THE HUMBLE BEE. 637 



with a substance called propolis, which is a gummy material procured 

 from the buds of various trees. This propolis is also used to stop up 

 crevices and to mix with wax when the comb has to be strength- 

 ened. 



The royal cells afe much larger than any others, and are of an oval 

 shape. When a worker larva is placed in a royal cell and fed in a 

 royal manner it imbibes the principles of royalty, and becomes a queen 

 accordingly. This practice is adopted if the Queen Bee should die and 

 there be no other queen to take her place. 



The Queen Bee is lady paramount in her own hive, and suffers no 

 other queen to divide rule with her. Should a strange queen gain ad- 

 mittance, there is a battle at once, which ceases not until one has been 

 destroyed. 



At the swarming-time the old queen is sadly put out by the encroach- 

 ments of various young queens, who each wish for the throne, and at 

 last is so agitated that she rushes out pf the hive, attended by a large 

 body of subjects, and thus the first swarm is formed. In seven or eight 

 days the queen next in age also departs, taking with her another supply 

 of subjects. When all the swarms have left the original hive, the re- 

 maining queens fight until one gains the throne. 



The old method of destroying Bees for the sake of the honey was 

 not only cruel, but wasteful, as by burning some dry " puff-ball " the 

 bees are stupefied, and shortly return to consciousness. The employ- 

 ment of a "cap" on the hive is an excellent plan, as the Bees deposit 

 honey alone in these caps, without any admixture of grubs or bee- 

 bread. Extra hives at the side, with a communication from the orig- 

 inal hive, are also useful. 



The Queen Bee lays about eighteen thousand eggs. Of these about 

 eight hundred are males or drones and four or five queens, the remain- 

 der being workers. 



In some cases, such as the common Humble Bee, the cells are egg- 

 shaped, each cell being either occupied by a larva or filled with honey; 

 while in some species the eggs are placed parasitically in the nests of 

 other Bees, so that the larvse feed either upon the stores of food gath- 

 ered for the involuntary host or upon the body of the deluded insect 

 itself. 



In gathering honey the Bees lick the sweet juices from flowers, swal- 

 low them, and store them for the time in a membranous sac, popularly 

 called the honey-bag. When this sac is filled the Bee returns to the 

 hive and discharges the honey into a cell, closing its mouth with wax 

 when it is filled. The structure of the bee-cell, its marvellous adaptation 

 to the several purposes for which it is intended, its mathematical ac- 

 curacy of construction, whereby the best amount of material is found 

 to afl^ord the greatest amount of space and strength, are subjects too 



54 



