THE HUMBLE BEE. 547 
the legs of the Bees is the pollen of flowers. This is kneaded up by the 
bees, and is called bee-bread. 
The cells are six-sided, a form which gives the greatest space and strength 
with the lest amount of material, but the methoc employed by the Bees to 
give the cells that shape is not known. The cells in which the Drone or 
male Bees are hatched, are much larger than those of the ordinary or worker 
Bee. The edges of the cells are strengthened with a substance called 
propol s, which is a gummy material procured from the buds of various 
trees. This propolis is also used to stop up crevices and to mix with wax 
when the comb has to be strengthened. 
The royal cells are much larger than any others, and are of an oval shape. 
When a worker larva is placed in a royal cell, and fed in a royal manner, 
it imbihes the principles of royalty, and becomes a queen accordingly. This 
practice is adopted if the Queen Bee should die, and there be no other quee 
to take her place. 
‘The Queen Bee is lady paramount in her own hive, and suffers no other 
queen to divide rule with her. Should a strange queen gain admittance, there 
is a battle at once, which ceases not until one has been destroyed. 
At the swarming time, the old queen is sadly put out by the encroachments 
of various young queens, who each wish for the throne, and at last is so 
agitated that she rushes out of the hive, attended by a large body of 
subjects, and thus the first swarm is formed. In seven or eight days, the 
queen next in age also departs, taking with her another supply of subjects. 
When all the swarms have left tue original hive, the remaining queens fight 
until one gains the throne. 
The old method of destroying Bees for the sake of the honey was not only 
cruel but wasteful, as by burninz sume dry “ puff-ball ” the Bees are stupefied, 
and shortly return to consciousness. The em- 5 
ployment of a “cap” on the hive is an excellent 
plan, as the Bees ceposit honey alone in these 
caps, without any acmixture of grubs or bee-bread. 
Extra hives at the side, with a communication from 
the original hive, are also useful. 
The Queen Bee lays about eighteen thousand 
eggs. Of these about eight hundred are males or 
drones, and four or five queens, the remainder 
being workers. : 
In some cases, such as the common HUMBLE 
BEE, the cells are egg-shaped, each cell being either 
occupied by a larva or filled with honey ; while in oe cane a 
some species the eggs are placed parasitically in UN QUSSLET ESTES: 
the nests of other Bees, so that the larvze feed either upon the stores of 
food gathered for the in\oluntary host, or upon the body of the deluded 
insect itself. 
In gathering honey, the Bees lick the sweet juices from flowers, swallow 
them, and store them for the time in a membranous sac, popularly called the 
honey-bag. When this sac is filled, the Bee returns to the hive, and _dis- 
charges the honey into cells, closing its mouth with wix when it is filled. 
The structure of the bee-cell, its marvellous adaptation to the several pur- 
poses for which it is intended, its mathematical accuracy of construction, 
whereby the best amount of material is found to afford the greatest amount 
of space and strength, are subjects too complicated to be here described, but 
may be found in many works which have been written upon the Hive Bee. 
For want of space, we are compelled to pass by many interesting Hymen- 
optera, such as the Leaf-cutter Bees, the Woodborers, and the Mason Bees, 
NNZ 
