BEE-KEEPING 239 



The drones, as you might think from the name, do not 

 gather honey; neither do they have stings. They are 

 the male bees in the hive, and the workers, after the har- 

 vest is ended, drive the drones out of the hive and let 

 them starve, or sting them to death if they attempt to 

 return. 



Life in the Hive. In every hive or colony of bees, 

 there are more worker cells than any other kind, for it is 

 the busy workers that make up the colony. Among 

 these, there are a great many that act as nurses in the 

 hive. These nurse bees take charge of the lame and 

 feed them. As the larvae lie curled up in 

 their cells, they look like little white worms. 

 The nurse bees constantly feed the larvae; 

 first, when young, a sort of "bee-milk" 

 secreted by glands in their own heads, and, 

 later, when the larvae are older, a mixture 

 of this secretion with honey and pollen, or, 

 at last, only honey and pollen. When the 

 larvae have eaten all they need, they FIG. i 4 s. Larva 

 straighten out their small bodies and the 

 workers put a cap on the cell, made up of wax, mixed 

 with gnawings of cocoons, pollen grains, and silk threads. 

 This is porous and permits air to reach the developing 

 insect. Each larva then spins a silken cocoon about 

 itself and goes to sleep in its waxen cradle. 



It takes usually twenty-one days from the time the egg 

 is laid until the perfect worker bee casts aside its silken 

 wrap, gnaws open the cell cover and comes out with four 

 thin wings. The young queens develop in about sixteen 

 days ; but drones require twenty- four days. 



