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.