23 



by the end of the top bar with the left hand, then with the right hand clenched hit 

 the left a smart blow from above (Fig. 13). The comb being free from bees, turn your 

 back to the sun so that its rays shine into the cells. Along the upper part of the frame 

 and at the ends the cells will probably be all sealed, the cappings, as the coverings of 

 the cells are called, being flat, often sunk and wrinkled. Such sealing indicates the 

 presence of honey. On the edge of this region there will likely be a narrow belt of 

 unsealed cells showing the honey, indicating that the bees are using up their stores 

 to feed the young. When we reach the bottom board in our investigations we shall 



11'. Shaking Bees off Frame. 



Knocking Bees off Frame. 



find lying there a brownish-looking deposit, like coarse dust, but which is really the 

 fragments of comb-capping torn from the cells. 



Pollen Stores. 



Next to the open cells with honey comes a narrow band of cells, filled with a 

 brilliant-coloured solid substance. This is pollen, the bee-bread of our forefathers, 

 which is the male principle of plants, and forms part of the food of the young of the 

 bee while in the larva or maggot stage. 



The Brood-cells. 



In the centre of the frame we find the brood in all stages— egg, larva, and cocoon. 

 The last is sealed over, just as is the honey, with this difl'erence, however, that the 

 cappings are slightly raised in the case of worker-brood, decidedly so with drone-cells. 

 The larvae or maggots are easily seen, coiled up in the bottom of the cell, especially 

 after they are three days old, but the eggs are harder to distinguish on account of 

 their small size ; in fact, they look like very short bits of white thread attached to the 

 far end— that is, the bottom of the cell. It is just as well for the beginner to learn to 

 detect the presence of eggs in the comb, for an evenly arranged patch is pretty good 

 proof that the queen was busy at least three days ago. 



