194 THE Honey BEE. 
probably, all the rest of the young unhatched queens. On the 
third day, if weather is suitable, she will fly out of the hive to be 
fertilised, which, when once accomplished, lasts her lifetime, 
and rarely leaves the hive again except with a swarm. I say 
rarely, because some beekeepers maintain that queens do some- 
times take an airing flight in the spring, which I doubt. Bees 
gather nectar from flowers, most single blossoms containing some. 
This nectar contains a large proportion of water, which is evapo- 
rated by the heat in the hive, which never falls below about 60 
deg. even in winter. Nectar is cane sugar, but is converted by 
the bee into the grape sugar or honey by secretion from its salivary 
glands. Pollen is gathered from flowers, and is used as bee food 
—-propolis also, and is used as a glue for stopping up any air holes 
in hive. Water is also gathered, but not stored. The eggs 
laid by the queen are of two kinds. The egg hatches on the 
third day usually, but sometimes is delayed a little longer, 
it depending on the temperature. The larva lies at the 
base of the cell, slightly curved, and as it grows forms a 
complete ring. The larve are fed on chyle food for three 
days, during which time the food is absorbed by the body as 
well as the mouth. After three days the food is changed, and 
honey and digested pollen is added for workers, and honey and 
undigested pollen for those intended as drones ; but those intended 
for queens are fed abundantly on the same chyle food during the 
whole of their larve existence. It will be noticed that the differ- 
ence between a queen and worker is a question of food. When 
the larve have grown their full length feeding ceases, and the 
cells are sealed over with wax and pollen. This is to keep the 
cell porous and allow the bees to breathe. The larve spin a 
cocoon with silk from the silk glands, which takes one day for the 
queen, two for the worker, three for drones. Then they all have 
a period of rest for two, three, and four days. They each take a 
day to be transformed into nymphs, and the time in nymph state 
is three, seven, and seven days respectively. The queen takes, 
therefore, 15 days to develop, the worker 21, and the drone 24 
days. It will be noticed that the food is changed at the end of 
the third day. It is then that the genital organs in female larve 
appear, and if the chyle food is continued, the ovaries are 
developed. If the food is changed, we have only the rudimentary 
ovaries. | Reproduction without fecundation is called partheno- 
