240 



BEE-KEEPING 



Many of the honey cells are left open a week or more 

 after they are filled; for the bees will not cap them over 

 with wax until they know that the honey in them is 

 " ripe," or ready to be sealed up. So it is always easy 

 for the young bee to find an open cell where it can eat all 

 it wants. 



When a few days old the workers act as nurse bees, and 

 fly out only for exercise, but, in a couple of weeks they 

 gain full use of their wings and go outside to work with 

 the older bees. It is well that it begins its work at once, 

 for the length of a worker bee's life is but a few months 

 at most, and some of them live only a few weeks. Queen 

 bees, however, have been known to live four or five years. 

 A great many bees in the hive die during the winter; 

 but the queen bee begins to lay her eggs in midwinter or 

 very early in the spring, and those eggs hatch out so fast 

 that the number in the hive is soon as large as ever. A 

 large number of young bees come out of the cells every 

 day during the hatching season, which lasts through the 

 ^ warm summer months, 



and thus the hive is al- 

 ways kept full. 



Swarming. As soon 

 as the oldest queen-cell is 



sealed, a large number of 

 bees, together with the 

 old queen, leave the hive 

 FIG. i 4 6.-Beehive. fa great excitement. This 



is called "swarming." The bees protect the immature 

 queen-cells until the eldest queen emerges, which usually 

 occurs a week after the first swarm issues. Should the 



