BEE 



651 



BEE 



near the entrance, and with rapidly fanning 

 wings keep the air in motion. This not only 

 provides ventilation but evaporates from the 

 flower nectar in the cells a part of its water 

 content and thickens it into honey. 



Development and Care of Young. But the 

 most important duty of the workers is the 

 care of the young, for the queen mother : 

 no attention to them. The oval egg, about 

 one-twelfth of an inch in length, hatches in 

 three days, and at the bottom of the cell 

 tin i lies a little white grub the bee in its 

 larral state. The wormlike larvae are so 

 helpless that the workers have to force food 

 into their mouths, and the first food that they 

 receive is the special " bee-jelly," a pre-digested 

 substance forced out from the stomachs of 

 the workers. Later they are also given "bee- 

 bread," a mixture of honey and pollen, but 

 after about five days, when each young bee 

 almost fills its cell as it lies curled up in it, 

 refuse food, and the workers seal up the 

 < II. using not the pure wax with which they 

 cap the honey cells, but a porous mixture of 

 tml pollen through which the larvae may 

 obtain air. 



Wit Inn the sealed cell the little larva spins 

 fine silky covering and lies dormant 

 for about two weeks; thru the young bee, 

 fully developed, gnaws a hole in the cap and 

 U out. If the new bee is a male, or 

 drone, it has no tasks to perform, and may, 

 after trying its nau/y wings by short flights, 

 go forth and frolic in the sunshine; but if it 

 is a worker, it speedily learns the meaning of 

 she is a nurse, caring for 

 the undeveloped young; then she learns to 

 make comb, to clean house and to help ven- 

 tilate. Finally, after she has been a \\ : 

 creature for about a week, she makes her 

 Ihu'ht. ami from that time on helps in the 

 honey-gathering. 



Developing New Queens. As the swarm 

 grows all because of the constantly 



emerging young bees, it begins to be too small 

 for its quarters, and the wonderful little 



I know well the way out of the iithrulty. 



. t hey nwat develop a new queen, or, 



is not safe to risk disappointment in 



important matter, several new queens. 



No special eggs are laid for this purpose, but 



a special cell must be provi.l- : walls 



are torn down between a cell which already 



contains a wo young larva 



Mini several surrounding cell-. MI that one 



tie is formed, <|uit nl in 



appearance from either worker cells or drone 

 cells. When the larva is ready to be fed it 

 is given bee-jelly exclusively, and no bee- 

 bread, and the difference in feeding is what 

 produces, apparently, the queen; for when, 

 seven days after the acorn-shaped cell has 

 been capped, there issues a young bee, it is 

 a slim, graceful queen. After she has 1 

 her way around the hive she starts on a tour 

 of inspection with just one object to di 

 other queen cells. If she finds such she breaks 

 them open and stings to death the undevel- 

 oped queens within. 



Swarming. But there is still the old queen, 

 and rivalry between them is keen. Perhaps 

 they may fight and one or the other of them 

 be killed, and the whole process of queen- 



A SWARM ON A TREE BRANCH 



pment has to be gone through once 

 more; but more commonly the Iwcs svcarm, 



- t. . hmc.illy railed. All the hi\- 

 vast excitement. Few workers go forth for 



