THE BEES 85 



queen bee can lay another egg in it, and all the little 

 bits of wax and the unused food in the cell are taken 

 up and carried out of the hive and dropped over the 

 edge of the doorstep. 



All the time the city is being cleaned up in just 

 that way. No stray particles of anything are al- 

 lowed to cumber up the city or make it untidy. 

 Then, too, there must be fresh air. The bees, like 

 the ants, love the dark, so they provide only one 

 very small door. This does not let in air enough, 

 so the bees ventilate the hive by having groups of 

 workers stand near the door to fan in the fresh air 

 with their wings. We always supposed the bee used 

 her wings just to fly with. Who ever thought she 

 used them as fans, — fans to evaporate the water 

 from the honey, fans to keep the queen comfortable, 

 fans to ventilate the whole hive, and fans to keep 

 the babies warm in their cells so they will grow up 

 faster. 



With all this work to be done, do you wonder that 

 the bees are busy? Does it not seem as if they 

 planned out their work? As if they said to each 

 other, ''Here, you do that and we will do this and 

 then we will change about." Some arrangement 

 must be made among them or everything would 

 not be done so carefully. No one ever knew of a 

 worker bee getting interested in her play and for- 

 getting to gather the honey, or sitting lazily about 

 and letting some other bee do her share. The 

 workers never do that, but the drones do. They 

 are very lazy just as they were in the ant city, and 

 do you know, the workers stand it just as long as 



