172 A COUNTRY READER. 



The Life History of a Worker. 



A worker egg is laid in a cell by the queen 

 bee. In three days it is hatched out in a larval 

 or caterpillar condition. As a larva it is fed on 

 pollen, or pollen and honey, by the younger bees, 

 told off for that purpose. At seven days old the 

 larva, having grown to its largest size, is capped 

 over with a coating of pollen and wax, which is 

 porous, so that the air can get through it. At 

 the end of twenty to twenty-one days it comes 

 forth, a lightish coloured, downy little bee. 



The first twelve hours of its bee life are spent 

 in gathering strength for the work that lies 

 before it, and then it begins to feed the 

 larvae. 



When old and strong enough it goes forth 

 from the hive to gather pollen for the young, 

 and honey that it stores in the hive against the 

 cold of winter, when the flowers with their stores 

 of nectar have disappeared. For some six or 

 eight weeks the busy thing works on without 

 intermission. 



Within a few hours of emerging from the cell, 

 unceasing labour is the worker's portion, till the 

 great strain of incessant work weakening its 

 powers, it is no longer of the same use to the 

 community, and so the younger and more 

 vigorous bees cast it out of the hive to die. 



