18 MONTANA EXPERIMENT STATION 
of the colony and by placing the fingers near the entrance, W© eee 
fcel a current of air being driven in and out of the colony. This 1s 
done by the buzzing of a chain of bees through the colony, and so 
a perfect system of ventilation is kept up. If the bees are gathering 
honey rapidly we may observe a sickish sweet odor of new honey 
and hear, especially at night, a continuous roar.’ These are the 
bees, who, having toiled all day in the harvest fields, spend the 
hours of night driving a current of air through the hive to evapor- 
ate the new honey, for the nectar as gathered has a large percen- 
tage of water in it, which must be removed. An interesting experi- 
ment was run once with a hive on the scales and a record of the 
weight made each evening and morning, with the result of a de- 
crease in the gross increase of the day before of about a third, due 
to evaporation of water. 
With these few outward observations let us open the colony 
and learn something of the economy of the home life. The combs 
are built vertical and parallel, suspended from above and running 
trom front to rear. Cells of four kinds are distinguishable. By far 
the larger number of these are the worker cells. The honey cells 
are of the same basal size, but are slanted upward, and so the open- 
ing is somewhat distorted. The drone cells are larger and not so 
numerous. The queen cells, though only present at certain times 
in full size, are usually to be found as mere basal cells or cups 
placed along the edges of the combs or any projection of the combs. 
The brood is normally confined to the lower, central and front 
portions of the combs,—that is, in the vicinity of the entrance. 
Above, to the rear and at the sides, are cells containing pollen, and 
outside of the pollen circle the honey is stored. So that a vertical, 
longitudinal section through the colony would show the honey 
stored above and to the rear, next inside a few cells of pollen, and 
then the brood. The queen in starting brood in an unoccupied 
comb, first deposits eggs in the center of the brood portion of the 
comb, and as she continues uses the comb in increasing circles, 
Thus the oldest brood may be found in the center, the younger 
brood on the outside and the eggs on the outermost edge. How- 
ever, when the brood in the center has matured and emerged it is 
replaced by eggs for a second brood. 
The queen bee lays all the eggs,—fertilized eggs Producing 
females and unfertilized eggs, males. The females are of two ki 
Inds, 
' 
