It is not until the beginning of the second week of their life that the young bees make their first essay in the open air, and then it is only for a few minutes during the hottest part of the day. This sudden midday uproar is a familiar experience to the bee-keeper during the late spring and summer; and although the drones at first contribute largely to the chorus, they soon fly away, while the singing cloud of bees which remains enveloping every hive at this time, is entirely composed of the young house-bees taking their daily brief allowance of exercise and air. It is found that the glands necessary for the production of the brood-food, as also the wax-generating organs, are largely developed in bees only a few weeks old, while, after their first month of life is over, these organs are greatly reduced. The bee generally begins outdoor work as a forager soon after she has reached the age of fourteen days. It is, however, probably a week or two longer before she attempts the more serious business of nectar-gathering. Nearly all the pollen-bearers are bees in their first young strength and vigour, and therefore peculiarly adapted to the carrying of heavy burdens. But as soon as the worker-bee has settled down to the great paramount task of honey-getting, she seems to leave the pollen alone. Thus, in a normal colony, the life of the honey-bee, short as it is, is carefully planned out from beginning to end, each period having its special task for which the age of the bee is peculiarly fitted. Yet this rule is no more absolute than any other of the ways of the hive. Where the community is short-handed, and there are not enough mature workers to gather stores, the young bees will be turned out to forage at a much earlier date in their career. In the same way, if a hive has been without a queen for some time, and therefore few young bees are available to care for the brood when the new mother-bee has at last established herself, many of the old workers will stay at home and busy themselves with the nursery-work, which in the ordinary course they would have long since relinquished. There are many such instances of ingenious makeshift, or special adaptation, in the ways of the honey-bee. She is a creature full of resource on emergencies, but it is in the provision of desperate remedies for really desperate ills that she shines at her brightest. The prime disaster in bee-life is the loss of a queen at a time when it is impossible to appoint a successor. The standard of intelligence, as well as that of character, varies among bees almost as much as it does among men. Some colonies will work harder and for longer hours than the rest. Others will ease off when they have put by what they consider a sufficiency of stores, and an idle spirit spreads visibly among them. In a few cases there is a distinct moral twist in the national character, and the bees take to robbing their neighbours’ larders instead of working to furnish their own.