INSIDE A HIVE 
33 
bread” provided them in advance by the nurse bees, 
and, day by day, acquiring wings and legs and 
changing from worms into insects. Around these 
brood cells are cells full of honey. 
The bees move about over the cells in the combs, 
busy about their respective duties. Some have 
brought in nectar from the fields and are storing it 
and evaporating surplus moisture in the chemical 
process of changing the raw nectar into honey. This 
they accomplish by “fanning;” an interesting and 
amusing sight to see them standing in ranks at 
the doorway with feet planted firmly apart, heads 
down, and wings whirring like little electric fans. 
Entrance guards, like sentries, also post them¬ 
selves in the doorway, ready to pounce on strangers 
who do not have their own special colony smell. 
They are aggressive in their duties, parading briskly 
up and down, ever ready to jump out and challenge 
a suspicious incomer. A strange bee will find it as 
much as her life is worth to penetrate the outer 
gates of a full-sized colony. With the highly devel¬ 
oped sense of smell possessed by all their kindred, 
the hive occupants have merely to get a whiff, and 
with a rush they are on the aliens, biting and pulling 
wings and legs and threatening with their stings. 
On the other hand, the spirit of small weak col- 
