354 
only when the workers will it, their own condition of prosperity as 
regards stores, or their anticipations of the future needs of the colony 
as regards population, causing them to supply the queen hberally with 
food rich in nitrogen—a partially digested substance, or a gland prod- 
uct, or perhaps a mixture of both, which she alone can not produce, vet 
without which any considerable production of eggs is an impossibility. 
As Evans remarks: 
The prescient female rears her tender brood 
In strict proportion to the hoarded food. 
We must, then, credit the industrious and provident workers vith 
the chief influence in shaping the policy of the hive. They are the 
servum pecus—the living force—of the colony. And to the end that 
order and efficiency of effort may prevail, they have, we find, a marked 
division of labor. In the normal condition of the hive the young 
workers, as already stated, care for the brood—a labor which they take 
upon themselves within two or three days after issuing from the cell. 
The glands which secrete a part of the food required by the developing 
larvee are active during the earlier part of the life of a worker. Later, 
these nurses become incapable of doing their work well as the gland 
system becomes atrophied. When a few days old they take short 
flights, if the weather favors, but seldom commence gathering stores 
before they are filteen days old. Wax production is more essentially 
a function of the workers in middle life, and it is particularly notice- 
able that those bees fashioning the wax into combs are principally of 
this class. Many of those acting as foragers do, however, secrete wax 
scales, which are doubtless, in the main, utilized. Among the outside 
workers and hive-defenders some bring honey only on certain trips or 
for a time, others honey and pollen, others water, and yet others pro- 
polis or bee glue to stop up crevices and glue things fast. Meanwhile 
some are buzzing their wings at the entrance to ventilate the hive, and 
others are removing dead bees, dust, or loose fibers of wood from the 
inside of the hive or from near the entrance, or are guarding this last 
against intruders, or perhaps driving out the drones when these are no 
longer needed. 
SWARMING. 
Perhaps there is no action on the part of the.Hive Bee which more 
distinctly indicates its intelligence and power of communication than 
the act of swarming. The fact that queen brood is being reared m the 
hive is the best evidence that the colony is preparing for flight or 
swarming; but in addition, 1¢ is noticeable tlat on the day of swarm- 
ing the whole colony is excited, and in a measure has abandoned ordi- 
nary duties. For days previous to the event, scouts have been search- 
ing for a favorable hollow or crevice or place in which to house the 
new colony, and when the time finally comes, which is usually in the 
hotter part of the day, all the individuals of the hive leave after the 
