FROM OLD TO NEW 
21 
whom mates with the queen once and then dies. 
The remaining thousands are undeveloped sterile 
females, the “workers,” who do all the honey gath¬ 
ering and work of the hive. 
These bees live in and on their combs which they 
make of thin delicate beeswax, molded into thou¬ 
sands of six-sided cells to hold both brood and honey. 
Their food is honey, which the workers suck in the 
form of nectar from certain flowers, afterwards 
thickening and changing it into honey. 
Every year at least one swarm is cast by the mother 
colony. The colony is a family which perpetuates 
itself and the race by sending out its child, the 
swarm, made up of the queen and about two-thirds 
of the bees, to find and establish a new home. These 
swarming bees settle on something—usually a 
branch—in a clinging pendant mass about their 
queen. For a time they deliberate, sending out 
scouts to find a home. Then they depart, with a 
loud humming to their chosen destination. 
The mother colony retains a great many young 
bees and brood, also several young queens in their 
wax cells nearly ready to hatch. The first to emerge 
will kill her royal sisters and in a few days will 
mate with one of the waiting drones, and will take 
up her royal duties. Not “The Queen is dead; long 
