44 



upwards and feet firmly planted, they go throug-h the motion of flying- 

 without stirring- from the spot. This forces a strong current of air 

 throug-h the hive, which absorbs the moisture in the honey and carries it 

 outside of the hive. The work is very exhausting-, and they work in 

 short relays or shifts. In this way, if a colony has g-athered a hundred 

 pounds of honey in a season, it has also expelled from the hive one or 

 two barrels of water. By this means too, the hive is ventilated and 

 kept cool in very warm weather ; but if the entrance is so very small 

 that but little air can be forced in, the bees become discouraged and turn 

 to loafing. The bee is not always an example of industry. 



When nectar cannot be obtained bees will suck juice out of fruit. 

 Raspberry juice will show through the bee's abdomen and give it a bright 

 red appearance. Sometimes they gather a very rank liquid from the 

 surface of leaves and grass. It looks like dew, and is called honey-dew. 

 It falls upon the ground, being sprayed into the air by a louse or aphis, 

 — the cow of the ant. 



Looking at the comb again, you will notice that just below the honey 

 there are many cells filled with a red or yellow substance. This is 

 pollen, often called bee-bread, because it tastes not unlike bread. We 



used to believe that the 

 legs of the bee were wax. 

 or the dust of the anthers 

 on the pollen brushes of 

 ball and placed in the pol- 

 with stiff hairs on one 

 One can watch this oper- 

 early in spring when there 



Bees sting 

 in the immediate neigh- 



bright yellow balls on the hind 

 This is not the case; it is pollen, 

 of flowers. It is collected by hairs 

 the legs ; then kneaded into a 

 len basket, a spoon-like hollow 

 side, like stakes on a wood-rack, 

 ation very closely by placing, 

 is no pollen, a dish of oat meal 

 thirty yards or so from the hive, 

 with a little honey in it to 

 attract bees there 

 only 



borhood of their hive. Some- 

 times when the pollen is very 

 plentiful, as in cucumber blos- 

 soms, they roll their bodies in 

 it and pick it off with their feet. 

 Each bee visits only one kind 

 of flower on each excursion and thus the flowers visited are cross- 

 fertilized without being hybridized. Another product that is carried 

 in this way is bee-glue. It is used to stop up cracks in the hive to 

 keep out draughts It is that sticky substance on poplar and horse chest- 

 nut buds. Below the pollen is the greater part of the comb which is nearly 

 black and contains the brood or young bees in all stages of growth. 



The most important personage in the hive is the queen or mother-bee, 

 — so-called because she is the mother of all the bees in the colony. She is 

 shy and hard to find, but easily recognized, being nearly twice the size of 

 a worker. Early in spring when food commences to be brought in — for 

 the queen is provident and will not lay when the larder is empty — she 

 begins to deposit eggs, one at the base of each cell, and slightly glues it 



Fio. 54. — B, Hind leg: of worker ; c, tibia hollowed on 

 outer side as pollen-liasket ; ,/', tarsus with pollen- 

 brushes ; g, foot, with claws, side view ; C, foot, front 

 view, more enlarged. [From nature.] 



