45 



place two or more 

 sting-, remove all 



eg-g-s in a cell, the 

 but one to other cells. 









'/!^ 



Fig. 55. — A, Comb, front view : rf, drone-cells ; u\ worker-cells ; f, transition- 

 al cells used for storing honey and bee-bread ; g, queen's cell ; 6, brood 

 capped over ; e. eggs ; m, larva or magg^ot. B, Section of sheet of comb, 

 showing inclination of cell. C, Queen-cell, with cap cut off by workers. 

 [From nature.) 



there. If she happens to 

 workers, that is the bees 

 Drone, o r male, 

 eg-g-s are placed in 

 the larger cells and 

 workers or female 

 eggs in the small- 



er cells. She lays 

 eg-g-s of either sex 

 at will ; and the 

 workers can dis- 

 tinguish the sex 

 of an eg-g^ by some 

 unknown instinct. 

 At the end of three 

 or tour days, the 

 eggs hatch into 

 small, white mag- 

 g-ots. The nurs- 

 ing bees prepare a 



food of honey, pollen, and water, partially digest it after the manner of 

 patented foods for infants, and pour it into the cells for the grubs. In 

 from four to six days, the maggot grows almost large enough to fill the 

 cell. The nurses then seal over the apartment with a porous lid of wax 

 and the grub enters the pupa state. From the middle part of the under 

 lip two silky threads issue, which cling- together and form a single 

 thread ; continually extending- and retracting its body, it spins a silkv 

 white cocoon, something like that of the silk-worm. The inmate of the 

 cell is now transformed into the shape of a bee, but is pure white, and 

 for that reason is called a nymph. In twenty-one days or so after the 

 ^Sg is laid, the young bee chews away the cap of the cell. If you 

 examine a comb of sealed brood, you will generally see two or three of 

 them with their heads half way out of the cells, taking a first view of the 

 world. When they emerge they are weak, flaccid, half g^rown creatures, 

 covered with silver grey hairs that give them such a new appearance as 

 to excite in the beholder the liveliest sympathy. The nurse bees then 

 clean out the cell and fasten down its silken lining which serves to 

 strengthen the comb, and is so thin that a hundred of them scarcely 

 diminish the size of the cell. The first day the young bee does little but 

 crawl about and sip honey ; then in its turn it becomes a nurse and feeds 

 the maggots. When about ten days old, along with scores of other 

 young bees, it plays during the warm part of the day, just before the 

 entrance to the hive. It is a pretty sight to see them dancing in the 

 warm sunshine and learning the use of their wings ; in half an hour they 

 g-o into the hive again and all is quiet. Besides being nurses they are 

 tidy little housekeepers, removing every impurity and all dead bees. At 

 two weeks, the young bee builds comb and goes for its first load of pollen, 

 of which it is as proud as a boy is of his first pair of trousers. 

 After this it undertakes to gather nectar. After from two to four 



