The Habits of the Uoneybee 



13 



yet we cannot but admire and wonder at the remark- 

 able instinct, almost bordering on intelligence, which 

 enables the bees thus to build cells so well suited to 

 tlieir purpose. 



The original plan for a cell for storing honey and 

 raising brood is a cylinder, and this we find in some 

 other bees; but if the honeybee constructed cylindrical 

 cells there would be much more waste space and an 

 unnecessary expenditure of wax. If we take a number 

 of cylinders of flexible material and press them to- 

 gether they assume a hexagonal shape like the cells 



DRONE-BEE — NO POLLEN-BASKET. 



of the comb; but the bees in building do not first 

 construct cylinders, but at first hand make the cells 

 hexagonal. 



As soon as there are some cells constructed, and even 

 before the cells are entirely completed, the queen 

 begins to lay eggs, and the workers begin to collect the 

 stores of honey and pollen. They also collect in con- 

 siderable quantity a waxy substance from various 



