236 A SOCIAL INSECT— THE HONEYBEE 



cells) or unfertilized eggs (in the larger cells). As the egg passes the 

 spermetheca it receives a few sperms which fertilize it if it is to be 

 deposited in a small cell, but a reflex contraction closes the duct from 

 the spermetheca if the cell is large and the egg passes by unfertilized. 

 An unfertilized chick egg will not hatch, but in the bee, it develops into 

 a drone. Thus, we can say that a drone has a grandfather but no father. 



The fertile eggs hatch into larvae which may develop into either 

 workers or queens. Usually they develop into workers, but if a queen 

 is needed, the workers will enlarge a cell containing a recently laid egg 

 until it looks like the shell of a peanut hanging over the side of the comb. 

 All the larvae are fed a secretion produced by the nurse bees called 

 "royal jelly" for the first three days. After that the larvae in the queen 

 cell are given much larger amounts of this food and grow much faster 

 and larger (there is some disagreement over the type of food fed the 

 queen larvae). This extra food and space make it possible for them to 

 mature sexually. A queen will develop from egg to adult in about six- 

 teen days, whereas the smaller worker requires twenty-one days. 



If a queen should die or be killed, the workers will immediately en- 

 large several of the worker cells which still contain eggs recently laid. 

 Sixteen days later the first queen to emerge will destroy her rivals as 

 described above. But sometimes two queens emerge at the same time 

 and then the only course is to fight to the death. The successful queen 

 stings her rival, but since her sting is not barbed, she can remove it 

 from the body of her victim. The workers which had formed a circle 

 around the fighters, drag out the body of the loser and accept the winner 

 as their queen. Here we see that the fittest has survived in the struggle 

 for existence. 



Beekeeping 



It is necessary that the beekeeper arrange the top sections or supers 

 on a hive in such a way that the bees will raise their brood in the lower 

 chambers and store the honey in the upper chambers. Modern hives 

 have ten removable frames in each chamber. Between the lower and 

 upper divisions is a queen excluder, which has a series of holes that 

 will allow the smaller workers to pass through but will exclude the 

 queen. As a result the honey is made clean and pure, free from the 

 brood. When the cells are all full and capped over, the beekeeper has 

 two good methods for obtaining the honey free of bees. He may place 

 a bee excluder in place of the queen excluder. This will allow the bees 

 to go down into the brood chamber but will prevent their return ; it is 

 a one-way funnel. Twenty-four hours later the honey can be removed 

 with hardly a bee left in the supers above the excluder. 



