262 ] The Wonderful Ways of Insects and Spiders 



time required to complete the round trip will indicate how much 

 the distance to the hive is decreasing. Although the youngster will 

 be overjoyed when he finally locates the store of honey, it is a 

 wise precaution to have him call on adult help in removing the 

 honey from the hollow-tree storehouse. 



How Bees Use "Glue": When you see a bee purposefully visiting 

 tree after tree, it may be gathering water from the buds. The other 

 object of its quest may be a brown resinous material called 

 "propolis" or "bee glue" that these insects use for smoothing 

 rough places in the hive. This assignment is given to young bees 

 on their first flights. 



Pollination by Messenger Service: Later on, the bees set about 

 collecting pollen and finally nectar. They knead the pollen into 

 a little ball and tuck it into a cavity on the hind leg; they obtain 

 nectar by extending their tongue into a flower and sucking the 

 fluid. There are some species of clovers and other plants with 

 long-tubed corollas that depend completely on bumblebees and 

 other long-tongued species of bees for pollination. 



Western fruitgrowers keep colonies of bees in the great orch- 

 ards for fertilizing the fruit-tree blooms. (Some owners rent the 

 bees for this purpose.) Honeybees are more valuable to man in 

 this way than they are as producers of honey and beeswax. 



What Goes On In A Beehive: Many children are familiar with 

 the beehives provided by people to keep bee colonies and to take 

 advantage of the bees' honey production. This kind of hive 

 usually has one lower story, in which the frames are used both 

 for the brood and for storing honey which the bees use in winter. 

 There are one or more upper stories with additional frames for 

 storing honey. 



As they would do in a natural hive, the bees house their brood 

 in the lower section, then work hard filling the top part with 

 honey. Beekeepers remove the upper frames as they are filled. 

 Small sections of each frame, containing about a pound of honey, 

 are taken out in the form you buy them in at the store. The 

 honey is removed from the larger frames and sold in liquid form. 



