THE BEE NATION. 
5 
fresh arrival ; there, purveyors, in a hurry to be back at 
work again, stop at the entrance of the hive, where other 
bees unload them of their burdens ; elsewhere it is a 
working bee which engages in a hand-to-hand encounter 
with a rash stranger ; further on the surveyors of the hive 
clear it of everything which might interfere with the 
traffic or be prejudicial to health ; at another point 
workers are occupied in drawing out the dead body of 
one of their companions ; all the outlets are besieged by 
a crowd of bees coming in and going out — the doors 
hardly suffice for this hurrying, busy multitude. All 
appears disorder and confusion at the approaches to the 
hive, but this tumult is only so in appearance ; an admir- 
able order presides over this emulation in their work, 
which is the distinctive feature in bees.’ 
Now, if we open our hive by removing the top, 
we shall find rows of frames, each filled with a comb 
hanging from its top bar, and fixed to those at the 
sides. These frames are usually placed so that they 
hang i^^^ths of an inch from centre to centre. On 
lifting one out, we shall find that the comb is made 
up of innumerable, usually six-sided, cells of different 
sizes. Fig. i shows in a small compass the different 
sizes and forms of cells. 
Most of the cells are 4th of an inch wide in their 
o 
narrowest diameters — that is, between the parallel 
sides. These are called worker cells, and the combs 
are composed of two layers of such cells placed back 
to back, and lying nearly horizontally, arranged in 
such a way that the bases of the one become the 
bases of the other, the base of each little cell being 
formed by the union of the bases of three opposite cells. 
