cells are ready the bees begin to store 

 this honey. It has been gathered from 

 the flowers by the use of the probosis, 

 or long under lip, and stored in the 

 honey bag, which is now emptied through 

 the mouth into the cell. It requires a 

 number of bags to fill one cell. The bee 

 also gathers pollen, moistens it, and packs 

 it in her pollen baskets, on the last pair 

 of legs. This is the bee bread which the 

 nursing bees mix with honey and feed to 

 the young ones." 



"Now here we have the relation of the 

 bee and the flower," cried Alice. "Isn't 

 it beautiful how all things serye each 

 other?" 



"But just think of the cunning little 

 bee with pollen baskets, and wax pockets, 

 and honey bag and all that," exclaimed 

 Madge. 



"How many bees usually comprise a 

 colony?" Howard questioned, 



"A good one has about 80,000 work- 

 ers, several thousand drones, and a queen 

 who is the mother of the colony. She 

 lives from two to four or even more 

 years, and can be easily distinguished by 

 her brighter color, greater length, shorter 

 wings, and majestic carriage, — looking 

 every inch the queen.' When about five 

 days old she leaves the hive for a short 

 time, accompanied by a guard of drones, 

 whose sole use is the fecundation of the 

 queen by one of them. She remains fer- 

 tile through life, only leaving the hive 

 again at swarming time. The queen 

 deposits small, oval, bluish-white eggs in 

 the cells, one in each, to the number, 

 under favorable conditions, of two to 

 three thousand a day. The eggs hatch 

 in three and a half days, and remain in 

 the form of a worm three and a half days, 

 when, having been fed, they are sealed 

 over in the cells by the bees, where they 

 remain fourteen days. When first cov- 

 ered up the larvae spins a cocoon of silk 

 around itself. In just twenty-one days 

 it becomes a perfect bee, and eats itself 

 out of cocoon and cell. In twenty-four 

 hours, having been fed and well groomed 

 by the nurses, it is ready for service 

 inside the hive. The drones occupy larger 

 cells and arc longer in becoming mature. 

 But the most wonderful thing in bee-dom 

 is that the workers make some thimble- 

 shaped cells much larger than the com- 

 mon ones. In these, the queen deposits 



eggs which develop into queens solely, 

 it seems, as if because of the larger size 

 of the cells, and the peculiar kind of food 

 given the larva. It is not desirable for 

 several queens to hatch at once, hence 

 the provision of depositing the eggs three 

 days apart. The old queen destroys with- 

 out mercy every young queen within her 

 reach, but the workers guard the cells 

 to prevent this, and usually the mother 

 queen assembles a swarm and departs 

 just as the young princess is ready to 

 appear. This princess, in turn, if things 

 favor, goes out with an 'after swarm/ 

 and when the next princess appears the 

 bees allow her to kill, by stinging, every 

 remaining occupant of the royal cells. 

 She then rules without a rival. When 

 the drones are no longer of use, the 

 workers sting them to death and they 

 can not defend themselves, as they have 

 no stings." 



"And to think we have seen bees all 

 our lives without knowing anything 

 about them," cried Madge. "Do go on, 

 Aunt Jane. What else do they do?" 



"Division of labor is practiced by the 

 bees, as several kinds of work are carried 

 on, such as building, harvesting, storing, 

 nursing, cleaning and ventilating. The 

 latter is effected by the wings, and causes 

 the humming noise heard within the hive. 

 Bees near the opening face it and fan; 

 other bees, with their backs to the 

 entrance, carry the current on into all 

 the passages until the air is cooled and 

 purified in the most perfect manner. A 

 veteran aparian says he learns something 

 new, or, better appreciates some marvel- 

 lous fact about his little charges, every 

 year. 



"I do wonder if a woman could man- 

 age an apiary? I'd like to have one, 

 some time," said Edith. 



"It is a business so well adapted to 

 women," was the reply, "that it is sur- 

 prising more are not engaged in it. Bees 

 are social little creatures, who learn very 

 soon to know the wishes of the aparian, 

 and only in rare cases use the sting. 

 Should this happen, however, almost 

 immediate relief is effected by the appli- 

 cation of onion juice. The improved 

 hive, the separator, the artificial wax 

 foundation, have made bee keeping 

 almost a pastime." 



• Belle Tax son Drury. 



