"Metheglin is only another name for mead, altered by the addition of various ingredients, according to the taste of its preparers. These liquors may be racked, fined, &c., like other wines, and will, if properly managed, keep for years."
I have never tasted these celebrated wines. I have no doubt they are pleasant and wholesome. But I prefer the honey in the honey-comb at breakfast, and mean to recommend it to others also.
VII.—THE INMATES OF THE HIVE.
IN every hive there are three distinct inmates, very easily recognised—the Queen-Bee, the Working-Bee, and the Drone; each essential to the other, and all to the very existence and prosperity of the hive.
| The Queen. | The Working-Bee. | The Drone. |
THE QUEEN.
The Queen is very elegant. Her symmetry of person, and relative proportions, and greater length of figure, distinguish her from the rest of the community. Her death is followed by a cessation of all labour till a princess ascends the throne. She is the creature of treatment. The egg from which she emerges seems in all respects identical with those from which her subjects issue. On the sides of the tier of comb from which drones and working-bees are developed, large vertical combs, from two to five, are constructed. Woodcuts representing these are found in every bee-book. Taylor gives the following accurate picture:—