Housekeeping In The Hive

When a swarm has clustered, the beekeeper brings an empty hive, and placing it in a convenient location, shakes the clustering bees down in front of it. The first insects to find the entrance set up a joyous humming. Facing toward the hive they elevate their abdomens, start a vigorous fanning of the wings and a humming that tells to all the thousands of bees hereabout that the new home is found. One after another takes up the homing call and slowly the mass of bees moves into the hive.

No sooner do they get inside than they set to work in earnest to make up for the time lost in the wild swarming flight. A new fever attacks them-a fever of activity, a fever of work. A newly hived swarm with no brood to care for piles up the honey at a most astonishing rate.

Before leaving the old hive every worker bee gorged her honey sac to capacity in order that there might be something with which to start work in the new location. The young bees which are the wax makers now hang themselves in festoons from the top of the hive and great masses of them now give themselves wholly to the task of making new combs in which to store the incoming honey and to supply a place in which the queen can lay her thousands of eggs to provide for future population of the hive.

When the beekeeper brings a new hive, the bees set up a joyous humming and begin marching inside and at once take possession.

Building Of The Combs

Beeswax is a product of digestion. Each worker bee has a series of wax plates between the segments on the lower side of her abdomen. When the bees gorge themselves with honey and, by gathering in dense masses, maintain a high temperature, minute scales of wax begin to appear in these wax pockets. Now the comb building begins, and a most interesting process it is. Attached firmly to the wood a bit of shapeless wax shows the start of the comb. Bit by bit the wax is added, each worker in turn laying down her portion like masons bringing the bricks to lay a wall. Soon cells begin to take shape, the whole growing so gradually that it appears much like the bursting of a leaf from a growing bud.

The queen mother is heavy with eggs and is impatient to be busy with her laying. Within a few hours she will be looking into the shallow cells and placing an egg at the bottom of each. The old bees go to the field and soon are bringing in loads of honey and pollen. Everywhere there is feverish haste to make the most of the fine days and the honey harvest coming from the field. As fast as new cells are taking shape they are put to use, either by the queen, who claims them for her offspring, or by the workers, who must find a place for the incoming nectar.

At this season the labor continues without interruption by night as well as by day. When darkness falls and the workers return from the field, there is no cessation of activity. Go to the hive at any hour of the night and hear the busy humming that denotes happy achievement. Measure the comb at nightfall and again at dawn and you will be surprised to see how much new surface has appeared, how many new cells have been built. Comb building and honey ripening go on in the darkness to provide for the needs of the days ahead.

Newly started honeycomb.

The Nurse's Job

During a honeyflow the bees will fill a hive with combs and stock them with honey and pollen in a surprisingly short time. Three days after the queen begins to lay, the eggs will begin to hatch and nurses must be supplied. As it is young bees that do the work of wax making and comb buildings, so likewise young bees serve as nurses. The young larvae are plentifully supplied with rich food in order that growth may be rapid. So much of this food is placed in the cells with the baby bees that they are fairly swimming in it. At the end of three days, however, the youngsters destined to be worker bees are "weaned" and supplied with a coarser diet of pollen and honey.