INSECTS AND OTHER SMALL ANIMALS 317 



male larvae. These are larger than any other cells in 

 the hive and hang on the hive vertically. In appear- 

 ance they resemble a peanut, When the larvae in 

 these cells have grown to full size they are sealed up 

 and the colony is ready for swarming. 



Swarming consists in the departure of the queen bee 

 with a part of the workers. They leave to seek a new 

 home and to continue raising brood and storing honey. 

 They leave behind all the stores of honey except what 

 they can carry in their honey stomachs and the brood 

 with some queen cells from which will come the new 

 queen for the part of the colony of workers left behind. 

 After about nine days the new queens are ready to 

 come from their cells. The first one to emerge is the 

 queen of the colony, and she usually destroys the queens 

 in the remaining cells. 



In about five days the queen leaves the hive to mate 

 with a drone in the air. She soon returns and egg lay- 

 ing is commenced. The queen does not leave the hive 

 except at mating time and when the colony swarms. 

 At the end of the honey season the drones are driven 

 out or carried out of the hive by the workers. 



Bees collect three different materials, nectar from 

 which the honey is made, pollen of plants that fur- 

 nishes a part of the food for the larvae, and a resinous 

 substance called propolis, or bee glue, that is used in 

 stopping crevices in the hive and in cementing the wax 

 cells together. 



The worker gathers nectar from many kinds of wild 

 and cultivated plants. This it laps up with its long 

 tongue, then passes it into the first stomach or crop. 

 Here the nectar undergoes some changes, preventing 

 fermentation, and then such part of it as the bee does 



