438 



GARDEN MANAGEMENT. 



of the pupa, eats through the roof of the cell^ and comes forth a perfect 

 worker bee. 



1 3 10. The male bee passes three days in the egg state, six and a half 

 in the larva, and makes its appearance at the fm-ther expiration of fifteeu 

 days. 



131 1. The development of the queen-bee requires a more lengthened notice, 

 involving some of the most interesting points in the economy of the hive. 

 We have said that for nearly twelve months the queen-bee deposits only 

 worker eggs, after which period, however, she commences lajdng those of 



drones. As soon as this change takes place, the 

 workers begin to construct royal cells, in which, 

 without discontinuing to lay male eggs, she de- 

 posits now and then, about every three days, an 

 egg destined to produce a future queen. This 

 laying of eggs commonly happens in May, lasts 

 thirty days, and regularly on the twentieth or 

 twenty-first day royal cells are founded. The 

 queens pass three days in the egg state and five 

 in the larva ; they are then occupied twenty- 

 four hours forming their cocoons, their cell 

 having been previousl}'^ closed by the workers. 

 During nearly the whole of the three following 

 days they repose in their cocoons, after which 

 they are transformed to pupae, in which state 

 they remain between four and five days, appear- 

 ing in the perfect state on the sixteenth day 

 after the eggs are deposited. 



1312. The food of the royal grubs has been 

 termed royal jelly. It is a pungent food pre- 

 pared by the workers exclusively for the pur- 

 pose of feeding such of the grubs as are destined 



' '^ y"«e'^ ^«' fQj. queens, and is more stimulating than the 



II. The Drone, or Male Bee. , . , , 



m. The Worker,orundevcloped ^^^^ S^^en to the common grubs. 



female. 13 13- Should it happen, as sometimes is the 



case, that the queen is killed, or the hive in any 

 manner deprived of her during the first eleven months of her O'Xistence, 

 and before she has deposited any royal eggs, the most extraordinary cir- 

 cumstances occur. For twelve hours little notice is taken of the loss. 

 Presently a hubbub commences, work is abandoned, the whole hive is in 

 an uproar, every bee traverses the hive at random with the most evident 

 want of purpose. This state of confusion sometimes continues for several days, 

 then the bees gather in knots, — clusters of a dozen or so, as though engaged 

 in consultation ; shortly after which a resolution appears to have been taken 

 by the whole popiUation. Some of the workers select one of the worker eggs 

 which have been previously deposited by the lost sovereign. Three cells are 



