Bombus J the Bumble- Bee. 165 



Queen Bombus does not have a whole 

 hive full of workers to help her when she 

 starts her nest. 



On the contrary, the workers and drones 

 die in the fall, and the queen is left all 

 alone. She crawls into some snug corner 

 and sleeps through -the winter. When 

 spring comes she wakes up, stretches her- 

 self, smells the early flowers, feels the warm 

 sun, and away she flies. She first goes in 

 search of a home. 



You can see her in the springtime fly- 

 ing about, hunting carefully for a good 

 place to make her nest. 



When she has found a home that suits 

 her, she goes to the flowers and gathers 

 pollen. 



From morning until night she works as 

 hard as she can tugging large balls of pollen 

 to her hole in the ground. 



What do you think she does with it? 

 She has no waxen cells to store it away in, 

 so she just piles it together in her nest. 



