BEE 



650 



BEE 



a new hive. It is a clean, empty place, con- 

 ing nothing but wooden frames on which 

 v he tmilt. And this comb is the 

 requisite in the now home. Accord-, 

 ingly, a group of workers, or several groups, if 

 . 1),- large, withdraw to a corner and 

 form a hanging clus- 

 lolding 



t. those above it by 

 oklike feet V 

 once they begin to 

 . a liquid wax, 

 which hardens in 

 - on the wax- 

 B of their ab- 

 domens and is car- 

 ried off by other 

 workers to be built 



into six-sided cells. BEGINNING OF THE 

 Nothing about the 



work of bees is more wonderful than the 

 shaping of these cells. Mathematicians declare 

 that the greatest ingenuity could not work out 

 a method of placing and shaping these which 

 would more effectually combine economy of 

 space and material with the necessary strength. 

 Egg-Laying. When a number of cells have 

 been made, the queen begins to lay eggs, and 

 her method is most systematic. From cell to 

 cell she goes, pokes in her head to make sure 

 that a cell is empty and ready, and then glues 

 an egg fast to the bottom. Not every cell 

 is filled, for some are needed for the storing 

 of honey and pollen. One unfailing instinct 

 the queen possesses. There are two sorts of 

 cells, the regular-sized ones for the eggs which 



DEVELOPMENT OF A HONEYBEE 

 are to hatch into workers, and the larger cells 

 for those which are to develop drones, and 

 never does the queen mistake and drop the 

 wrong egg into a cell. 



The life of a queen is generally three or 

 four years, and all during that time she is 

 laying eggs, for she is the mother of every bee 

 in the hive, and as the other classes do not 

 live as long as she does, there must be a con- 



stant supply of young bees coming out to 

 take the place of the failing ones. Drones 

 live through a whole season, but the tireless 

 workers last only about six weeks. When 

 they weaken and drop no sympathy is shown 

 them, but they are hustled out of the hive 

 and left to die, for the bees are perfect com- 

 munists and consider no individual as any- 

 thing. But the queen, while she mu>t labor 

 hard to keep up the population of her colony, 

 is too wise to produce workers always at the 

 same rate. In the summer when honey is 

 plentiful and many are needed to care for it, 

 she works very fast, laying sometimes as many 

 as 3,000 eggs in a day, but in winter, when the 

 food supply is running low, she produces com- 

 paratively few. All the time that she is jour- 

 neying about the hive depositing her eggs, 

 she is accompanied by eight or ten workers, 

 her "ladies in waiting," who surround her in a 

 circle, each one with its head toward her. 

 Evidently hive etiquette, like that of a court, 

 does not permit the turning of one's back 

 toward the queen. Some authorities hold that 

 it is not the queen who is so wise about laying 

 drone eggs and worker eggs each in their 

 proper cells and about regulating the popula- 

 tion, but that her special bodyguard of work- 

 ers directs all her actions. 



Other Industries of the Hive. Bees have 

 been domesticated for so long that close ob- 

 servation of them has been possible, -and most 

 of their activities are fairly well known. Noth- 

 ing, it seems, is neglected in their wonderful 

 community, where no one bee has any more 

 authority than any other, but it seems impos- 

 sible to discover whether certain companies 

 are delegated to attend to certain duties, or 

 whether all share alike. There is, as stated 

 above, honey comb to make and honey and 

 pollen to gather. <( Bee gum," technically 

 known as propolis, a sticky substance with 

 which they strengthen cells and patch up holes, 

 must also be brought in, and honey-filled cells 

 must be. sealed up. Then, too, the hive must 

 be kept clean, and a number of bees are al- 

 ways active carrying out broken wax, dead 

 bees and refuse of all sorts, while others stand 

 at ' the door as guards and touch with their 

 antennae, or feelers, every bee which tries to 

 enter, to make certain that it really belongs 

 to the swarm. How they can be certain is 

 not known, but some infallible instinct evi- 

 dently tells them. Strangest of all, a large 

 squad have as their function the furnishing of 

 the air in the hive. They take their stand 



