Btiilding Comb — An Accident. 73 



it. Whenever she rested, which she frequently did, 

 the members of her suite, who formed a sort of 

 screen round her, overwhelmed her with their 

 attention and caresses, and offered her honey. In 

 one cell the queen inadvertently deposited two 

 eggs ; the watchful attendants, much too polite to 

 call her majesty's attention to this, quietly took one 

 out and ate it. 



After Buz had looked on for some little time, she 

 asked one of the suite how many eggs the queen 

 could lay in a day. 



"A couple of hundred, or even more," was the 

 answer. 



" Does she often have an egg-laying day?" 



" She lays eggs every day — for months. She does 

 nothing else." 



" Well," thought Buz as she flew off, " no won- 

 der there are such a lot of us ! " 



For several weeks Buz worked very hard, and 

 met with no adventures. It was the busy time, 

 and a fine lot of honey was collected and sealed 

 up. 



One morning, as she was passing near the middle 

 of the hive, she saw a good many bees employed on 

 a large cell, which was attached to the comb only at 

 one spot. 



