94 
BEE BEHAVIOR 
Comb-repairing and building seems to be 
a haphazard job, and the work of one bee 
is often at once undone by another. Pro¬ 
polis is used in the construction of new 
comb, sometimes as much as one-half to 
three-quarters of an ounce being added to 
a pound of wax. It adds to the strength of 
the comb and makes its fastening to the 
wood more secure. 
HOW BEES DEPOSIT THEIR LOAD OF NECTAR. 
The honey-laden bee on returning from 
the field is not in a hurry to get rid of her 
load, and it is not at all unusual for her to 
keep it for half an hour or more before 
depositing it. She may walk aimlessly 
about or settle quietly down somewhere 
and seemingly forget the world, or she 
may, after an extended journey over the 
combs, select a cell for her load. She en¬ 
ters the cell with her back down and feet 
up. If the cell has no honey in it, she goes 
in until her mandibles touch the upper and 
rearmost angle. The mouth and mandibles 
are opened and a drop of nectar appears, 
welling up until it touches the cell wall. 
Slowly the bee turns her head from side to 
side, spreading the nectar against the up¬ 
per part of the cell. All this time the 
mandibles are kept in motion; and as the 
nectar covers their gland openings, it is 
possible that the secretion of those glands 
is being added to. the nectar. 
When the bee is adding her load to honey 
already in a cell, the proceeding is the 
same, except that the mouth parts are sub¬ 
merged in the honey already there. The 
mandibles are kept in motion as before. 
The tongue in neither ease takes any part 
in the proceeding, but is kept folded be¬ 
hind the head. 
THE RESTING PERIODS OF BEES. 
When rid of her load, the worker may at 
once return to the field, but usually she 
loiters about the hive for a while—from a 
few minutes to half a day. So commonly 
do such bees crawl into a cell and go to 
sleep for a half-hour or so that it is reason¬ 
able to assume that such is the customary 
proceeding. By sleeping is meant as nearly 
a complete suspension of movement as pos¬ 
sible. The customary pulsation of the ab¬ 
domen nearly, if not quite, ceases, or is 
suspended for minutes at a time, and the 
occasional pulsation is very slow. 
When the nap is over, the bee backs out, 
combs off her head just as if “scratching 
for a thought,” and starts off in more or 
less of a hurry. 
Presumably, all the bees of a colony do 
some of this sleeping, and drones and 
queen are no exception; but in the case of 
the latter two, the sleeping is not usually 
done in cells. 
When bees are .getting stolen sweets, a 
very different condition arises; a feverish 
excitement is noticeable in the returning 
workers, and it is not long before the whole 
colony is in a more or less disturbed state. 
Sleeping then is not in evidence. Why a 
load or several loads of honey should cause 
so marked a difference from several loads 
of nectar is unknown, and until we know 
more about the bee it is idle to speculate. 
HOW BEES RIPEN HONEY. 
The process by which the bees evaporate 
and gradually convert the thin nectar into 
thick honey is called ripening. 
Honey-ripening is a slow but. interesting 
process. After a day’s work is about 
over, almost the whole colony spreads out 
over all available surface, and nearly every 
bee has her sac full of honey. All the bees 
hang vertically with head up, and all seem 
to prefer not to be crowded too closely by 
the other bees. Then each bee opens her 
mandibles and mouth and forces up a drop 
of nectar. This drop fills the mouth and 
extends up over the upper lip and fills the 
space between the mandibles, covering the 
openings of the glands connected therewith. 
The tongue.meantime is kept folded behind 
the head. Next, the bee begins a chewing 
motion with the lower “jaw 1 ” and this 
causes the drop to pulsate. The mandibles 
are held still. They are not moved as in de¬ 
positing nectar. 
For about ten minutes this operation is 
continued; then the drop is swallowed, and 
after a few moments’ pause another drop 
appears, and the process is renewed. This 
is continued by the colony until about 11 
p. M., or sometimes later, and then work 
stops and all hands go to sleep. 
While the work is in process, the heavy 
hum so pleasant to the ears of beekeepers 
