THE LIFE OF THE BEE By Iht Same Contents include: I. ON THE
THRESHOLD OF THE HIVE II. THE SWARM III. THE FOUNDATION OF THE CITY
IV. THE LIFE OF THE BEE V. THE YOUNG QUEENS VI. THE NUPTIAL FLIGHT
VII. THE MASSACRE OF THE MALES VIII. THE PROGRESS OF THE RACE. IT
is not my intention to write a treatise on apiculture, or on
practical beekeeping. Excellent works of the kind abound in all
civilised countries, and it were useless to attempt another. France
has those of Dadant, Georges de Lay ens and Bonnier, Bertrand,
Hamet, Weber, Clement, the Abbe Collin, etc. Englishspeaking
countries have Langs troth, Bevan, Cook, Cheshire, Cowan, Root,
etc. Germany has Dzierzon, Van Berlespoch, Pollmann, Vogel, and
many others. Nor is this book to be a scientific monograph on Apis
Mellifica, Ligustica, Fasciata, Dorsata, etc., or a collection of
new observations and studies. I shall say scarcely anything that
those will not know who are somewhat familiar with bees. The notes
and experiments I have made during my twenty years of bee keeping I
shall reserve for a more techni cal work for their interest is
necessarily of a special and limited nature, and I am anxious not
to overburden this essay. I wish to speak of the bees very simply,
as one speaks of a subject one knows and loves to those who know it
not. I do not intend to adorn the truth, or merit the just reproach
Reaumur addressed to his predecessors in the study of our
honeyflies, whom he accused of substituting for the marvellous
reality marvels that were imaginary and merely plausible. The fact
that the hive contains so much that is wonderful does not warrant
our seeking to add to its wonders. Besides, I myself have now for a
long time ceased to look for anything more beautiful in this world,
or more interesting, than the truth or at least than the effort one
is able to make towards the truth. I shall state nothing,
therefore, that I have not verified myself, or that is not so fully
accepted in the textbooks as to render further verifica tion
superfluous. My facts shall be as accurate as though they appeared
in a practical manual or scientific monograph, but I shall relate
them in a somewhat livelier fashion than such works would allow,
shall group them more harmoni ously together, and blend them with
freer and more mature reflections. The reader of this book will not
learn there from how to manage a hive but he will know more or less
all that can with any certainty be known of the curious, pro found,
and intimate side of its inhabi tants. Nor will this be at the cost
of what still remains to be learned. I shall pass over in silence
the hoary traditions that, in the country and many a book, still
constitute the legend of the hive. Whenever there be doubt,
disagreement, hypothesis, when I arrive at the unknown, I shall
declare it loyally you will find that we often shall halt before
the un known. Beyond the appreciable facts of their life we know
but little of the bees. And the closer our acquaintance becomes,
the nearer is our ignorance brought to us of the depths of their
real existence but such ignorance is better than the other kind,
which is uncon scious, and satisfied. Does an analogous work on the
bee exist?
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