210 Bees : A Year's Work in the Hive. [Sess. 



as the mouth is at the bottom. Queen cells always hang 

 down, and are built in the hive without any regard to order or 

 position. Now the combs of the humble-bees are made of a 

 mixture of pollen and honey, without, I think, any wax. The 

 cells are like little cups, circular in form, with their mouths up, 

 and built in a confused heap, — worker-cells, drone-cells, and 

 queen-cells being all mixed up. The combs of the wasp, on 

 the other hand, are built in tiers, with cells on the under side, 

 with the mouths down, and are composed of what is known to 

 us as paper. The cells are six-sided, like those of the honey- 

 bee, but are a little smaller, and generally by themselves — 

 queen and drone cells together in separate combs. I think it 

 very interesting, from a naturalist's point of view, that these 

 three insects should resemble each other so much, and yet in 

 some points be so different. 



I shall now tell you how the bees are reared or propagated. 

 The queen deposits an egg in a worker - cell for a worker, 

 which is hatched in three days, fed for five days, then sealed 

 over by the bees with a mixture of pollen and wax. The 

 larva now takes two days to spin its cocoon, then rests for 

 three days, changes into the nymph on the fourteenth day, 

 and continues in that state for seven days, thus taking twenty- 

 one days to become a perfect insect, when it leaves the cell. 

 The queen next deposits a drone-egg in a drone-cell, which 

 also hatches in three days, but is fed for six days. This larva 

 requires three days to spin its cocoon, and then rests for four 

 days, but takes, like the worker, one day to be transformed 

 into the nymph, and in seven days leaves the cell a perfect 

 insect, having taken twenty-four days for the process. 



If it is a queen that is to be reared, the workers act in a 

 very different manner. This time the queen does not deposit 

 an egg in the queen-cell ; but the workers take an egg and put 

 it in what is very often, as yet, a very shallow cup, in a mass 

 of wax and pollen, and surround it with a large quantity of 

 " royal jelly," a substance very like corn - flour to look at. 

 They then build out the cell till it is at least twice as long as a 

 worker-cell, circular instead of six-sided, and, as before stated, 

 at right angles to the other cells. The larva feeds for five 

 days, but only takes one day to spin its cocoon, then rests two 

 days, and is transformed in one day, only remaining three 



