328 BRITISH BEES. 



ventive, and which is not removed until the cell is filled ; 

 it is then covered hermetically with its waxen top. 



A sufficient number of cells being ready, and sufficient 

 stores of honey, pollen, and propolis for the progressive 

 labours of the hive, and a great number of empty cells 

 all finished for the use of the queen, she begins to lay 

 her eggs. As these are hatched the duty of the nursing- 

 bees commences, which is to feed the young, who crave 

 for food like young birds, and are as diligently supplied 

 by these nurses with a material called bee-bread, which 

 consists of masticated pollen, the pollen being exclusively 

 stored and used for the purpose. This is mixed with 

 some secretion from the mouth, which converts it into a 

 sort of frothy jelly. These bees are never negligent of 

 their duties, and with their feeding the larvsn rapidly grow. 



To keep up a necessary supply of air in the hive, and 

 to prevent suffocation from heat, a certain number of 

 the community are employed in fanning the passages 

 between the cakes of comb and the whole interior of 

 the hive, by the vibration of their wings, which thoroughly 

 ventilates it, and the accumulation of deleterious air is 

 prevented ; some, for this purpose, being posted at the 

 aperture to the hive, where, this vibration causing a tem- 

 porary vacuum, the external air rushes in, and the chain 

 of succession of bees within becoming thus vibrating air- 

 valves completes the ventilating arrangement. While 

 all these operations are progressing, a certain number 

 are acting as a militia of citizens, who have substitutes 

 only in the succession and change of duties. These act 

 as sentinels, who guard the entrance and patrol the in- 

 terior and courageously intercept all inimical intrusion, 

 for the bees have many enemies, but who are merely so 

 to benefit themselves, and are not parasites of the nature 



