HONEYBEES 351 



Honey and Wax. — Honeybees ^ are kept in hives. A colony 

 consists of a queen, a female that lays the eggs for the colony; 

 the drones, or males ; and the workers. 



The cells of the comb are built by the workers of wax secreted 

 by glands in the under part of their abdomens. These cells are 

 used by the queen to place eggs in, one egg in each cell. The 

 young hatch after three days, and begin life as footless white grubs. 



Beehive with two frames of comb lifted out. 



The young are fed for several days, then shut up in the cells and 

 allowed to become pupae. Eventually as adults they break out 

 from these cells and take their places in the hive. The young 

 workers act first as nurses for the young and later as pollen 

 gatherers and honey makers. 



The honeybee gathers nectar, which she swallows, keeping the 

 fluid in her crop until her return to the hive. Here it is forced out 

 into cells of the comb. It is now thinner than honey. To thicken 

 it, the bees swarm over the open cells, moving their wings very 

 rapidly, thus evaporating some of the water. A hive of bees makes, 



1 Their daily life may be easily watched in the schoolroom, by means of one of the 

 many good and cheap observation hives now made to be placed in a window frame. 

 Directions for making a small observation hive for school work can be found in 

 Hodge, Nature Study and Life, Chap. XIV. The United States Department of 

 Agriculture publishes several excellent pamphlets on the bee and its culture. 



The A B C of Bee Culture, Root, Medina, Ohio, is an excellent little book. 



A book by Snodgrass entitled. The Anatomy and Physiology of the Honey Bee, 

 Wiley, is authentic and interesting. 



