180 THE BEE-KEEPER’S MANUAL. 
alike. They have four different uses in the eco- 
nomy of the hive, and are constructed variously to 
suit these. One set of cells is for holding the eggs 
or embryos of worker-bees; a second for those of 
males or drones; a third for those of young 
queens, hence ealled royal cells; and a fourth set 
are for the reception of honey and pollen. The 
first are generally about five lines in depth (or less 
than half an inch), and two lines and two-fifths in 
diameter. The cells of the young males are much 
less numerous, and measure from six to seven lines 
in depth, by three and a half in diameter.* It is 
worthy of note, that in passing from the con- 
struction of worker-celis to those of drones, in the 
same comb, the architects do not alter the size at 
once, but gradually; thus disordering in the slight- 
est possible degree the delicate arrangement of the 
bases of the cells. In shifting from larger to 
smaller, the same rule is observed. After the chief 
breeding season is over (to some extent young bees 
are produced at every season of the year), the cells, 
both of worker and male bees, are used for holding 
honey. Those made purposely for that end are 
chiefly marked by a greater divergence from the 
horizontal plane, that the honey may be better 
secured; and it is curious to observe that, in a very 
warm season, these wise insects give the floor a still 
greater dip from the mouth inwards. As the store 
enlarges, they seal up the mouth with a ring of 
wax, to which they gradually add concentric layers 
* It may be added that those for drones stand nineteen to the 
square inch, and those for workers twenty-seven. 
