THE BEES 81 



seems tempted to go to any other kind of flower 

 than the one from which she first commenced to 

 gather the pollen. That is the law of the hive which 

 the bees always obey. Sometimes they visit twenty 

 flowers in a minute, so hard do they keep at work, 

 and such small bits of honey or of pollen do they 

 find in each flower. Yet no bee would leave that 

 particular kind of flower upon which it commenced 

 to work that day for any other flower, however full 

 of pollen or of honey it might be, so faithful are they 

 and such hard workers. 



Why do they work so hard? Is there any other 

 bee which forces them to do it? No, the bees are 

 like the ants. The little workers seem born with a 

 determination to make their colony the best and 

 happiest and most prosperous community of bees 

 that can be, and they work every minute to make 

 it so. 



Suppose we follow home these little workers 

 which have been busily collecting the pollen and 

 sipping the honey, and peep into the hive when they 

 come in. At first everything seems in the utmost 

 confusion. There is such running about, such flying 

 around, as if every one was in a great hurry. What 

 can bees accomplish, you think, that run about in 

 such confused masses? But wait a few moments and 

 you will see that a wonderful order comes out of 

 this apparent confusion. 



Inside the hive is a real city built up with wax 

 cells. These are used as rooms for the babies and 

 for storerooms for the pollen and honey. The bees 

 are always increasing these ceHs, just as in our own 



