Seaside and Wayside, Book One  by Julia McNair Wright

A Look at a Bee

T HERE are many kinds of bees. The chief of them all is the hive bee. What does the hive bee make for you to eat?

In each hive there are three kinds of bees. The queen bee is the first. She rules all, and she is the mother of all.

The queen bee does no work. She lays eggs in the cells. The father bee is called the drone. He does no work.

Who, then, builds so many fine cells? Who lays up so much honey? Who feeds the baby bees? The small, quiet, brown work bees do all that.

In each hive there is one queen bee to lay eggs. Also there are the drone bees, who hum and walk about. Then there are more than you can count, of work bees, to do all that is done.

How does a bee grow? Like the wasp, the bee is first an egg. Then it is a grub, or a worm. Then, shut in a cell, it gets legs and wings, and grows into a full-grown bee.

The bee is formed of three parts, as a wasp is; but the body is not so slim. The parts are put close to each other. The bee has six legs, and four wings, and many eyes set close like one.

The bee has many hairs on its legs and body. These fine hairs are its velvet coat.

The body of the bee is made of rings of different sizes and shapes; all insects are ring made.

Part of the mouth is a long tongue. It can roll this up: it uses it to get honey from flowers.

The drone bee has a thick body, a round head, and no sting. The queen bee has a long, slim body. Her wings are small. She can sting: so can the work bee.

The work bee is not so large as the other two, but it has large wings. The work bee must fly far for food or wax. The queen bee stays at home.