684 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



the Live. The supply of honey is then also low, for they have eaten 

 their stores all winter and none has been collected and placed in 

 the cells. As soon as the days are warm enough the bees begin to 

 fly from the hive in search of the earliest spring flowers. From 

 these flowers they collect nectar, which is transformed into honey, 

 and pollen, which they carry to the hive on the pollen baskets on 

 the third pair of legs. The nectar is taken into the bee's mouth 

 and then passes to an enlargement of the alimentary canal, known 

 as the honey-stomach, where it is acted upon by certain juices 

 secreted by the bee. On its arrival in the hive the bee places its 

 head in one of the cells of the comb and deposits there the nectar 

 which it has carried in. By this time the nectar has been partially 

 transformed into honey, and the process is completed by the bees 

 by fanning the cells to evaporate the excess of moisture which 

 still remains. When a cell has been filled with the thick honey the 

 workers cover it with a thin sheet of wax, unless it is to be eaten 

 at once. The pollen is also deposited in cells, but is rarely mixed 

 with honey. The little pellets which the bees carry in are packed 

 tightly into cells and if a cell of pollen be dug out of the comb one 

 can usually see the layers made by the different pellets. This col- 

 lecting of nectar and pollen continues throughout the summer and 

 ceases only with the death of the last flow r ers in the autumn. 



Almost as soon as the honey and pollen begin to come in, the 

 queen of the colony begins to lay eggs in the cells in the center 

 combs. The title of queen has been given to the female bee which 

 normally lays all the eggs of the colony, under the supposition that 

 she governs the colony and directs its activities. This we now know 

 to be an error, but the name still remains. Her one duty in life is that 

 of egg-laying. She is most carefully watched over by the workers, 

 and is constantly surrounded by a circle of attendants who feed her 

 and touch her with their antennae; but she in no way dictates what 

 shall take place in the hive. The eggs are laid in the bottom of 

 the hexagonal cells, being attached by one end to the center of the 

 base. The first eggs laid develop into workers, and are deposited 

 in cells one-fifth of an inch across. As the colony increases in size 

 by the hatching of these workers, and as the stores of honey and 

 pollen increase, the queen begins to lay in larger cells, measuring 

 one-fourth of an inch across, and from the eggs laid in these cells 

 drones develop. The size of the cell does not determine the sex, 

 as will be explained later; but the queen almost invariably lays the 

 worker eggs in the smaller cells and the drone eggs in the larger 

 ones. As these male eggs develop and hatch, drones begin in the 

 colony, generally about the first of May in temperate climates. 



The eggs do not develop directly into adult bees, as might be 

 inferred from what has just been said; but after three days there 

 hatches from the egg a small white worm-like larva. For several 

 days the larvae are fed by the workers, and the amount of food con- 

 sumed is truly remarkable. The larva grows rapidly, until it fills 

 the entire cell in which it lives, and then the workers cover the cell 

 with a cap of wax while the larva inside spins a delicate cocoon 

 under the cap. The worker brood can at once be distinguished 

 from the drone brood by the fact that the workers place a flat cap 

 over worker brood and a high arched cap over drone brood; and this 

 often is of great help to the bee-keeper in enabling him to deter- 



