FARM ANIMALS 



409 



on the abdomen. To save the bees labor and honey, arti- 

 ficial comb foundations made of wax sheets are often sup- 

 plied to the bee stands, which are best filled inside with frames 

 that can easily be taken out when filled with comb and honey 

 by the bees. 



The worker bee works so hard flying back and forth 

 (sometimes to long distances), 

 building combs, and buzzing to 

 ventilate the hive, that its 

 life is shortened. Probably it 

 does not live more than five 

 months, and during the season 

 of hardest work, sometimes only 

 four weeks. So young broods 

 must constantly be brought up 

 to supply their places. The 

 workers place food in the cells 

 in which the queen has laid her 

 eggs, and then seal them on top 



with wax. When the young grub has eaten all the food pro- 

 vided, it spins a cocoon, and after twenty-one days is ready 

 to come out as a flying bee. 



Bees are guided to where flowers grow much more by 

 the perfume than by the color, and will go miles to 

 find them if necessary. In California the wild blue 

 and white sage and alfalfa fields, and in more northern 

 countries red and white clover, are favorite pastures, 

 as are orchard trees of all kinds when in bloom. The 

 amount of honey a bee can carry in its honey sack is 

 quite small, being about the size of an apple seed. So 

 it takes very many such loads, and an equal number of 



FIG. 209. Beehive. 



