1 72 The Bee People. 



they mate high in the air, and the queen 

 stores away the pollen of the drone until 

 next spring". 



When the cold weather comes, the drones 

 and workers die, and the queen hides away. 



Some bumble-bees store up honey in 

 the empty cocoons after the young bees 

 have left them, but you can imagine it 

 is not very good honey. Some bumble- 

 bees make wax and use it to finish out the 

 cocoons into better cells, or even to make 

 a few coarse cells, or to mat together the 

 grass over the nest to keep the rain out. 

 But my bumble-bees had no wax at all 

 in their nest, and at the time I saw it they 

 had not stored away any honey. 



The Bombus family is very small com- 

 pared to the Apis family, for sometimes 

 there will be only a dozen bees in a nest, 

 again there will be several dozen. 



Bumble-bees are very good play-fellows. 

 If you want to have a good time watching 

 the bees, catch one or two large bumble- 



