WAX-WORKERS 



149 



brought from spring or well, this is usually done by 

 means of a couple of pails and a yoke. To guard 

 against spilling by the way a flat piece of wood 

 floats upon the top of the water in each pail. The 

 disc of firmer honey serves a similar purpose in 

 the honey cell. 



When the cell is full the workers cap it with a 

 thin sheet of wax attached to the edges. In other 

 cells pollen is stored up for the sustenance of the 

 grubs, the workers as they return from excursions 

 among the flowers simply dropping their collections 

 into the cells and leaving those that are on indoor 

 duty to pack it. 



When the brood cells are ready the mother bee 

 (usually styled the queen) traverses the comb, and 

 lays an egg in each cell. She appears to know what 

 is the character of each egg before she deposits it. 

 The first few may be deposited in the drone cells, 

 then a vast number is laid in the worker cells. The 

 eggs of the two kinds differ in size, just as the cells 

 do. In April and May she will lay eggs at the 

 rate of fifteen hundred to two thousand a week, 

 and continue doing so. In six weeks she has furn- 

 ished ten or twelve thousand cells with occupants, 

 and during the whole of one season will lay thirty 

 or forty thousand eggs. During her hfe she may 

 produce as many as a hundred thousand. 



The eggs hatch after three days, and the minute 

 grubs are at once tended by the nurse bees, who 

 feed them with bee bread, which is a compound of 

 pollen and honey. On this diet the grub thrives 



