328 
BRITISH BEES. 
ventive, and which is not removed until the cell is filled; 
it is then covered hermetically with its waxen top. 
A sufficient number of cells being ready, and sufficient 
stores of honey, pollen, and propolis for the progressive 
labours of the hive, and a great number of empty cells 
all finished for the use of the queen, she begins to lay 
her eggs. As these are hatched the duty of the nursing- 
bees commences, which is to feed the young, who crave 
for food like young birds, and are as diligently supplied 
by these nurses with a material called bee-bread, which 
* consists of masticated pollen, the pollen being exclusively 
stored and used for the purpose. This is mixed with 
some secretion from the mouth, which converts it into a 
sort of frothy jelly. These bees are never negligent of 
their duties, and with their feeding the larvee rapidly grow. 
To keep up a necessary supply of air in the hive, and 
to prevent suffocation from heat, a certain number of 
the community are employed in fanning the passages 
between the cakes of comb and the whole interior of 
the hive,by the vibration of their wings, which thoroughly 
ventilates it, and the accumulation of deleterious air is 
prevented; some, for this purpose, being posted at the 
aperture to the hive, where, this vibration causing a tem¬ 
porary vacuum, the external air rushes in, and the chain 
of succession of bees within becoming thus vibrating air- 
valves completes the ventilating arrangement. While 
all these operations are progressing, a certain number 
are acting as a militia of citizens, who have substitutes 
only in the succession and change of duties. These act 
as sentinels, who guard the entrance and patrol the in¬ 
terior and courageously intercept all inimical intrusion, 
for the bees have many enemies, but who are merely so 
to benefit themselves, and are not parasites of the nature 
