CHAPTER XXI

HOW THE BEES WORK

AS I said, the work in the Beehive City is divided up.

The Worker Bees are divided into various groups: who forage for nectar; who gather pollen; who guard the entrance to the hive from enemies; who clean the city; who build the comb; the nurse-bees, who feed the babies; the undertakers, who carry away the dead; and a group whose duty it is to fan the air to keep the hive cool.

THE VENTILATING WORKERS—THE FANNERS

They keep their tiny wings vibrating so rapidly that sometimes the draught they make will put out a lighted candle flame held at the entrance of the hive at night.

THE COMB BUILDERS

When a colony or swarm of bees first enter their new home or hive, the comb builders set about making the comb. The comb is formed of food-cells, in which to store honey and pollen; and cradle cells, in which the queen may lay her eggs.

The comb (cells) is made of beeswax—yes, the kind that your mother uses on her sewing thread sometimes.

After getting in the right position on the coiling of the hive (for bees build downward), the bees take from their wax pockets some little scales of wax, and begin kneading and chewing them into the correct degree of softness, and they or their helpers fix it in position. They make the cells six-sided, and there is no wasted space.

THE QUEEN’S WORK

All the time the comb builders have been working, the queen has wandered about in an excited way. When she sees that there are cells ready for her, she begins to lay eggs. She is attended by a number of bees who clean her, and massage her, and wait upon her, and feed her “royal jelly.”

WORKER BABY BEES

In three or four days each egg (which looks like a tiny grain of rice) hatches into a little white grub, and later the nurse bees begin to feed it—no, not honey, but a kind of milk—honey bee milk—which the nurses make. The little grub feeds on this for three days, then is given richer bee-milk, and grows very rapidly, turning into a chrysalis on the fifth or sixth day. It spins around itself a silken cocoon, and is sealed into its cell by another set of worker bees.

In about two weeks it turns into a full-fledged worker bee; but there she is all sealed up in the cell. How can she get out?

It doesn’t take long for her to discover she has a sharp pair of jaws, and she bites her way out. She is very pale and weak, so the nurse bees begin to clean and feed her.

As soon as she gains strength, she gets right to work on some task like feeding grub-babies; and perhaps after two weeks of such work, she flies away to gather nectar.

THE DRONE BABY BEE

The Drone Bee is hatched in the same way, only it takes longer for him to become perfect.

THE QUEEN BABY OR PRINCESS

But the Queen Bee is different.

When the worker bees decide they need a queen, the comb builders make three or four queen cells, or “royal cradles,” which are ordinary cells made large by cutting away parts of the next-door cells and building a hanging cell.

In these larger cells are placed the eggs. When the first egg is hatched, it is a princess bee.

WHY BEES “SWARM”

The old queen, knowing the princess will be the new queen, “swarms” with the bees who wish to follow her to a new hive.

The new queen, as soon as hatched, goes to the other royal cells and stings the other little princesses (who might try to be queen if they hatched) to death, and commences to be mother-queen of the Bee City.

HOW BEES SPEND THE WINTER

The bees spend the winter in a kind of sleep. They cluster together to keep warm.

When the early Spring days come, and some of the bees begin to bring in pollen and nectar, the queen begins to lay eggs.

These eggs will be hatched out into worker bees to carry on the work of the hive, and the bees that lived over winter will live only long enough to care for them until they can carry on the work of the hive.

At length the Bee sighted her hive. “We are home,” she said to Miss Gardener, “and I will explain to the guard bees that it is all right for you to enter, as you are one of us.”

Miss Gardener thanked her. They flew to the Bee City entrance gate, and her new friend disappeared within.

Miss Gardener just poked her head inside to see how it seemed, when all the guard bees started toward her, and the foremost one stung her and stung her until—she woke up shrieking, to find that there was a hive of bees swarming on the tree just over her head.

“Oh,” cried Mary Frances, “did they sting her?”

“No, not really,” said Billy; “it was only a dream, but somehow the fact that the bees were swarming there must have made her dream of the stinging.”

“Well, I just believe Miss Gardener never had to study the lesson about the bees,” said Mary Frances. “I imagine her wonderful dream taught her.”

“But she was always sorry, she said, that she did not get inside the hive in her dream,” replied Billy.

“What wonderful little creatures bees are!” exclaimed Mary Frances. “When people sell honey, do they steal it from the bees?”

“Yes, practically that,” said Billy; “yet it is not a serious theft, for the bees generally store up much more honey than is needed, and the bee keeper always leaves enough for them to use.”

“Billy, wouldn’t it be lovely to have a hive?”[E] said Mary Frances.

“I’ve thought of it myself,” acknowledged Billy. “One hive would make from four dollars upward in a year, but I don’t think we’d better experiment along any other line than gardening this year at least.”

“Well, I guess you’re right, Billy,” laughed Mary Frances, “although you’re a pretty good manager, we don’t want too many ‘bees in our bonnets’ at one time, do we? Oh, Billy, do you remember the verses we used to say when we were little—

“The great round sun is sleepy, And wants to go to bed; So he hides his face so shiny Behind a kerchief red.

“Then all the little clovers That dot the velvet lawn, Begin to nod their tiny heads And put their night-caps on.

“Good-night, you winsome clovers, All snug in grassy beds; You’ll dream of busy bumble bees A-buzzing round your heads.”

“That would please ’most any youngster,” remarked Billy, as Mary Frances finished, “but I think it is about time for us to let this honey bee fly away. She is anxious, no doubt, to get to work,” as he opened the bottle.

“Good-bye, good Mrs. Bee!” called Mary Frances as it flew away.

FOOTNOTE:

[E] For information as to Bee Keeping write for Farmers’ Bulletins on Bee Culture, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, Washington, D. C.