524 The Outline of Science 



life of a worker bee is only about two months. Their brains be- 

 come hopelessly fatigued. In a colony of 50,000 bees it has 

 been estimated that there are 30,000 workers, and if each makes 

 ten trips a day 300,000 flowers would be visited. About 37,000 

 loads of nectar are required for the production of a pound of 

 honey. 



To obtain the nectar, the bee protrudes its tongue into the 

 flower tube and sucks up the nectar into its mouth and thence 

 into the "honey-bag," where it changes into honey, which is 

 deposited in storing cells for the indoor workers to draw on for 

 themselves and also, of course, for the nutrition of the larva?. 

 The golden pollen is kneaded into a little ball and carried back 

 to the hive in the "pollen-basket," a little cavity in the bee's 

 hind-leg. 



There is a popular idea that bees fly about from flower to 

 flower in a haphazard way, sipping nectar from any blossom that 

 takes their fancy. But as a matter of fact, and as Aristotle 

 noticed, many bees keep as a rule to a single species of flower 

 for collecting pollen and nectar. This is an advantage to both 

 flower and insect. If the bee were to go from one type of flower 

 to quite a different one, time would be lost in locating the nectar. 

 Moreover, when the bee is constant for a while to the same kind 

 of flower-cups, pollination is effected and waste of pollen is 

 prevented. The mutual aid which is an undoubted fact in the 

 bee society sometimes takes the form of showing each other val- 

 uable sources of nectar. 



The Nurseries 



Within the hives the younger workers are busily looking 

 after the nurseries and attending on the queen. The newly 

 hatched grubs are fed on a kind of pap regurgitated by their 

 nurses, but soon they are ready for a more substantial diet of 

 pollen and honey. Then the larvje spin cocoons and the workers 

 shut the cells with little caps of porous wax, and leave their 



