BEES IN THE HIVE. 203 
up after her, forming a guard of honour to follow hei 
wherever she goes. 
In about half-an-hour she comes back again, and 
then the working bees all gather round her, knowing 
that now she will remain quietly in the hive and 
spend all her time in laying eggs : for it is the queen- 
bee who lays all the eggs in the hive. This she 
begins to do about two days after her flight. There 
are now many cells ready besides those filled with 
honey : and, escorted by several bees, the queen-bee 
goes to one of these, and, putting her head into it, 
remains there a second as if she were examining 
whether it would make a good home for the young 
bee. Then, coming out, she turns round and lays a 
small, oval, bluish-white egg in the cell. After this 
she takes no more notice of it, but goes on to the next 
cell and the next, doing the same thing, and laying 
eggs in all the empty cells equally on both sides of 
the comb. She goes on so quickly that she some- 
times lays as many as 200 eggs in one day. 
Then the work of the nursing bees begins. In two 
or three days each egg has become a tiny maggot or 
larva, and the nursing bees put into its cell a mixture 
of pollen and honey which they have prepared in their 
own mouths, thus making a kind of sweet bath in which 
the larva lies. In five or six days the larva grows so 
fat upon this that it nearly fills the cell, and then the 
bees seal up the mouth of the cell with a thin cover 
of wax, made of little rings and with a tiny hole in the 
centre. 
As soon as the larva is covered in, it begins to give 
out from its under-lip a whitish, silken film, made of 
