BEE-KEEPING. 



437 



found in the centre box in considerable quantities for the support of the 

 young. 



1307. It is a remarkable circumstance, that in a new colony the design 

 of every comb is sketched out and the first rudiments laid by a single bee, 

 •t\'hich, having disengaged itself from the swarm, commences the building of 

 cells, which is then taken up by the other wax- 

 makers, and subsequently by the nurse bees, 

 which give the finishing stroke to the cells. 

 Fig*. II. represents the operation of laying 

 the foundation of the cell, and fig. I. a cur- 

 tain of working bees secreting the wax. The 

 (iombs are attached to the roof and sides of the 

 dwelling, the hives or boxes to the floors and 

 roofs, and the cell-work of the combs varnished 

 with a resinous, very tenacious, and transparent 

 substance, termed propolis, which the bees 

 collect fi-om various trees, — as from pines and 

 other trees of the fir tribe according to some 

 av;thors, but from the wild poplar according to 

 Huber. 



1308. There are three sorts of cells,— the first 

 are for the larvae of workers, and for containing 

 the honey ; the second are for the grubs of the 

 males or drones (being considerably larger and 

 more substantial, they usually appear near the 

 bottom of the combs) ; the third are the cells for 

 the females, of which there are usually three or 



fuur. One of these cells considerably exceeds in height the ordinary ones, and 

 they are not interwoven with them, but suspended perpendicularl}', their sizes 

 being nearly parallel to the mouths of the common cells, several of which are 

 sacrificed to support them : they are of an oblong, spheroidal form, tapering 

 gradually downwards. 



1309. After the queen-bee has quitted her cell, it is destroyed by the 

 workers, and its place occupied by a range of common cells. The queen 

 deposits her eggs separately in the bottom of each cell. The egg is of a 

 lengthened oval shape, with a slight curve, and of a bluish colour. When 

 laid it is covered with a glutinous matter, which enables it to adhere to the 

 bottom of the cell, where it remains for four days. The worker eggs, which 

 are the only ones laid by the queen during the first eleven months, hatch in a 

 fe-v days, and become little white maggots, which, as they grow, assume a curved 

 position till the two extremities touch each other and form a ring. Each is 

 now fed with bee-bread by the workers, and at the expiration of six days, 

 having attained its full size, it is roofed in by the workers, spins a silken 

 cocoon, which occupies it for thirty-six hours, and then becomes a nymph or 

 pupa, and at the further expiration of eleven days, the insect quits the exuviae 



