Well, now let us have a look inside at the bee nation, so poetically described by fanciful writers; but it is not a nation--it is only a home where dwells the mother, the father, and the children. No ; that is wrong. There is no father. He is dead. Bee progeny are always posthumous. There are drones in here, but they are not fathers. You see, this is a 10-frame five ; it is too large for around Sydney. I will lift the quilt at one corner and blow in a little smoke. You will note the Why and the Wherefore further on. That dark sticky stuff on the top of the frames that makes the quilt adhere so firmly is termed by bee-keepers bee-glue. It is a substance bees procure chiefly from the buds of trees. There is not much in this outside frame but honey. That glistening liquid is the new honey they are just bringing in. Those cells on the top of the frame are filled and sealed over. They will keep that for winter use unless it is required earlier. You will see these cells on the outer parts of the comb are larger than those more in the centre. The larger ones are drone cells and the smaller workers'. There are not many bees on this frame; we shall find more towards the centre of the hive. Here, look! These bees hanging down in a festoon like a chain are wax workers. Oh, beeswax is a secretion that forms in eight little pockets that are found in the under part of the body of all workers, but not in the queen or drone. Let us take a frame from the centre of the hive. I shall find all we want to see there. **Yes, just** as I expected! Here is brood in all the stages of development. See the little white specks at the bottom of these cells? No? Here, let the sun shine in on them. I thought you would see them then. These are the eggs the queen has laid either to-day or yesterday. These little fat fellows curled around in the bottom of the cell are bee grubs a few days old. These big fellows that almost fill up the whole cell have nearly completed their grub stage. Where the brown caps are on the cells are the young bees in their last stage of development. Here is one that is just eating her way out. That little woolly fellow, after about twenty-one days of imprisonment, has just come out to see what the bee-home is like. These light-coloured woolly ones that are running about more ninbly are older. They are now engaged in the duty of feeding their younger brothers and sisters. They have not been out of the hive yet. They don't go out to work till they are about 14 days old. They then give up their nursing duties and become field labourers. Those capped cells that stand out more prominently! Oh, there are young drones in there, they will remain in the cells about forty hours longer than the worker ; you see the cells are more bulky every way than the workers. That dark substance in these cells is bee-bread, made from that pollen you saw the bees carrying in on their hinder legs. That, eaten by the nurse bees, with a little honey and water added, is the material the young bees are fed upon whilst they are in the cells. No, these big bees out there are not queens, there is only one queen. Well, there is very likely to be one or two unhatched queens; these are always more or less present in the spring and also in summer, if the season is good Why are there so many drones, when there is only one queen! You will learn that further on. That long bee there is the queen! The first you ever saw! Yes ; she is easily picked out when you know her. Not much difference, only much larger! To you there may not be, but I can see a vast difference between her and a worker even externally. True, she has six rings to her body, and four wings and six legs, the same as a worker. Those two legs nearest the head of the worker are very similar to those of the queen. They both carry little combs in them for the purpose of cleaning their horns (antenne). In the hinder legs of the queen there are no baskets to carry the pollen, neither has she those little nippers for removing the wax scales from the pockets that the worker has. The middle pair of legs in the worker contains a crowbar to lever out the pollen from the baskets. This is not so with the queen. The legs of the queen and the drone more nearly resemble each other than those of the queen and the worker. I will pick up the queen by the wing. I must handle her very gently or I may injure her for life, or she may become what bee-keepers term a drone layer. Oh, yes, she has a sting, and a very formidable one too. It is the drone has no sting. No, she won't sting. She can if she wishes to, but as a rule she only uses it on rival queens ; her sting is not like that of the worker--that is straight, like a fine needle, but the queen's is somewhat curved. You would like to see the cell the queen lives in! She does not live in a cell. Her home is anywhere in the hive ; but usually she is to be found on comb, in the cells of which she is laying. That large knob there, something like a lady's thimble, is a queen's cell ; that is the cell from which one will be hatched. She will be out in a day or so--sixteen days from the time the egg was laid till she emerges from the cell. That cell like an acorn-cup is one from which the queen has emerged. No, they won't use this cell a second time. Well, I think now we had better close them up, they are getting restless. Those becs you hear flying around you, making a sharp, shrill noise, have just returned from field labour, and they cannot understand what we are up to. Further on, you will find the whole theory of this in detailed or in practical and scientific language.