THE EVOLUTION OF THE BEE AND THE BEEHIVE
the queen late in the summer. The nest is now dying down; in fact, the activity of the hive lasts only a few months, not all the year round, as does that of the stingless bee. Late in July or August the community begins to rear up queens. Once grown up the queen leaves the nest and hides in some cranny or among some debris. Here she is sought by the male. Once fertilized, the queen abandons the nest, which falls into a state of “death, damnation, and decay.” She now seeks winter quarters and, having filled her crop with honey, she goes into retreat for eight or nine months, hiding high up in banks or in burrows under trees. At first she sleeps lightly and can be easily aroused. Later she sinks into a deep lethargy and appears to be dead. But as the spring advances she gradually resumes her activities. She emerges and begins to collect pollen. As the days lengthen her desire to start a colony becomes overwhelming and she seeks a home. She may find some burrow abandoned by a fieldmouse, which is commonly approached by a tunnel.
Having found her home, she flies backward and forward from it, gradually increasing the length of her trial flights. This she does so that she may find her way home after raiding the flowers for pollen and honey. She mixes the two, and in the centre of the nest constructs a small pillar of the resultant paste (Fig. 14), and on this she moulds a circular wall of wax. In this rough, irregularly-shaped cell she lays a batch of eggs, usually about a dozen, and seals them in with wax. She then broods like a hen over the cell and does not leave her offspring night or day except to gather food. But she has to provision the nest, and for this purpose she prepares a waxen spherical honey-pot, which may be as big as a thimble. This is a frail affair of thin, soft wax, but it is water-tight and is capable of lasting some weeks. Arriving at the entrance to the nest, the queen refreshes herself as she
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