32 THE HUMBLE-BEE 



returns to the brood and nestles under the warm 

 body of her parent. About forty-eight hours only 

 are needed for her to acquire the handsome, well- 

 groomed appearance and the bright rich colours of 

 her mother, whom, indeed, she now resembles in 

 every way except in her diminutive size. 



The worker humble-bee commences to fly and to 

 collect honey and pollen at a very early age. On 

 June 18, 1910, at 3 p.m., I happened to examine 

 one of my lapidarius nests and saw that no workers 

 had emerged. On June 20, at 8 p.m., four workers 

 were found in the nest, and one of them had already 

 got her full colour. On June 21, at 10.30 a.m., a 

 worker, evidently this one, was seen entering the 

 nest with pollen on her legs, so that she must have 

 been working in the fields when less than three 

 days old. The honey-bee worker does not, as a 

 rule, begin to gather honey until about the four- 

 teenth day after she has emerged. The habit of 

 collecting honey from the flowers comes by instinct, 

 and is not the result either of experience or learning. 



When the larvae are spinning their cocoons the 

 queen lays some more eggs, placing them, as always, 

 in a little waxen cell, which, however, is now con- 

 structed in a convenient place on top of one or two 

 of the cocoons that form the sides of the depression 

 in which she sits. Further batches of eggs are laid 

 at intervals of two or three days, so that in a short 

 time both sides of the groove are covered with cells 

 containing eggs and young larvae. All the eggs are 

 laid on one side of the groove, usually two or three 



