212 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. 



much the same way that food is converted into fat. 

 But these wax scales are so tiny that four hundred 

 of them would scarcely outweigh a kernel of corn ; 

 and as for the quantity of honey which the hees must 

 consume to ]3romote this interesting operation, that 

 seems incredible, for it has been estimated that no 

 less than from seven to ten pounds of it are required 



for the making of one pound 

 of wax. What an expensive 

 process ! 



The remarkably beauti- 

 ful queen or mother bee is 

 a veritable aristocrat. No- 

 tice how different her figure 

 is from that of the plebeian 

 worker or the drone. Her wings are proportionally 

 short and as fine as gauze ; her body is long and 

 tapering, and underneath it is golden yellow. She 

 is rarely, if ever, seen away from the hive, and then, 

 perhaps, only when the bees are swarming. Nearly 

 all of her life is spent indoors, and her time is quite 

 absorbed in heavy maternal cares. In the laying of 

 eggs the barnyard hen is not to be mentioned in the 

 same breath with her, as in breeding time she can 

 lay at the rate of three hundred and sixty eggs per 

 minute, and sometimes slie produces not less than 

 thirty-five hundred in one day ! If she made as 



A, the Drouo ; B, the Queen Bee. 



