BEES IN THE HIVE. 2OI 
yet as she gnaws away every bit of wax that can be 
spared she brings the holes into this shape. 
As soon as one comb is finished, the -bees begin 
another by the side of it, leaving a narrow lane between, 
just broad enough for two bees to pass back to back 
as they crawl along, and so the work goes on till the 
hive is full of combs. 
As soon, however, as a length of about five or six 
inches of the first comb has been made into cells, 
the bees which are bringing home honey no longer 
hang to make it into wax, but begin to store it in the 
cells. We all know where the bees go to fetch their 
honey, and how, when a bee settles on a flower, she 
thrusts into it her small tongue-like proboscis, which 
is really a lengthened under-lip, and sucks out the 
drop of honey. This she swallows, passing it down 
her throat into a honey-bag or first stomach, which 
lies between her throat and her real stomach, and when 
she gets back to the hive she can empty this bag and 
pass the honey back through her mouth again into the 
honey-cells. 
But if you watch bees carefully, especially in the 
spring-time, you will find that they carry off something 
else besides honey. Early in the morning, when the dew 
is on the ground, or later in the day, in moist, shady 
places, you may see a bee rubbing itself against a flower, 
or biting those bags' of yellow dust or pollen which we 
mentioned in Lecture VII. When she has covered 
herself with pollen, she will brush it off with her feet, 
and, bringing it to her mouth, she will moisten and roll 
it into a little ball, and then pass it back from the first 
pair of legs to the second and so to the third or hinder 
