XXIV INSECTA : HYMENOPTERA 371 



moistening it with lier saliva, and finally attaches the thread 

 to the roof of the hive and goes off to feed once more. 

 Bee after bee repeats the same performance until a shapeless 

 mass of wax hangs from the roof. 



Older bees now come and begin to hollow out 

 Formation ^"^ ^^^ mass beautifully shaped hexagonal tubes, 

 side by side, which finally form two vertical 

 layers of tubular cells lying back to back, the base of one 

 cell forming usually one-third of the base of each of three 

 cells in the opposite half of the whole " comb," the open mouths 

 of the horizontal cells pointing outwards in each layer. 



A large number of bees are at work at the same time on the 

 comb, perhaps fifty on one side and fifty on the other, whilst 

 more wax is still being added below by the younger bees. 

 The cells are at first roughly blocked out with thick walls, 

 the final shape being given by a further set of workers, 

 who pare down the walls, trim them, and shape them, 

 until the minimum of wax has been put to the maximum 

 of use, and the wonderful structure of the comb is the result. 

 It is said that as many as 4000 cells may be completed in 

 one hive in twenty-four hours — truly there is good foundation 

 for the expression "as busy as a bee." The first cells are 

 all alike, and in the old-fashioned straw hives or skeps, or 

 in a natural nest, several combs hang down in parallel plates 

 from the roof almost to the floor of the hive, though in the 

 hives now in favour with most bee-keepers, the bees are supplied 

 with neat square wooden frames, with an artificial, hexagonally 

 marked wax base in each, so that they can at once start 

 cell-making, and their energy is not wasted in wax-making 

 when they might be storing honey or rearing young. 



The first cells formed are all meant for 

 T^ First nurseries for the bee larvae, and when these cells 

 are finished the queen approaches them, attended 

 by a bodyguard of workers who always surround her, never 

 turning their backs on her. She enters a cell, head foremost, 

 and after examining it she backs out and, turning round, 

 inserts in it her abdomen and deposits a single little 

 bluish-white egg, fixing it to the bottom of the cell with a 

 sticky secretion. 



In this way she enters cell after cell, leaving in each 

 an egg which is immediately taken charge of by one or two 



