334 AGRICULTURE FOR COMMON SCHOOLS 



plentiful, but when this decreases the worker bees sting the 

 drones to death and throw them out the door of the hive. The 

 drone has no sting and cannot defend himself. It is said 

 that the antennae of the drone has 37,800 little smelling 

 organs.* 



Honey is made from the nectar of flowers, a drop or more 

 of which is found in the base of the corolla of the flower. The 



79. A MASS OF HONEY-COMB 



bee sucks this into a honey sac inside its body and carries it 

 to the hive where other w^orkers take it, evaporate some of the 

 water, add certain substances, and deposit it in the honey 

 cells. These cells are not capped over as soon as they are 

 full, but the honey is allowed to "ripen" first. A honey-bee 

 will collect honey from flowers within a radius of two or three 

 miles from the hive. If there are many flowers of the same 

 kind in blossom at one time, the bees will collect from only 

 * Comstock : How to Keep Bees. 



