old bees to seek a new home and leaves the hive to the young ones. The worker-bee has a very wonderful tongue which, when not in use, she carries folded back under her head. She has twelve thousand six hundred and three eyes; three eyes are small and are on the top of her head, while on the sides of her head are two large eyes, each one of which is made up of six thousand three hundred small ones. She Feelers. has two feelers with which she can hear and smell and speak to other bees when she meets them. She has pockets on the under side of her body for holding wax. When she wishes to make wax, she eats all the honey she can, then goes to the top of the hive, hangs by her front legs, and sleeps until the honey she has eaten has changed to wax and her wax-pockets are full. She has six legs. On her hind legs, she has baskets for carrying pollen and brushes for sweeping it off the flowers into the baskets. On her middle legs, she has brushes for cleaning herself and a prong for digging the pollen out of the pollen baskets. On her front legs, she has combs for combing the hair with which her eyes are covered, brushes for her head, and a wonderful round comb for cleaning her feelers. As most people know, she has a sting which she does not like to use; for if she loses her sting she dies. This is why the queen-bee, who is the only bee in the hive who lays eggs, will not sting. Should she lose her sting and die, very soon there would be no live bees in the hive; for bees, except the queen, live only a very few months, and there would be no young bees to take their places. The bee makes honey, wax, and bee-bread, which is made from pollen and honey and fed to the young bees by the nurses. The bee also makes varnish with which to make the hive tight and to shut out the light. Bees that are put in glass hives sometimes cover the inside of the glass all over with this varnish. The bee knows how to shape her cells so as Cells. to get the largest number possible in any space. She knows how to fly to the hive, from wherever she is, in almost a straight line. Bees know that they need fresh air in the hive, and on hot days a few stand near the door fanning in the air with their wings. Bees learn to know their keeper and not to sting him when they would sting another. THE BEE AND THE FLOWER. The bee buzzed up in the heat. "I am faint for your honey, my sweet." "Hum!" And the bee buzzed down from the heat. And the bee buzzed up in the cold, "Have you still any honey, my dear?" But come, come!" "Hum!" And the bee buzzed off in the cold. -TENNYSON, |