy from daylight
until dark gathering nectar, while at night they force currents of air
thru the hive to evaporate the excess water from the nectar. When
flowers are not available near the hive they simply fly until they find
them, be it one, two or more miles. As long as they are able to gather
honey they continue to do so and when they give out they drop in the
field and are forgotten, others rushing to take their place. Often when
winter is approaching and the store of honey is low the less vigorous
ones are cast out from the hive and left to die. If man could