Bees Their Uses Wasp Hornet. 239 



Queen should die they select a young grub, which soon 

 becomes their Queen. When the Queen and a number of 

 her household agree to emigrate and form a new colony or 

 "swarm," they select a new home, gather food, and make 

 full preparations for the change. After bidding farewell 

 to their brothers and sisters which remain in the old 

 home, they fly away. Those left behind must select a 

 new Queen or they all would die. 



25. The DRONES (all males) are very lazy. They col- 

 lect no honey, make no wax, build no cells. Most of 

 them do nothing but eat honey which the workers collect. 

 So, as winter comes on, the Workers get out of patience 

 with their idleness and fly at them, sting them to death, 

 and at once remove the dead bodies from the hive. 



26. The Working-bees live for several years. They 

 are smaller and more numerous than the others. In a 

 hive of 20,000 Bees, the Workers will number about 19,500. 

 There is only one Queen for every hive. The Workers are 

 assisted in building by a gummy or sticky substance which 

 they gather from some trees. A Bee has four wings and 

 six legs, and a kind of tongue or proboscis for gathering 

 honey. All but the Drones have stings. 



27. Bees, by going from flower to flower, gathering and 

 mixing the pollen or powder-like substance of flowers, 

 increase the varieties of fruits, flowers and plants, and in 

 this way, also, they are of great advantage to us. This 

 last work seems to be all the HUMBLE BEE is good for. 

 It lays up no store of honey, usually builds in holes in the 

 ground, and lives but one year. It does not associate 

 with the Honey or Hive Bee. 



28. The WASP and HORNET are somewhat similar to 

 the Bee. They build and live in little cells of a paper- 



