The
bees circle round a queenless hive in the hot beams of the midday sun as gaily as around the living hives; from a distance it smells of honey like the others, and
bees fly in and out in the same way.
If the stock had not been old and overcrowded, the Wax-moth would never have entered; but where
bees are too thick on the comb there must be sickness or parasites.
The belts of woodland that traverse the lower prairies and border the rivers are peopled by innumerable swarms of wild
bees, which make their hives in hollow trees and fill them with honey tolled from the rich flowers of the prairies.
At the time of the death of Mr Ira Nutcombe, the only all-the-year-round inhabitants were the butcher, the grocer, the chemist, the other customary fauna of villages, and Miss Elizabeth Boyd, who rented the ramshackle farm known locally as Flack's and eked out a precarious livelihood by keeping
bees.
But the dwarf said, 'Let the poor things enjoy themselves, you shall not kill them.' Next they came to a
bees'-nest in a hollow tree, and there was so much honey that it ran down the trunk; and the two brothers wanted to light a fire under the tree and kill the
bees, so as to get their honey.
This splendid palace had been built by the grateful queen
bee, who had summoned all the other
bees in the kingdom to help her.
Forthwith there was heard a great buzzing in the air, and a swarm of black
bees came flying toward her.
On and on, over hill and valley, they went, chasing the gay butterflies, or listening to the
bees, as they flew from flower to flower like busy little housewives, singing as they worked; till at last they reached a pleasant garden, filled with flowers and green, old trees.
He knew too that, regardless of all the pleasure he felt in taking a swarm, he must forego that pleasure, and leave the old man to see to the
bees alone, while he talked to the peasants who had come after him to the bee-house.
'I beg your pardon,' returned Eugene, with a reluctant smile, 'but will you excuse my mentioning that I always protest against being referred to the
bees?'
But the farmers did not like to lose their
bees and so they tried to destroy me.
I have, also, reason to believe that humble-bees are indispensable to the fertilisation of the heartsease (Viola tricolor), for other
bees do not visit this flower.