THE INHABITANTS OF THE HIVE—Chapter Vil. 
lengthwise in the cell, and about that time 
is sealed or capped over. The larva now 
becomes a pupa within a cocoon. In 
eighteen days from the time the egg 
hatches, or twenty-one days from the time 
the ege was laid, the worker bee, now per- 
fectly developed, begins to eut through the 
capping, and within a short time she strug- 
gles out, rather downy and palelooking, A bee a-borning — just emerging 
but fully developed, a mature bee. For ener We: 280 
some time she crawls unsteadily over the combs, jostled about and appar- 
ently unnoticed by the other bees, and then she finds a cell of honey and 
begins to feed. From this time on she acts as a nurse bee, taking care of 
the larvae, secreting the chyle food, and helping to keep the brood warm. 
The young worker bee also helps feed the queen, cleans and ventilates the 
hive, and aids in ripening and moving about the honey and in secreting 
wax and comb-building when necéssary. After two weeks she takes up 
the duties of a regular field bee, gathering nectar and ripening it by fan- 
ning the wings, gathering pollen and propolis (bee glue) and attending to 
all the duties and hardest work of the bee home. They are the only 
armed defenders of the colony and will die regardless of all self-preserva- 
tion in their instinctive defense of the colony as a whole. . They aiso rule 
the colony, directing the queen’s life and work, and even drive out the 
drones at their 
pleasure. The 
worker’s most 
important busi- 
ness is to gather 
nectar from 
flowers and other 
sources, which 
nectar she 
changes into in- 
vert sugar, or 
honey, by a pro- 
eess which is 
started in her 
honey-sae or first 
stomach. A small 
cavity on each 
hind leg is used 
for storing and 
bringing in the 
small lumps of 
pollen gathered 
from the flowers. 
The pollen 
(sometimes call- 
ed “beebread”’) 
ei 
The worker bees care little about being handled—they just - ‘ 
keep on about their business. is an important 
40 
