BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 



it is made up of a number of chambers (technically 

 cells), nearly all of which are exactly hexagonal 

 in cross section, and most of which are precisely 

 one-fifth of an inch between the parallel sides. 

 Some of these (L, Fig. 3) are nearly filled by an 

 opaque, dough-like looking body, which we recog- 

 nise at once, both by colour and consistency, as 

 being that very pollen, packed away, which we saw 

 being carried into the hive on the hind* legs of 

 the returning bees. One of the latter, still loaded, 

 marches before us, occasionally sharply agitating her 

 body (for these untiring workers are ladies) ; and, 

 as we look, she curls herself over a cell, and, by 

 a process singularly beautiful, which we are not 

 yet in a position to understand, she thrusts off one 

 of these lumps into it, and then, by a second twist, 

 the other, either immediately leaving them, as at K, 

 Fig. 3, or else butting them down with her head into 

 a pancake for future use. But her cargo is as yet 

 only half discharged ; and now, seeking another cell, 

 either empty or containing some honey, she inserts her 

 tongue, and returns from an interior cavity of her body, 

 called the honey sac [h s, Plate I.), the sweet fluid she 

 has collected from the nectaries of flowers. As duty 

 and pleasure are synonyms with a bee, she at once hies 

 away, in order that, ere long, she may yet again add 

 to the riches of the community for which she lives to 

 labour. And, we ask, why this anxiety to carry 

 home both pollen and honey? — some of the latter 

 standing before us in considerable quantity, beautifully 

 covered by air-tight, either white or yellowish, caps 

 of wax, seen in Fig. 3, at I. A reply is soon 



