"So work the honey-bees; Creatures that, by a rule in Nature, teach The art of order to a peopled kingdom. They have a king and officers of sorts; Where some, like magistrates, correct at home; Others, like merchants, venture trade abroad; Others, like soldiers, armed in their stings, Make boot upon the summer's velvet buds; Which pillage they, with merry march, bring home To the tent royal of their emperor: Who, busied in his majesty, surveys The singing masons building roofs of gold; The civil citizens kneading up the honey; The poor mechanic porters crowding in Their heavy burdens at his narrow gate; The sad-eyed justice, with his surly hum, Delivering o'er to executors pale The lazy, yawning drone." Shakespeare's _Henry V._, Act i. Scene 2. [Illustration] CONTENTS _INTRODUCTION._ PAGE Literature of Bee-keeping 1 _CHAPTER I._ The Bee as an Insect. SEC. I. Classification 7 II. The Queen 8 III. The Drone 19 IV. The Worker 27 V. The Italian or Ligurian Bee 34 VI. Other Foreign Varieties 45 VII. Faculties and Functions 54 VIII. Eggs and Transformations 59 IX. Reproductive Economy 62 X. Relation of Sex to Cells 67 XI. The Rationale of Swarming 72 XII. Increase of Bees 82 _CHAPTER II._ Anatomy and Physiology. I. Preliminary Remarks 86 II. The Head and Organs of Sensation 88 III. The Thorax and Organs of Motion 97 IV. The Abdomen and Secretive Organs 102 _CHAPTER III._ _Modern Beehives._