HYMENOPTERA. 6 7 3 
without any of the severe disciplining and exact methods 
of her cousin, the honey-bee. 
With the bumblebees the queens are larger than either 
the workers or the males, and are the only ones that live 
through the winter. In early spring we often see one of 
these great queens flying low, and inspecting our meadows 
and pastures for a building-place. She chooses some de¬ 
serted mouse-nest in the meadow, and places within it a ball 
of pollen, upon which she lays some eggs. As soon as the 
larva: hatch they eat into the pollen-mass in all directions, 
and when full grown make for themselves silken cocoons, 
and change topupse. These cocoons the old bees strengthen 
with wax, and after the young bees vacate them they are 
used as storing cells for honey. This explains the irregu¬ 
larity of the bumblebee-comb. The first broods of the sea¬ 
son are workers, and relieve the queen of all duties except 
laying the eggs. Later in the summer males and females 
appear, and it can be said to the credit of the bumblebee 
queens that they are not jealous, but allow the young queens 
to live with them in the nest. In the autumn the colony 
breaks up, and all of the bees, except the young queens, perish. 
These crawl away into some protected place and pass the 
winter. In the spring each queen that has survived the 
winter founds a new colony, performing, until a brood of 
workers has been developed, both the duties of queen and 
The Honey-bee, Apis nullified (A pis mel-lif l-ca). Neat 
rows of hives on a sunny slope, with an orchard on one side 
and wide-stretching meadows on the other, the busy hum 
of comers and goers of this city of cities, the odor of honey 
weighing down every passing breeze these constitute 
one of the most home-like possessions of the ideal country- 
home. 
The honey-bee, through its useful products, has been 
known and cared for by man for centuries. Philosophers 
have written about it, poets have sung its praises, and nat- 
44 
