Marvels of the Universe 



25 



ventilation must be partly automatic, and, therefore, not entirely under the control of the 

 workers. 



x\lthough the work of these fanning parties never ceases while the necessity for it continues, the 

 bees forming the squads are constantly being changed. Each bee fans for about a minute, after 

 which another worker comes up behind her, whereupon the first bee ceases work and marches off. 

 .A.11 this time the foraging bees are hurrying in and out of the hive, passing in both directions through 

 the open ranks of the fanners. 



In the making of a bee-city the worker-bees do not have their tasks allotted to them 

 indiscriminateh'. The age of each worker seems largely to determine the branch of activity 

 in which she engages. In the composition of the swarm we find a queen, or mother-bee, 

 whose single duty it is to keep all brood-cells furnished with eggs ; a few score of drones, 

 or male bees, at present nearly useless appendages to the company, and from ten to thirty 

 thousand workers, on whom the whole future progress and well-being of the colony will devolve. 

 This great army of workers seems to consist in about equal proportions of young bees who have 

 never pre\dously flown abroad, and those experienced in outdoor work who will be upwards of a 

 fortnight old. 



The wax-making bees of the swarm unite themselves into a dense cluster in the upper regions 

 of the hive and there remain while their wax is forming. The temperature of the cluster varies 

 from ninety-five degrees to ninety-eight degrees, which is considerably higher than that of the rest 

 of the hive. Each bee hangs motionless in the throng until her eight abdominal wax-pockets have 

 filled themselves, and then she moves up to the edge of the growing comb, labouring there so long 



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inckner Edicnrdes. 



AN UPWARD-BUILT COMB. 



The almoflt invariable practice of the honey-bee is to suspend her combs from the roof of the hive, but in rare instances the 

 rule may be reversed. The photograph shows an unique example of this. The triangular piece of comb at base of picture was 

 built upwards, story by story, exactly as a human dwelling is built. 



