130 The Bee People. 
into drones. The queen is able to fertilize 
the eggs, or not, as she pleases. 
As soon as an egg is laid, the queen pays 
no further attention to it. It is now the 
turn of the nurse-bees. The nurse-bees 
are the younger ones that have not yet 
gone out of the hive. 
For about three days after the egg is laid, 
you could see no change in it. 
Perhaps you think it needs no attention, 
but a hen would not think so. Sze knows 
that eggs have to be kept warm in order 
to hatch, and so she sits on her own eggs 
with her feathers tucked down warm all 
about them. Miss Apis, too, understands 
that eggs need to be kept warm. She has 
no feathers, but she has a warm little fuzzy 
body, and when the eggs are laid, she and 
her sisters cluster over the comb to keep 
them warm. 
The ancients neld a good many wrong 
ideas, and a good many right ones, about 
bees, and our Latin friend Pliny was not 
