THE BEE NATION, 
9 
and are larger than the workers, have no stings, and 
lead an idle life. At the end of the season, when 
their services are no longer needed, they are driven 
out of the hive and are allowed to perish. 
The workers (Fig. 4) are undeveloped females, the 
most numerous in the colony, 
and smaller than either queen or 
drones. On them devolves all 
the work of the hive. The younger 
ones do the indoor work, act as 
nurses, feed the grubs, queen, and 
drones, and as they grow older go 
out collecting. 
Sometimes, in the absence of 
a queen, workers will be found 
to lay eggs ; but as they are not 
capable of mating with a drone 
the eggs they produce are not 
fertilised, and from them only drones proceed. 
Now, let us watch the queen, and carefully follow 
the various stages through which a bee passes from 
the egg to the mature insect. 
We shall see the queen moving slowly over the 
combs surrounded by a number of workers, which 
are constantly touching her with their antennae and 
offering her food. She stops at an empty cell, ex- 
amines it by putting her head inside, then, hanging on 
to the edges of the comb, inserts her abdomen, and 
deposits at the base of the cell, to which it is at- 
tached by a glutinous secretion, a little bluish-white 
oblong egg. She then proceeds to other cells and 
