The short days of winter have changed to the longer ones of spring. The bees have stopped for a long time now in their comfortable hives. However, the warmer rays of the sun warn us that they soon will be sipping the sap from the trees of the woodlands and dipping their noses into the nectar of the flowers. We long to hear them when they fill the air over the fields with the hum of their wings. We want to watch them at their honest work. We eagerly await the day when we can follow them through the fragrant flowers.

The bees feel the gentle warmth of spring and prepare to reap the sweet harvest from the blooms of the flowers and from the swelling buds of the trees. Scouts who have been sent out, return with the happy news that the orange trees, the apple trees, the clover plants or other herbs await them. The happy news from the fields starts them to work.

They stream forth to begin their labors. Let us follow them. It is much easier to watch them in the sunlight of the sunny fields than in the dingy hive.

Here is a bee ready to start on her way. She looks out of the door of her home, then flies into the air where she glistens like a jewel thrown across the sky. She sees a brightly colored flower and flies swiftly to it. In other words, "she makes a bee line for it. " We hurry after her as fast as we can. Fortunately the flower is near and we need take only a few steps to see her there.

She alights directly on a brightly colored stripe on a petal of a flower. This stripe of color leads to the cup of the flower. Miss Honey Bee follows the stripe to the bottom of the cup. As she enters the flower, her fuzzy body brushes against some little rods called stamens, which are in the blossom. The ends of these rods, or the antlers, are covered with golden pollen. Many grains of pollen stick to the fuzzy body of the bee.

She reaches the bottom of the flower. There she sips with her tongue the sweet nectar and eats the rich food which is called ambrosia, or the "Food of the Gods. " Now she has taken all she wishes from this flower and creeps out of it. Watch her closely. She pauses for a time to scrape the pollen from her back and to pack it in the pollen baskets which are on her hind legs. She uses her front legs and middle legs to clean the pollen from her body and to pack it in the baskets. Then she flies to another nearby flower. When she enters this second flower, her body brushes against a different kind of rod called a pistil which is in this flower. Some of the pollen is brushed from her body upon the end of the pistil. Now the flower can grow seeds. We learn that the honey bee has helped the flower in return for the sweets which she has taken from it. Yes, the flowers and the bees are very good friends because each needs the other. The bees carry pollen from flower to flower and the flowers furnish nectar for the bees.

The little workers in honey and wax will keep on working until the end of their lives. Some, weary of work, will die in the open and others will come back to their hives, tattered and torn, unable to go on. But it can be said of each one, "She lived a useful life and the good that she did will live after her. "

Examining the Bees

Let us examine closely this hairy worker who is filling herself with the nectar of a flower. She is tan colored. Yes, there is one over there that is black. But this one is tan colored, so it must be an Italian Bee. However, they are just the same in every way except in color and size. Let us not look for other kinds of bees because we wish to see all the queer things on this one.

Her body is in three parts. The head is easily distinguished because her eyes are on it and we can see her thrust her long tongue from her mouth. From each side of her head project long thread-like hairs called "antennae. "

The second part of the bee is called the thorax. Three pairs of legs and four wings are attached to this part.

Head Of Worker Head Of Queen Head Of Drone

Head Of Worker Head Of Queen Head Of Drone

The third part of the bee is the abdomen. It is divided into scaly sections and here too are little holes through which she breathes.

Let us examine each part of the bee separately.

The Eyes

Miss Honey Bee has two large eyes, one on each side of her head. They are funny eves. They seem to cover both sides of her head. Hundreds of little eyes seem to be in each large one. We find that this is true. Nearly sixty-five hundred little eyes or facets are in each big one. The large eyes are called "far sighted" ones because with them the bee can see flowers that are far away.

The bee has three small eyes right on the top of her head which she uses for close work when she is in the blossoms of flowers. So we see, the bee has over twelve thousand little eyes in five big ones. How would you like your teacher to have that many eyes?

Details Of Parts Of Bees

Details Of Parts Of Bees

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