2i6 THE FAIRY-LAND OF SCIENCE. 
And now all the remaining inhabitants of the hive 
settle down to feeding the young bees and laying in 
the winter's store. It is at this time, after they have 
been toiling and saving, that we come and take their 
honey ; and from a well-stocked hive we may even 
take 30 Ibs. without starving the industrious little in- 
habitants. But then we must often feed them in re- 
turn, and give them sweet syrup in the late autumn 
and the next early spring when they cannot find any 
flowers. 
Although the hive has now become comparatively 
quiet and the work goes on without excitement, yet 
every single bee is employed in some way, either out 
of doors or about the hive. Besides the honey col- 
lectors and the nurses, a certain number of bees are 
told off to ventilate the hive. You will easily under- 
stand that where so many insects are packed closely 
together the heat will become very great, and the air 
impure and unwholesome. And the bees have no 
windows that they can open to let in fresh air, so they 
are obliged to fan it in from the one opening of the 
hive. The way in which they do this is very interest- 
ing. Some of the bees stand close to the entrance, 
with their faces toward it, and opening their wings, 
so as to make them into fans, they wave them to and 
fro, producing a current of air. Behind these bees, 
and all over the floor of the hive, there stand others, 
this time with their backs toward the entrance, and 
fan in the same manner, and in this Way air is sent into 
all the passages. 
Another set of bees clean out the cells after the 
young bees are born, and make them fit to receive 
