18 MONTANA EXPERIMENT STATION 



of the colony and by placing the fingers near the entrance, we can 

 feel a current of air being driven in and out of the colony. This is 

 done by the buzzing of a chain of bees through the colony, and so 

 a perfect system of ventilation is kept up. If the bees are gathering 

 honey rapidly we may observe a sickish sweet odor of new honey 

 and hear, especially at night, a continuous roar. These are the 

 bees, who, having toiled all day in the harvest fields, spend the 

 hours of night driving a current of air through the hive to evapor- 

 ate the new honey, for the nectar as gathered has a large percen- 

 tage of water in it, which must be removed. An interesting experi- 

 ment was run once with a hive on the scales and a record of the 

 weight made each evening and morning, with the result of a de- 

 crease in- the gross increase of the day before of about a third, due 

 to evaporation of water. 



With these few outward observations let us open the colony 

 and learn something of the economy of the home life. The combs 

 are built vertical and parallel, suspended from above and running 

 from front to rear. Cells of four kinds are distinguishable. By far 

 the larger number of these are the worker cells. The honey cells 

 are of the same basal size, but are slanted -upward, and so the open- 

 ing is somewhat distorted. The drone cells are larger and not so 

 numerous. The queen cells, though only present at certain times 

 in full size, are usually to be found as mere basal cells or cups 

 placed along the edges of the combs or any projection of the combs. 

 Trie brood is normally confined to the lower, central and front 

 portions of the combs, that is, in the vicinity of the entrance. 

 Above, to the rear and at the sides, are "cells containing pollen, and 

 outside of the pollen circle the honey is stored. , So that a vertical, 

 longitudinal section through the colony would show the honey 

 stored above and to the rear, next inside a few cells of pollen, and 

 then the brood. The queen in starting brood in an unoccupied 

 comb, first deposits eggs in the center of the brood portion of .the 

 comb, and as she continues uses the comb in increasing circles. 

 Thus the oldest brood may be found in the center, the younger 

 brood on the outside and the eggs on the outermost edge. How- 

 ever, when the brood in the center has matured and emerged it is 

 replaced by eggs for a second brood. 



The queen bee lays all the eggs, fertilized eggs producing 

 females and unfertilized eggs, males. The females are of two kinds, 



