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Home Nature-Study Course. 



The A. I. Root observation hive, 

 at the left. 



The box cover 



stomach filled with nec- 

 tar and disgorges this 

 into a cell. When a bee 

 comes in loaded with 

 pollen she first brushes 

 it from the pollen bas- 

 kets on her hind legs 

 into the cell; later an- 

 other worker comes along 

 and packs the poller, 

 grains into the cell with 

 her head, which is a 

 comical sight. The bee 

 nurses run about on the 

 comb feeding the young 



bee grubs partially digested honey and pollen regurgitated from their own stomachs. 

 Whenever the queen moves about the comb she is followed by a retinue of devoted 

 attendants which feed her on the rich and perfectly digested royal jelly and also 

 take care of her royal person and give her every attention possible. The queen, 

 when laying, thrusts her abdomen into the cell and glues a little white egg to the 

 bottom. The specially interesting thing about this is that the queen always lays an 

 egg which will produce a female or worker in the smaller cells and will always lay 

 an egg to produce a drone or male in the larger cells. If there is any foreign sub- 

 stance in the observation hive it is interesting to see the bees go to work at once 

 to remove it. They dump all of the debris out in front of the hive. They close 

 all crevices in the hive and will always curtain the glass if the door is kept open 

 too much with propolis or bee glue, which is a very sticky substance which they 

 get from leaf buds and other vegetable sources. When bees fan to set up a current 

 of air in the hive they glide back and forth, moving the wings so rapidly that one 

 can only see a blurr about their bodies. If drones are developed in the hive it is 

 interesting to see how tenderly they are fed by their sister workers, although they 

 do not hesitate to help themselves to the honey stored in the cells ; and if the obser- 

 vation hive is working during September undoubtedly the pupils may be able to 

 see the murder of the drones by their sisters. But the children should understand 

 that this killing of the drones is necessary for the preservation of the colony, as 

 the workers cannot store enough honey to keep the colony alive during the winter 

 if the drones were allowed to go on feeding. 



If you see the worker bees fighting, it means that robbers are attempting to get 

 at the stores of the observation hive. The entrance to the hive should at once be 

 contracted by placing a block of wood in front, so that there is room for only one 

 bee at a time to pass in and out. 



