THE HUMBLE BEES. 
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fresh, colony is founded as soon as the Bees can meet with shelter, and their new residence is 
speedily filled with honey and young. The cells of the Bee-comb are set back to back, and 
each comb hangs like a thick curtain from the top and sides of the hive, so that the cells lie 
nearly horizontally. 
In gathering honey, the Bees lick the sweet juices from flowers, swallow them, and store 
them for the time in a membranous cup, popularly called the honey-bag. When this cup is 
filled, the Bee returns to the hive, and discharges the honey into cells, closing its mouth with 
HIVE BEE. — Apis mellifica. (a, Queen; b, Laborer; c, Drone; with front of the heads. The latter are magnified, and each belongs to figure beneath.) 
wax when it is filled. The structure of the Bee-cell, its marvellous adaptation to the several 
purposes for which it is intended, its mathematic accuracy of construction, whereby the best 
amount of material is found to afford the greatest amount of space and strength, are subjects 
too complicated to be here described, but may be found in many works which have been 
written upon the Hive Bee. 
The members of the genus Nomad a are very wasp-like in their general aspect, are not 
hairy, and are, indeed, often taken for small wasps by inexperienced observers. They are, 
however, true bees. Their habits are rather obscure, but they are thought to be parasitic 
insects. 
The Carpenter Bee of Southern Africa is one of those curious insects which construct 
a series of cells in wood. After completing their burrow, which is open at each end, they 
close the bottom with a flooring of agglutinated sawdust, formed of the morsels bitten off 
during the operation of burrowing, lay an egg upon this floor, insert a quantity of “bee- 
bread,” made of the pollen of flowers and their juices, and then cover the whole with a layer 
of the same substance that was used for the floor. Upon this is laid another egg, another 
supply of bee-bread is inserted, and a fresh layer of sawdust superimposed. Each layer is, 
therefore, the floor of one cell and the ceiling of another ; and the insect makes, on the aver- 
age, about ten or twelve of these cells. 
The numerous Humble Bees are a group of insects readily recognized by their thick, 
hairy bodies and general shape. Their nests are placed underground, often in banks, and 
contain a variable number of cells, sometimes not more than twenty in number, and sometimes 
exceeding two or even three hundred. The cells are loosely connected together, and are of an 
oval shape, their texture being tougher and more paper-like than those of the hive bee. In 
these, as in the ordinary bees, there are the three kinds of inhabitants ; but with the Humble 
Bees, both the females and neuters take part in the labors of the establishment, while the 
number of perfect females is comparatively large. 
The honey made by these insects is peculiarly sweet and fragrant, but to many persons, 
myself included, is rather injurious, always causing a severe headache. Some of the Humble 
Bees ( Bombus muscorum ) employ moss in the construction of their nests, and pass it, fibre by 
fibre, through their legs, in a manner that reminds the observer of carding cotton. They are, 
on that account, popularly called Carder Bees. Others, again ( Bombus lapidarius ), prefer 
