HONEY BEES 



At the end of the summer, when no more virgin queens 

 are likely to be produced for some months, the drones are 

 driven out of the nest by the workers and die of cold or 

 hunger. They are probably never or very rarely actually 

 killed or stung, but exclusion from the warm hive is just as 

 effective. 



While the characters of the drone are determined by his 

 development from an unfertilised egg, the differences between 

 the queen and the worker are known to depend on the diet 

 which the grub receives. The queens develop in special, 

 large, irregular queen cells which usually hang from the 

 bottom of some of the brood-combs. These cells are built 

 when required and are taken to pieces when they have been 

 vacated ; they are not used again like the other cells. All 

 grubs receive the same food for the first two days — a sub- 

 stance known as "royal jelly " which is secreted by a gland 

 opening into the mouths of the workers. It is not produced 

 by queens or drones. Queen grubs receive this food through- 

 out their life, and since the queen cells are frequently visited 

 by the workers the supply of this food is always adequate. 

 After the third day, the food given to the grubs of develop- 

 ing workers and drones contains an increasing proportion of 

 honey. If a grub in a worker cell is transferred to a queen 

 cell before the third day it develops into a queen, and vice 

 versa. 



About sixty years ago von Planta claimed that there were 

 relatively simple chemical differences between royal jelly 

 and the food given to worker grubs after the third day. More 

 recent analyses by more refined chemical methods show that 

 the nature of the food is much more variable than von 

 Planta supposed, and the difference may be more in the 

 quantity of the food than in its chemical composition; or at 

 least that the chemical differences must be subtle and not yet 



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