68 AUSTRALIAN BEE LORE AND BEE CULTURE- 



neglected them. Small bees also produce wax, but in a very 

 inferior quantity to what is elaborated by the real wax-workers." 



There was never a more careful observer of scientific bee life 

 than the physically unfortunate Huber. Since the introduction 

 of the Italian bee, painting and other mechanical aids to observe 

 the various works carried on by the inmates of the hive — the 

 species, class, or kind so named by Huber as wax-workers, nurses 

 and foragers — have dwindled almost into nothingness. That in 

 the hive there are nurse-bees, wax-workers, foragers, etc., is well 

 known to the practical bee-keeper ; but that these functions are 

 deputed to various sections of operating bees is now known to be 

 incorrect. Huber must have the credit of the discovery of the 

 division of labour among bees ; but that a nurse-bee is always 

 a nurse-bee is incorrect. These different functions or classes 

 of labour carried on in the hive are performed by every bee during 

 her lifetime. The first duty of a working bee is that of elabora- 

 ting chyle food, the nursing of the inmates of the cells, and as 

 she advances in age so she is promoted from office to office until 

 she becomes a breadwinner of the establishment. In this final 

 duty her wings wear out, and she dies in harness, at her post, 

 as the little busy bee. 



These nurse-bees are all-important to the bee-keeper. When 

 bees refuse to cluster on the brood comb, or to accept a new 

 queen, or even to rear one, it is because some of the natural con- 

 ditions of the hive are absent. A want of a sufficient number of 

 nurse-bees is a serious drawback to the prosperity of a colony. 

 In artificial swarming "forced colonisation," if on the brood 

 comb introduced there be not sufficient adhering bees or nurses 

 to feed the larvse the foragers become dissatisfied at the deserted 

 appearance of the comb, and, refusing to stay, they swarm out or 

 returm from whence they cam©. A constant, regular, and good 

 supply of nurse-bees is the important factor in queen raising. If 

 increase of colonies is the thing sought always not© that the combs 

 introduced contain brood in all stages of development, from egg 

 to chrysalis, as well as a good supply of stores, — honey and pollen 

 — this last is indispensable. 



