20 4 
THE FAIRY-LAND OF SCIENCE. 
Fig. 57- 
two threads of silk glued together, and with this it 
spins a covering or cocoon all round itself, and so it 
remains for about ten days more. At last, just twenty- 
one days after the egg was laid, the young bee is quite 
perfect, lying in the cell as in Fig. 57, and she begins 
to eat her way through the 
cocoon and through the 
waxen lid, and scrambles 
out of her cell. Then the 
nurses come again to her, 
stroke her wings and feed 
her for twenty-four hours, and 
after that she is quite ready 
to begin work, and flies out 
to gather honey and pollen 
like the rest of the workers. 
By this time the number 
of working bees in the hive 
is becoming very great, and 
the storing of honey and 
pollen - dust goes on very 
quickly. Even the empty 
cells which the young bees 
have left are cleaned out by 
the nurses and filled with 
honey ; and this honey is 
darker than that stored in 
clean cells, and which we always call " virgin honey " 
because it is so pure and clear. 
At last, after six weeks, the queen leaves off laying 
worker-eggs, and begins to lay, in some rather larger 
cells, eggs from which drones, or male bees, will grow 
Brood-comb cut open, with the 
pupae, or young bees, /, /, in 
the cells. 
The lower cells contain eggs, 
afterwards to become bees. 
f t a royal cell. 
