18 THE HIVE AND THE HONEY-BEE. 



kept for the young workers, and others for the young drones — 

 these latter are much less numerous than those of the former : 

 there are likewise cells reserved for containing honey. It is true 

 that, when the breeding season terminates, the cells of the drones 

 and workers are generally well cleansed out, and these also em- 

 ployed as receptacles for 'honey, but the honey preserved in them 

 is never so pure or fine in quality as that which has been kept in 

 its own peculiar storehouses : some of the cells are also kept 

 apart for holding pollen ; these are of large size. Pollen is not, 

 as Reaumur erroneously conceived, the sole substance on which 

 depends the formation of wax — if, indeed, it have anything at all 

 to do with that process. It is eaten by the bees, forms a large 

 portion of the food for the young, and may possibly thus lend its 

 quota of assistance to the general elaboration. 



To give some idea of the extreme thinness of the walls of the 

 cells, I may mention that two of them laid together are not equal 

 in thickness to a leaf of ordinary letter-paper ; yet not only are 

 they first formed, independent and sufficiently strong, of wax 

 alone, with a basis of propolis, but are likewise subsequently coated 

 over with a mixture of propolis and wax. The soldering at the 

 orifice of each cell is formed with a large proportion of propolis ; 

 according as each cell is filled with its appropriate contents, it is 

 carefully covered in. 



CHAPTER IV. 



GENERATION" OF THE HONEY-BEE. 



As soon as the severity of winter has passed away, and the 

 genial influences of spring have begun to be felt, the queen-bee 

 commences laying ; and a hive, however it may have lost in num- 

 ber during winter, will by the middle of summer be crowded to 

 excess, and, unless properly managed, throw off a swarm. The 

 queen continues to lay until about September, and as she is calcu- 

 lated to deposit nearly 200 eggs per day, my readers may form 

 some idea of the prodigious number she deposits in an entire sea- 

 son. This has by many authors been calculated at from 8,000 

 to 10,000, which I think much under the mark. 



Wherever the queen-bee moves, she is attended by ten or a 



