BEE 



656 



BEE 



strange guest. It looks like a bumble- 

 bee, but it is not one, although a near ivla- 

 .ive. It lives on the honey gathered by the 

 vorkere, but does not a single thing to pay 

 'or its keeping. It is merely a parasite, or 



something which lives wholly through, the ef- 

 forts of other living things (see PARASITE). 

 But no quarrels are caused by its presence, 

 and some have thought it to be a degenerate 

 type of the true bumblebee. V.L.K. 



"Solitary" Bees 



Carpenter-Bee, a solitary bee as large as the 

 largest bumblebee. Each mother carpenter- 

 Dee builds her own nest and provides the food 

 for her young. She burrows into wood for a 

 short distance and then makes a tunnel for 

 i foot or more lengthwise of the grain. Be- 

 ginning at the bottom, the bee lays her eggs, 

 ?:ich in a separate cell one above another, 

 ind all are filled with a plentiful supply of 

 food. One by one the eggs hatch and the 

 young remain in their cells and wait; when 

 the last one is hatched, the mother leads her 



HOME OF THE CARPENTER-BEE 



family out for a flight in the sunshine. There 

 are a few kinds of small-sized carpenter-bees. 



Mason Bee, a pretty little bee which belongs 

 to the class of "solitaries," or those which live 

 not in communities, but by families. The 

 mason bee either hollows out a tunnel in 

 pithy wood or makes a nest in some con- 

 venient ready-made hole, as a snail shell or 

 a little hollow in the rocks; but in any case 

 she earns her name by her method of con- 

 structing egg cells. These she makes of moist 

 clay, in which are embedded little stones, 

 sticks and leaves, and she works so skilfully 

 that the inside of the cell is perfectly smooth. 

 In each cell is placed one egg and a store of 

 bee-bread, of honey and pollen, whereon the 

 grub-like young may feed. V.L.K. 



Consult Roots' A B C of Bee Culture; Cow- 

 an's The Honeybee; Its Natural History, Anat- 

 omy and Physiology. 



A Booklet on the Bee 



There is nothing in all their school 

 work that children enjoy more than 

 the making of illustrated booklets, and 

 when the subject is such a fascinating 

 one as the bee, the pleasure is in- 

 creased. The following outline is 

 merely suggestive, but will give a good 

 idea of how attractive a booklet may 

 be made. Use two sheets of paper 

 9x12 inches, or larger, and fold once, 

 making eight pages : 



Cover page Border at top and bottom 

 of six-sided figures, representing 

 cells. 



Title, The Honeybee, made of hexag- 

 onal drawings. 



Design, old-style hive or skep, repre- 

 senting industry. 

 Name of school and pupil's name at 



bottom. 



Page two (Blank). 

 Page three Essay, The Bee. 



Illustrations : Worker, queen, drone, 



larva. 



Page four Essay, The Relation of 

 Bees to Flowers. 



(a) What the flower gives the bee. 



(b) What the bee gives the flower. 

 Illustrations: apple blossoms, wild 



rose, clover. 

 Page five Copy of short poem on the 



bee. 



Illustrations : Hive ; bee on the wing. 

 Page six Essay, Honey. 



(a) In the comb. 



(b) Strained honey. 



(c) Commercial value 



(d) Food value. 

 Illustrations: Section of comb, jars 



of strained honey. 



Page seven An original page to dis- 

 tinguish your booklet. 



Page eight Quotations about the bee. 

 Illustrate. 



F 



End of Volume One 



