One eye points towards the hive. the other eye is fixed on a new, never before seen hand, holding a precious queen living in the hive of which that comb is only a part. The queen bee is, for your information, often subject of myth, allegory, confusion, fear, poetry, practical advice, and a small mail order trade (the queen arrives at the Post Office in a small stamped box, mobile prison with just enough food). Out of the waxen meta-Body of her hive... the box that is her throne.. she is smaller than a that thumbnail there.     To forestall possible ruin, Hive-Maker hoped to purchase an experimental stock of specialty bees from Mesopotamia.