HYMENOPTERA — THE HONEYBEE 



37 



Bees are instinctively sanitary. If a large bumble bee 

 enters the hive, the bees kill the intruder and usually, 

 finding him too large to be taken out, embalm him by in- 

 jecting the sting repeatedly into his body. The result of 

 this operation is to make 

 the bumble bee harmless 

 to the colony. Some- 

 times they cover the 

 body of a small, dead 

 animal with a case made 

 of propolis (prop'6-lis), 

 a substance the bees 

 gather from certain 

 buds. This serves to 

 protect the colony from 

 the effects of the decom- 

 position of the body. 



At irregular intervals 

 during the ea/ly spring 

 and summer, bees have 

 the peculiar habit of 

 swarming. Several rea- 

 sons for swarming are 

 given by bee-keepers, 

 but no one pretends to 

 be certain that he really 

 knows the cause. It is a sort of revolt of the bees against 

 their condition. Two of the commonest reasons given to 

 explain swarming are the lack of room for the growing 

 colony, and lack of food. 



When bees swarm, they usually light on the limb of a 

 tree and form a dense cluster. Here they hang from 

 fifteen minutes to an hour before leaving for the woods. 

 In a few cases bees have remained in this "cluster" state 



Figure 37. — Capturing a Swarm. 



