142 BEES. 



constructing their houses, they first gather a 

 kind of cement from the gumrny buds of flowers, 

 which they knead into little balls with their 

 proboscis and legs, and carry it away to stop up 

 all the crevices, and make the hive safe from 

 intruders. This done, they next fetch matter 

 for wax. This is made from the fine dust or 

 pollen found in flowers, which they first eat, and 

 it is then changed into wax in the stomach. 

 From this wax, one set of workers construct 

 cells, having six sides, and of the most beautiful 

 regularity. By giving them this shape, the 

 greatest number possible are contained in any 

 given space, a question which long puzzled the 

 wisest men, but which these creatures, taught 

 by their own Divine Author, had practised from 

 the first hour of their creation. These cells are 

 used partly to hold honey, closely covered by 

 lids, and partly as nests, in which to place the 

 eggs. 



When a number of cells are completed, the 

 queen bee begins to lay her eggs. During this 

 process she is attentively fed and followed by 

 the workers, which remove every egg, and place 

 it in a separate cell. During the summer, it has 

 been calculated that 'a single queen will produce 

 40,000 eggs. She first lays the eggs which are 

 to give birth to working bees, then the drones, 

 and lastly, a few are stored away in cells set 

 apart for this particular purpose, for a supply of 

 queens, lest the present sovereign should be 



