THE EVOLUTION OF THE BEE AND THE BEEHIVE
established. The medicine man, who acted both as priest and doctor, was evolved. A chieftain was set up. The old men became counsellors. Still each family lived in its own wigwam and not with others in an apartment house or a hotel.
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Certain social communities other than human have in a similar way evolved from simple beginnings, and one of the highest of these is undoubtedly that of the honey-bee; and the society of the honey-bee is even more complex than anything in our own civilization. “The bee in its own line,” writes J. A. Thomson, “is hardly inferior to man, and represents an achievement that angels might desire to look into.”
In a beehive there are three ranks of individuals. First, there is the queen bee (Fig. 1), who is indeed the mother of her people, for she alone lays eggs; and as a rule she is a solitary monarch, and tolerates no rivals. Then there are the workers (Fig. 2), which in structure are females, though they have ceased laying eggs. Like Martha, they are cumbered with much serving. Third, there are the males, or drones (Fig. 3), quite useless in the conduct of the affairs of the hive except that one of them will ultimately fertilize the queen bee.
The beehive itself is a very complex affair. When a cluster of bees have swarmed (Fig. 4) they take refuge in some
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