STRANGE FACTS ABOUT QUEENS 87 



Much speculation has been, and still is, rife as 

 to the nature of this food, but it seems to be 

 pretty well established that it is honey and pollen 

 which has been partly digested and mixed with 

 a secretion which can only be produced by newly 

 hatched, or what are known as " nurse bees." 

 When a worker bee leaves her cell, she is a soft, 

 downy creature, able to do little more than wander 

 about the cells. She grows stronger day by day, 

 but it is not for quite a week after she emerges 

 that she is capable of taking her place with the 

 foragers in the field. If a rack of honey sec- 

 tions is removed from the hive in the height of 

 the season and taken away to some distance, it 

 will be found that gradually most of the bees will 

 leave it, and after making a circuit round, in 

 order to locate its position, will return to the hive. 

 If the rack were left there, they would come back 

 again and again until they had removed all the 

 honey. A great many bees, however, will be 

 found to make no attempt to leave the rack, 

 simply hanging on or walking round, and if they 

 are shaken to the ground, it will be found that 

 they are quite unable to fly. 



These are the nurse bees, hitherto never having 

 been out in the open, and, even if they could fly, 

 they would not be able to find their way back 

 again. During this week before they leave the 

 hive they are occupied solely in attending to the 

 young bees, feeding them and covering them in 



