BUSY BEES. 97 



then packed into little baskets at the middle joints of 

 the hind legs. The right foot is used to fill the left 

 pocket, and the left foot to fill the right pocket. 



PART 2. 



THE cells are made for four different purposes for 

 the young workers, drones, and queens, and for stor- 

 ing honey. Four drone cells or five worker cells will 

 measure an" inch. The queen cell is larger. Honey 

 cells are not uniform in size, but are about a half inch 

 deep by a quarter inch in diameter. Remember the 

 queen lays all the eggs. She places a single egg in 

 each nursery cell, always being careful to deposit 

 worker eggs in worker cells, drone eggs in drone cells. 

 She makes no mistakes. The grown workers seal up 

 these cells, leaving little holes for air to enter, when 

 the young shall be hatched. The honey cells, when 

 filled, they always seal tight to keep the honey from 

 turning to candy. In about three days the eggs in the 

 cells are hatched, and the young appear in the shape 

 of small, white grubs or larvae. 



Now some of the workers act as nurses, and are 

 busy preparing food for the young in their cells. 

 Pollen, honey, and water are mixed, and partly di- 

 gested in the stomachs of the nurses, and this mixture 

 is fed to the working and drone infants. A more 

 stimulating substance, called royal jelly, is given to 

 the queen-grubs, of which there are usually about five. 

 And, strange as it may seem, should all the queens be 

 destroyed, the workers will feed the royal jelly to a 



worker-grub not more than three days old ; enlarge its 

 L. c.- 7 . 



