118 
Beekeeping 
Of all these labors which the workers perform within the 
hive, none of them monopolizes the time of certain individuals 
as completely as does comb building, in which the bees hang 
in curtains from the comb support. Casteel has shown that 
even in this the bees change their duties frequently. Bees 
arc constantly changing from guards to feeders of the brood 
or from ventilators to cleaners, and yet the work of the hive 
is done well and, one is almost tempted to say, systematically. 
The labor outside the hive. 
While the division of the inside duties may be explained 
to a certain degree, the division of the outside work presents 
problems of far greater perplexity, chiefly because of 
difficulty of observation. That there is an order to this 
work is an inevitable conclusion, but how this order is brought 
about among the thousands of field workers is not easily 
determined. Bees go to the field to obtain nectar, pollen, 
water and propolis. If there were no “ system,” we should ex¬ 
pect to find colonies lacking one or more of these substances 
in sufficient quantity or, perchance, a colony with the 
brood nest choked with pollen or a hive over-propolized. 
There are, in fact, variations in all these things, but there 
are no cases which can be considered abnormal. Further¬ 
more, on the grounds of an apiary of 200 colonies may be 
found heads of white clover or other nectar-secreting flowers 
right at hand. The bees in any case are not falling over 
each other to reach a certain flower and leaving other flowers 
untouched, as would be the case sometimes if bees were 
guided to nectar merely by the chance sight of a flower. 
Or, assuming only that there is a system whereby the indi¬ 
vidual colony divides up the surrounding territory, there 
would be cases of conflict between bees from the various 
colonies in their attempts to reach the same flowers. If 
then we dare to assume a pre-arranged plan, it must include 
the entire apiary and even more, all the apiaries within the 
range of flight. While bees get nectar from the flowers 
right beside the hive, they are no more numerous on 
