THE HONEYBEE 



73 



We have seen that the queen lays all the eggs, acting as a sort of 

 tribal mother. The eggs are all fertilized by one drone, who 

 places the sperm cells within the body of the queen on her nuptial 

 flight. The young workers feed the larvae and act as nurses. 

 The older bees take turns in a number of duties ; some attend to 

 the queen and drones, some act as sanitary police, keeping the 

 hive clean of dirt and bodies of dead bees, others ventilate the 

 hive by buzzing with their wings, while many others work in the field 

 gathering pollen and nectar from flowers. 



The nectar is swallowed and kept in the crop, or honey stomach, 

 until after the bee returns to the hive, where it is regurgitated 

 into the cells of the comb. It is now thinner than what we call 

 honey. To thicken it, the bees swarm over the open cells, moving 

 their wings very rapidly, thus evaporating some of the water in 

 the honey. A hive of bees has been known to make over thirty- 

 one pounds of honey in a single day, although the average is very 

 much less than this. 



C. Clarke 

 A tiny ant drags home a cabbage butterfly, to add to its store of food, which is needed for the 



young. 



