BEES AND THEIR WAYS 



431 



The queen is followed always by sex'eral 

 Bees, whose duty it is to feed and groom 

 her when necessar\', and to see that the 

 eggs are projierly looked after. It was 

 this retinue of attendants which gave 

 rise to the old idea that the egg-produc- 

 ing Bee is queen, and the others her 

 courtiers. In reahty she is no queen and 

 never issues orders, as the Bees live an 

 ideal socialistic Ufe. She is, indeed, the 

 mother Bee. but is more 

 slave than queen. She is 

 fed and groomed by attend- 

 ants so as to enable her 

 to give her whole life and 

 energy to the task of lay- 

 ing eggs. 



While all this work of 

 comb- building, egg - laying 

 and honey - gathering is 

 going on, other Bees are 

 busy feeding the hatched 

 grubs, which are curled up 

 like crescents in the bot- 

 toms of the cells. These 

 grubs gi-ow till they are so 

 big that they have to lie 

 lengthwise in the cell. 

 When this stage is reached 

 the attendant Bees place a 

 supply of honey and pollen 

 in the mouth of the cell 

 and seal it over with a 

 porous covering. So the 

 grub remains while it passes 

 from grub to chrysalis, 

 from chrysalis to nymph, 

 and from nymph to perfect 

 casts its skin at each change. 



After about three weeks from the time 

 the egg was laid, a little black shiny point 

 pierces the capping, and with a sawing 

 motion cuts round it — as a tin-opener 

 cuts a tin — till the circle is nearly com- 

 plete. Then the Bee — economic of labour 

 from its birth — pushes its way out, 

 leaving the unsevered portion of the 

 cell covering to form a hinge on which 

 it swings back. 



The first twelve hours of a Bee's existence 

 are spent in idle luxury. With wonderful 

 instinct it then sets to work to attend 

 to the unhatched Bees. It follows this 

 work for about a fortnight, when its 

 place is taken by younger Bees, and it 

 is free to start on its glorious outdoor 



life, gathering honey and pollen for 

 immechate use, and helping to swell 

 the stores that will keep its yet unborn 

 sisters through the im]iending famine 

 of winter when she herself is dead, worn 

 out by unselfish work. 



In its work of honey-gathering, a Bee 

 will ne\-er enter a bell-shaped flower 

 where there is another Bee, though on 

 flat-shaped flowers, such as gaillardias, 



BEES AT WORK ON A SECTION OF 



'^■rj/'/t ry rictcrial Agenty. 



THE COMB 



Bee. It 



more than one is often seen. Once visit- 

 ing a flower a Bee will go to no other 

 variety until it has returned to the hive 

 to deposit its honey and remove the 

 pollen that has adhered to it. This 

 instinct is one of Nature's provisions for 

 the prevention of pollen from one variety 

 of flower being carried to another, and 

 of ensuring the fertilisation of the flowers. 

 For all Bee-visited flowers are so won- 

 derfully designed in shape and size that 

 while it gathers the nectar, the Bee collects 

 pollen upon its body in such a manner 

 that the fertilisation of the next flower is 

 unfailingly ensured. The many ways 

 in which this accurate placing of pollen 

 is secured are far too numero\is to mention 

 here, but one interesting instance is that 

 connected with the sweet pea. A Bee 



