152 ANIMAL LIFE 
nectar, and buzz—that is, vibrate their wings violently. 
This creates currents of air which pass over the exposed 
nectar and increase the evaporation of the water. The 
violent buzzing raises the temperature of the bees’ bodies, 
and this warmth given off to the air also helps make evap- 
oration more rapid. In addition to bringing in food the 
workers also bring in, when necessary, ‘ propolis,” or the 
resinous gum of certain trees, which they use in repairing 
the hive, as closing up cracks and crevices in it. 
In many of the cells there will be found, not pollen or 
honey, but the eggs or the young bees in larval or pupal 
condition (Fig. 90). 
The queen moves 
about through the 
hive, laying eggs. 
She deposits only one 
egg in a cell. In 
three days the egg 
hatches, and the 
young bee appears 
as a helpless, soft, 
white, footless grub 
Fic. 90.—Cells containing eggs, larve, and pupe of or larva. It is cared 
e i 1] : 
the honey-bee. The lower large, irregular cells for by certain of the 
are queen cells.—After BENTON. 
workers, that may be 
called nurses. These nurses do not differ structurally from 
the other workers, but they have the special duty of caring 
for the helpless young bees. They do not go out for pollen 
or honey, but stay in the hive. They are usually the new 
bees—i. e., the youngest or most recently added workers. 
After they act as nurses for a week or so they take their 
places with the food-gathering workers, and other new 
bees act as nurses. The nurses feed the young or larval 
bees at first with a highly nutritious food called bee-jelly, 
which the nurses make in their stomach, and regurgitate 
for the lurve. After the larve are two or three days old 
