The Hive-bee may be regarded as one of the most perfectly social species of insects, and one whose economy is regulated by the possession of a more remarkable degree of instinct than is perhaps possessed by any other insect. Another peculiarity regarding bees is, that there are not simply males and females among them, but mules or workers, or female non-breeders, as they have been termed, which constitute the great mass of the population of a hive. They are smaller, as regards size, than the males or the female bees, and it is to them that the internal economy of the hive is committed, and upon them the whole labour of the community devolves. Moreover, it is their duty to guard and protect the hive and the queen, to feed the young, and to kill the drones at the appointed time.
In a single hive there are sometimes not fewer than thirty thousand of these individuals. They are distinguished from the breeding females by having a longer lip, the jaws not notched at the tip, and the sting straight. The male bees, of which there are several hundreds, sometimes even two thousand in a full hive, are idle creatures, doing no work. They are generally termed drones, and they are of a more bulky size than the other bees, and they are not armed with a sting.
Such are the inhabitants of the hive; the chief products of which are bees-wax and honey. The former is secreted by the worker-bees, by a peculiar apparatus on the under side of the belly, as occasion requires, and is employed for constructing the combs in which the family provision and the young brood are deposited.
Honey is obtained by bees from the nectaries of flowers, which, it is well known, are constantly secreting a sweet thick fluid. This is sucked up by the tongue of the insect, and a portion of it is consumed at once for its support, but the greater part of the supply, although taken into the stomach of the bee, is again brought up (regurgitated, to use a hard word), and poured into the cells of the hives for the food of the grubs and the use of the community through the winter.
Queen Bee.
Drone.
The cells into which the honey is poured for store are placed in the most inaccessible parts of the hive, and are fitted with waxen lids, but the honey destined for the use of the nurses, workers, and drones, is deposited in unclosed cells. In each honey-cell there is a cream-like layer or covering of a thicker consistency than the honey itself. This layer is perforated by the bee with its fore-legs, and is closed before the bee flies away.
Having thus noticed the inhabitants of the hive, we will now turn our attention to the hive itself. The most profound philosopher, as well as the most incurious observer, is struck with astonishment on inspecting the interior of a bee-hive. He beholds a city in miniature. He sees this city divided into regular streets; and these streets composed of houses constructed on the most exact geometrical principles and the most symmetrical plan; some serving as store-houses for food, others for the habitations of the citizens, and a few, much more extensive than the rest, destined for the palace of their sovereign. He perceives that the substance of which the city is built, is one which man with all his skill is unable to fabricate, and that the edifices in which it is employed are such as the most expert architect would find himself incompetent to erect.