TYPICAL LESSON PLANS 151 



bee no matter how small it is by its brown, smoky wings. 

 Of what value is the bumblebee to the red clover ? It is 

 the chief agent in carrying pollen from one flower to 

 another. Without the bumblebees probably there would 

 be little pollination of the red clover, which would mean 

 great reduction in seed production. 



There are many different species of bumblebees. 

 You can tell the difference chiefly by the size and color of 

 markings, some having much more yellow than others. 

 In habits and characteristics they are all similar. The pu- 

 pils should learn something of the division of labor among 

 them. They will be able to find the large drones and the 

 workers, possibly the queens. They may find a nest of 

 these bees and know that they live in hollows in the ground 

 or under brush piles. The nest of a field mouse is a com- 

 mon home of this bee. Only the queens live over winter. 

 In the spring each queen starts a colony. Having found 

 a suitable place for her home she gathers from flowers 

 quantities of pollen and some nectar. She mixes these 

 together and makes a pasty ball. On this she deposits 

 eggs, from five to twenty, which hatch into bumblebee 

 larvae. These feed upon the mass of pollen. When they 

 are grown up as larvae they spin cocoons and change to 

 pupae, and after about two weeks they emerge as grown- 

 up bees. All of the first brood are workers. They collect 

 pollen for the home, feed the young, and sometimes store 

 a little honey. The queen now gives most of her time to 

 depositing eggs. Late in the summer drones and queens 

 appear. The drones and workers die in the fall, but the 

 females seek a sheltered nook into which they creep and 



spend the winter. 

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