IEES. 217 



and put it in cells, some of which are set apart for 

 pollen, others for honey. Note that flower-honey 

 is not the same as honey in the comb., The former 

 is changed by some re-action within the bee's body 

 into the "golden honey" of commerce. 



The Queen and the Drones. — The queen-bee has 

 a longer body than the \vorker ; she has a power- 

 ful sting. The queen and worker have six seg- 

 ments in the abdomen ; the male or drone has 

 seven. The male or drone has no sting, for he 

 does not forage for nectar dr pollen, neither does 

 he defend the hive. Drones merely hang about the 

 hive doing nothing but sip the honey and bask in 

 the sunshine. However, should food be scarce the 

 drones are turned out of the hive, and often killed 

 by the workers. 



Drones have no specialised legs such as 'the 

 workers have. 



After the marriage flight the queen returns to 

 preside over the old hive (note the old queen leads 

 the swarm of bees away to form a new hive). She 

 lays about 2,000 to 3,000 eggs a day, so that she 

 needs to be very well nourished. The eggs are 

 of 2 kinds (a) fertilised eggs (b) unfertilised eggs 

 which produce males. The fertilised eggs produce 

 workers, and these different eggs seem to be laid at 

 will. 



When swarming takes place the old queen leads 

 the departing swarm, and sets up a new kingdom, 

 where the cells are quickly made by the workers 

 with wax which they have manufactured out of 

 materials obtained from plants. 



