THE HONEY-BEE 59 



of water is reduced from 80 per cent, in the nectar 

 to 25 per cent, in the honey. Both worker-cells 

 and drone-cells are used for storing honey, and 

 if the supply necessitates the building of new 

 cells to house the precious fluid, drone-cells are 

 built, for they are easier to construct and require 

 comparatively less wax. 



Dr. Stadler has made an ingenious calculation 

 as to the number of journeys a worker-bee makes 

 at harvest-time, and arrives at the conclusion 

 that each bee makes between 75 and 100 flights 

 a day. Even bee protoplasm cannot stand such 

 a life. Working like the students at Osborne 

 or Dartmouth " at the double " all day, stand- 

 ing with vibrant wings all night, occupied with 

 the cares of the hive in between times, never 

 having any sleep, never taking any rest, it is 

 little wonder that the frail body of the worker 

 is at the height of the season worn out in five 

 or six weeks. True to her devotion to the clean- 

 liness of the hive, she usually dies outside it, 

 but if by any chance she dies inside, the body 

 is removed by the survivors like any other piece 

 of lumber. Vergil's statement put into English 

 by Dryden : 

 " Their friends attend the herse, the next relations mourn," 



