THE ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE OF ANIMALS 207 



Honey and Wax. — Honeybees ^ are kept in hives. A colony 

 consists of a queen, a female who lays the eggs for the colony, the 

 drones, whose duty it 

 is to fertilize the eggs, 

 and the workers. 



The cells of the comb 

 are built by the workers 

 out of wax secreted 

 from the under surface 

 of their bodies. The 

 wax is cut off in thin 

 plates by means of the 

 wax shears between 

 the two last joints of 

 the hind legs. These 

 cells are used to place 

 the eggs of the queen 

 in, one egg to each 

 cell, and the young are 

 hatched after three 

 days, to begin life as 

 footless white grubs. 



The young are fed 

 for several days, then 

 shut up in the cells 

 and allowed to form pupae. Eventually they break their cells and 

 take their place as workers in the hive, first as nurses for the 

 young and later as pollen gatherers and honey makers. 



We have already seen (pages 37 to 39) that the honeybee 

 gathers nectar, which she swallows, keeping the fluid in her crop 

 until her return to the hive. Here it is forced out into cells of 



1 Their daily life may be easily watched in the schoolroom, by means of one of the 

 many good and cheap observation hives now made to be placed in a window frame. 

 Directions for making a small observation hive for school work can be found in 

 Hodge, Nature Study and Life, Chap. XIV. Bulletin No. 1, U.S. Department of 

 Agriculture, entitled The Honey Bee, by Frank Benton, is valuable for the amateur 

 beekeeper. It may be obtained for twenty-five cents from the Superintendent of 

 Documents, Union Building, Washington, D.C. 



Cells of honeycomb, queen cell on right at bottom. 



