990 AN INTRODUCTION TO ENTOMOLOGY 



each young queen founds a new colony. Thus there is a tendency 

 towards a great multiplication of colonies. But with the honey-bee 

 the habit of storing food for the winter, and the nature of the habita- 

 tions render it possible for the colonies to exist indefinitely. And thus 

 if the old and young queens remained together peacefully there 

 would be no multiplication of colonies, and the species would surely 

 die out in time. We see, therefore that what appears to be merely 

 jealousy on the part of the queen honey-bee is an instinct necessary 

 to the continuance of the species. 



The sting of a queen-bee is no ignoble weapon, but it is rarely 

 used except against a rival queen . When several young queens mature 

 at the same time there is a pitched battle for supremacy, and the last 

 left living on the field becomes the head of the colony. One morning 

 we found the lifeless bodies of fifteen young queens cast forth from a 

 single hive — a montmient to the powers of the surviving Amazon in 

 triumphant possession within. 



The materials used by bees are wax and propolis, which serve as 

 materials for construction; and honey and bee-bread used for food. 



The comb is made of wax, which is an excretion of the bees. 

 When a colony needs wax, many of the workers gorge themselves 

 with honey and then hang quietly in a curtain-like mass, the upper 

 bees clinging to the roof of the hive, and the lower ones to the bees 

 above them. After about twenty-four hours there appear on the 

 lower surface of the abdomen of each bee little plates of wax that 

 are forced out from openings between the ventral abdominal seg- 

 ments called wax-pockets. Other workers attend to this curtain and 

 collect the wax as fast as it appears, and use it at once in constructing 

 comb. 



Propolis is a cement used for cementing up crevices, and is made 

 of a resin which the bees collect from the buds of various trees, but 

 especially of the poplar. 



Honey is made from the nectar of flowers and is taken into the 

 crop of the bee, and there changed into honey, and then regurgitated 

 into the cells of the comb. 



Bee-bread is made from the pollen of flowers, which the bees 

 bring in on the plates fringed with hairs on the hind legs, the corbiculae. 



Very many books have been written regarding the habits of the 

 honey-bee; some of these are to be found in most public libraries. 

 There are also many manuals for the use of those who wish to keep 

 bees ; among these is a small one for beginners by Mrs. A. B . Comstock 

 ('20) and a cyclopedia by A. I. and E. R. Root ('17). The U.S. De- 

 partment of Agriculture has published many bullletins on this subject ; 

 one of a general nature is "Farmers Bulletin 447." 



