The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1889-05-23

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honey bag into the cell. One cell will
hold the contents of many honey bags,
and so the busy little workers have to
work all day filling cell after cell, in
which the honey lies uncovered, being
too thick and sticky to flow out, and is
used for daily food-unless there is any
To spare, and then they close up the cells
with wax to keep for the winter.
Meanwhile, a day or two after the bees
have settled in the hive, the queen bee
begins to get very restless. She goes out
side the hive and hovers about little
while, and then comes in again, and
though generally the bees all look very
closely after her to keep her indoors, yet
now they let her do as she likes. Again
she goes out, and again back, and then,
at last, she scars up into the air and flies
away. But she ia not allowed to go alone.
All the dronea of the hive rise up after
her, forming guard of honor to follow
her 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, put.
ting her head into it, remains there q
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 small, oval, bluishwhite 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
OIL both sides Of the comb. She goes on
SO quickly that she sometimes lays as
many as two hundred eggs iu one day.
Then the work of the nursing bees be.
gins. In two or three days each egg has
become q tiny maggot or larva, and the
nursing bees put into its cell mixture Of
pollen and honey which they have pre-
pared in their own mouths, thus making
a kind of sweet bath in which the larva
lies. In FIVE or six days the larva grows
80 fat upon this that it nearly fills the
cell, and then the bees seal up the mouth
Of the cell with thin cover Of wax, made
Of little rings and with tiny hole in the
centre.
AS soon as the larva Is covered in, it
begins to give out from its under lip q
whitish, silken film, made of 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. Atlast, just twenty one days
after the egg was laid, the young bee is
quite perfect, 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 che 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, ths queen
leaves of laying worker eggs, and begins
tolay, in some rather larger cells, eggs
from which drones, or male bees, viii
grow up in about twenty days. Near
while the worker bees have been building
on the edge of the cones some very curl.
GUS cells which look like thimbles hang.
ing with the open side upwards, and
about every three days the queen stops in
laying drone eggs and goes to put an egg
in one Of these cells. Notice that she
waits three days between each Of these
peculiar layings, because ne shall gsee
presently that there is good reason for
her doing 30.
The nursing bees take great care Of
these eggs, and instead ofputting ordinary
food into the cell, they fill it With sweet
pungent jelly, for this larva is to become
princess and future queen bee. Curl
ously enough, it seems to be the peculiar
food and the size of the cell which makes
the larva grow into mother bee which
can lay eggs, for if q hive has the misfor-
tune to lose it's queen, they take one of
the ordinary worker aarva and put it into
royal cell and feed it with jelly, and it
becomes queen bee. As soon ss the
princess is shut up like the others, she
begins to spin a cocoon, but she does not
quite close it as the other bees do, but
leaves hole at the top.
At the end of sixteen days after the
first royal egg was laid. the eldest princess
begins to eat her way out of her cell, and
about this time the old queen becomes
very uneasy, and wanders about distract.
edly. The reason of this is, that there
can never be two queen bees in one hive,
and the queen knows that her daughter
will soon be coming out ofthe cradle and
will try to turn her off her throne. So,