434 



THE ANIMALS AND MAN 



warm. Note the bees clustering thickly over the brood- 

 cells, i. e., the cells containing yoxing. 



Can you note any difference in the appearance of the 

 various individuals? Are there some which do not work? 

 Are all the cells filled with honey or pollen? If not, what 

 is put into the other cells? The correct answer to these 

 questions brings us to the consideration of the bees' develop- 

 ment or life -history, and the make-up of the community. 

 Some of the facts in the following brief account can be readily 

 observed by the pupils, but some cannot. As many of the 



following statements 

 as possible should be 

 confirmed by obser- 

 vation. 



A honeybee com- 

 munity is made up of 

 three kinds of indi- 

 viduals (fig. 222), 

 namely, a single queen 

 or mother which lays 

 the eggs from which 

 A, all the other bees are 

 produced, several hun- 

 dred drones or males, 

 of which becomes the royal consort, fertilizing the 

 eggs, and from ten to forty thousand or more workers, 

 which do all the work of the community, gathering food, 

 making wax, building comb, ventilating the hive and car- 

 ing for the young bees. The drones are larger, more 

 robust, and more hairy than the workers, while the queen 

 is longer, with a slender tapering abdomen. Certain combs 

 are chosen as brood-combs (fig. 223), and beginning in the 

 center of these and working outward the queen lays a tiny 

 white elongate egg in the bottom of each cell. These eggs 

 hatch in three days, and the young bees or larvae appear 



Fig 222. The honeybee Apis mellifica; 

 queen; B, drone; C, worker. (From speci- 

 mens.) 



one 



