An Opened Bee Hive Showing the Clustering Bees
The bee goes abroad for honey, but the wax which it uses for the comb is formed in its own body. It comes out from a sort of wax-pocket in the lower part of the body, is scraped up by the legs and carried to the mouth. Here it is well chewed and then laid on the floor for the use of the comb-builders.
From this wax the bees build a series of six-sided cells, laid side by side, some of them to hold honey, others as cradles for the young. They are fastened to the walls and hang downward. It is well to say here that there is only one egg-layer in the hive. This is called the queen bee. The others are workers and drones. The workers store up food, the drones (the male bees) do nothing but eat it. This the workers let them do while the summer lasts and food is plenty, but they do not let them spend the winter in the hive, eating the food which they have not helped to gather. When the summer season is over they drive the drones from the hive and sting them to death.
Is there a lesson for us in this habit of the bees? They have no room in the hives for those who do no work, and kill them on the spot rather than let them starve or freeze. While we could not do a thing like this, it might be well if everybody was made to work for the food they eat, as the bees do.
Now let us come back to the waxen cells, built so neatly and packed into the hive so closely that no man could do it better. Some of these, as I have said, are cradles for the young; some are store-houses for food. The queen bee is a wonderful egg layer. For every egg laid by the hen she will lay several hundred, each in a cell of its own. From the egg comes a little maggot, which feeds on the honey and pollen given it till it swells into a fat little worm. Then it builds around itself a cocoon of fine silk, in which it lies hid while it is going through the process of changing from a worm into a bee. In the end it comes out a winged insect, ready to take its part in the business of the hive.
Egg-laying is the work of the queen; food gathering is that of the workers. As soon as warm weather comes and blossoms open on bushes and trees, the bees may be seen at work, visiting flower after flower and sucking up by aid of the tongue the sweet juice to be found in so many flower cups. This is partly used for food, but much of it is stored in the honey bag of the bee to be carried to the hive and laid away in the honey cells.
As the season goes on new plants bear blossoms, so that all through the blossom season the busy bees find plenty of their sweet food. Another thing they collect is the pollen of the flowers. This clings to the hairs of the body while they are at work in the blossoms, and is cleaned off by the jaws and feet, a little honey being mixed with it. In this way little pellets are formed which are used as food for the young. On this rich food the little ones soon grow fat.
Another thing gathered by the bee is a sticky substance called propolis. It is used as a cement, to varnish the combs and stop up all holes. The bees carry this home on their legs and the workers in the hive clean it off and use it while it is soft to cover up all weak spots.
I have said that the wax is formed in the body of the bee. The same may be said of the poison. This flows into the sting, and by its aid the bee is able to defend itself, not only against its natural enemies, but against artificial ones, like meddlesome boys. But the sting is barbed, so that the bee often fails to draw it back after using it. Thus the sting is pulled from the body and the bee dies from the wound.