INSIDE A HIVE 
35 
carelessly as drones, for although, unlike the drones, 
they have stings, they have neither strength or in¬ 
clination to use their weapons. Like all young 
things they are timid and helpless. 
It is they who become nurses to their younger 
sisters, as yet unhatched, supplying the larvae with 
bee-bread, sealing them over in their cells with 
waxen cappings, hovering over them to keep them 
warm. When the nurses are two or three weeks 
old, they are deemed mature and take their first 
flights. Round and round the hive they fly in ever 
widening circles, locating it unmistakably before 
they dart off in quest of nectar-laden flowers. 
With a puff of smoke as a control measure, we 
can look into the very heart of the home of these 
small, extraordinary insects. We can see the easily 
distinguishable queen, large and regal in figure, 
moving slowly about with a circle of attendant bees 
that never turn their backs but from time to time 
feed her or groom her with their antennae. The 
scene might be in any royal court, only that in reality 
the queen is merely being attended and nurtured so 
she may perform her functions as an egg-laying ma¬ 
chine most satisfactorily. 
The queen may live to be four or five years old, 
but rarely does she attain that great age. The egg- 
