ADAPTATION 



343 



force in collecting food. The varied activities of the workers 

 under normal conditions follow each other in a regular sequence. 

 This process goes on until the hive is nearly full of bees and stored 

 food, when the queen begins to lay eggs in the drone cells pre- 

 pared by the workers. Several hundred drones develop from 

 these eggs. The queen then lays eggs in four or five specially 

 prepared queen cells. The royal larvae are provided with food 

 composed of a rich mixture of digested honey and pollen mixed 

 with glandular secretions. When the queen larvae have com- 



S^Q^jf N i 





Fig. 195. 



Fig. 194. 



Fig. 194. — Queen cells. Natural size. 



Fig. 195. — Stages in the development of the honeybee, o, egg; b. young 

 larva; c, old larva; d, pupa. X 3. (From Phillips, U. S. Dept. Agr., Farmers' 

 Bulletin 447.) 



pleted their development, the queen cells are capped and the 

 colony is now ready for swarming (Fig. 195). 



The first swarm from the colony consists of the original queen 

 and hundreds of workers which pour out of the hive and fly away 

 in a dense mass and finally settle down in a new location. What 

 ordinarily happens at this time under artificial conditions is 

 that the beekeeper gathers the swarm and places it in a prepared 

 hive. Under these conditions, the bees start in and gradually 

 build up the conditions of a typical hive. 



Meanwhile in the old hive, from which the swarming took 

 place, activity goes on as usual until a queen emerges from one of 



