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The bee, a social insect
Domestic
bees live in communities that can count up to fifty thousand
individuals, most of which are worker-bees under the command of
a queen-bee.
The queen-bee devotes her life to the laying of eggs. She can lay
up to two thousand a day and to this end she is fed exclusively
on royal jelly. She only leaves the beehive twice in her life: before
beginning her reign, when she is ten days old, for the mating
flights and then when she is mature for the swarming.
The worker-bees all share the same genetic heritage, so they are
all sisters. They live in perfect harmony, devoting their life to
the family. There can be no rivalry among them, or with the queen-bee,
since they are sterile and could never hope to become queens. They
rear the young, feed the queen, repair the beehive and build new
cells to store excess honey and the nectar and pollen
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