The hive

The bee picks up as much nectar and pollen as she can, and flies back to her hive to store them. Sometimes she lives in the hollow of a tree. Sometimes she lives in a hive that has been made by a farmer. The hive the farmer builds looks like a box of drawers. All through the hive are little six-sided rooms, side by side, as well as on top of each other. These rooms are called cells, or honeycombs, and the walls are made of very thin wax. The wax that the bees use to build their cells oozes out of the underside of their bodies.

As a flat piece of wax comes out, the worker bee tucks it under her chin like a napkin. There the wax stays soft. When the bee passes an unfinished cell, she places the piece of wax on it, smooths it, and polishes it. The cells at the bottom of the beehive form the nursery. In some, little bee eggs are hatching. In others, the queen beemay be laying eggs that will grow into more queen bees, workers, or drones. The honey cells are higher in the beehive. Here, the worker bees are packing the honey and pollen that they will use for food during the winter when the flowers are gone.