They are proud of their fine, new queen, and love her. They carry out all the dead bees from the hive, and in great joy build new cells. The queen bee leaves the hive but twice. A few weeks after she is made queen, the work bees let her go out once into the sun and air. But her wings are very small. She cannot fly far. She has no bag for dust. She does not need to get honey. All she need do is to come home and lay eggs. She does not go out again until the next year. Then she leads off a swarm of old bees, and leaves the hive to the next new queen bee. LESSON XXII. THE BEE’S WORK. You know how the new queen bee is made and how she lives. Now let us see how the work bee gets on. The work bee in its small cell does not grow so large as the queen bee. But it has larger wings. When it is a true bee, it pulls or breaks off the cap of its cell and comes out. It is wet and cold and weak. But near by is a cell, open, and full of honey. The new bee takes a nice meal. Then it goes out of the hive into the sun. The other bees come to it, and touch it with their feelers. They lick it with their tongues, to smooth its brown coat, and help it to spread its wings. Then off it goes to get honey and flower dust. It knows how at once. It does not need to learn. It finds its way. It knows the right flowers. It tries to keep out of the way of things that will hurt it. What color do the bees like best? They like blue best, and red and purple next best. They like flowers of a sweet smell, and all flowers that have honey. They bring home dust of flowers, honey, and a kind of gum. The gum is to line the cells and to help make them strong. If a queen bee dies, and all the baby queens are also dead, what can the bees do? They take a baby work bee and make a queen. Can they not live if they have no queen? No, not long, there will be no eggs laid. How do they make a queen of a work bee? They pick out a good grub. They put it into a round queen cell. They feed the work grub the queen food, or “royal jelly.” When it grows up, it is not a work bee, but is a queen. LESSON XXIII. THE WISE BEES. In the bee-hive all is not peace and joy. Foes come in and try to kill the poor bees. Who are these foes? A caterpillar may come into the hive to live. The bees do not like him. He is not clean; he is in their way. Slugs also come in. Snails and moths also come to steal the honey. When the foe is a small fly or slug, the bees kill it and take it out. But a large worm or slug they cannot take out. What do they do then? They kill it, if they can, with their stings. [Illustration: A FOE AT THE GATE.] Then they build over it a tomb, or grave, of wax and gum. That is to keep the bad smell of the bug from the cells. If a snail comes in, they take this same strong gum and glue him to the floor. Then he must die in his shell. If a strange queen flies in, they will not sting her.