398 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



■ENEEAL COMMESPONBENCE 



HOW TO TELL THE AGE OF L..... . ..£ BY THEIR SIZE 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLE 



[Several times our attention has been called to the fact that very little has been given which would 

 enable a begrinner to tell much concerning the age of a queen larva by observing its size, in, say, a fraction 

 of an inch from day to day; also the age when it straightens out in a cell, the age when it is capped over, 

 etc. We feel that, of all our writers, Mr. Doolittle is perhaps the be^t qualified to take up a subject of this 

 kind. If there are others who disagree with him we should like to hear from them. — Ed.] 



The mother queen lays the eggs for the 

 queens, drones, and the multitude of work- 

 ers which appear in any colony in the 

 swarming season. From three to thirty eggs 

 for queens (according to the race of bees 

 and the prospects of the season) cover the 

 colony's preparation for swarming. From 

 a few hundred to as many thousand for 

 drones (mainly in accord with the drone 

 comb the home of the colony affords), and 

 for from sixty to one hundred tliousand 

 workers, which are all provided by the one 

 mother of the colony. So far as the un- 

 aided eye can detect, these eggs are just 

 alike as to size, color, etc., an egg laid in 

 a queen-cell, which is not far from % inch 

 in diameter, being exactly the same as the 

 one laid in a worker-cell which is only about 

 3-16 in diameter. The eggs for drones are 

 just like the others, except that they are 

 not fecundated. All of these eggs remain 

 about three days in the egg form. Their 

 length is not far from 1-16 inch, and their 

 diameter about that of a fine cambric nee- 

 dle, or something like the period mark used 

 in common printing. In fact, on a cloudy 

 day it needs pretty good eyes to see these 

 eggs, as they are attached to the bottom of 

 the worker-cells; but with the comb in 

 which they are laid held so that the sun can 

 shine down to the bottom of the cells, they 

 are quite plainly discerned, and very much 

 admired by all who visit my apiary and see 

 them attached and standing on end. 



At the proper time, or about ten or fifteen 

 minutes before the eggs should hatch, the 

 nurse bees apply a little chyme, or what one 

 writer calls " the milk of bees," to the eggs, 

 when they soon go out of sight and a larva 

 appears. Just what becomes of the " egg- 

 shell " was a question I was always wishing 

 more light on, but so far I am in darkness. 

 A larva just hatched is even harder to dis- 

 cern than the egg, as it lies in a partially 

 curved state floating on its milky food at 

 the bottom of the cell. All I can think of 

 as describing it would be a coarse spider- 

 web, or a very fine hair, a little more than 

 1-16 inch long, and quite a little smaller at 

 each end than at the middle. When twelve 

 hours old this larva has assumed a crescent 



form, something like the new moon, and 

 about the size the egg was from wliich it 

 hatched. By shaving the cells down so they 

 are only Vs inch deep, and holding them 

 with the open ends so the sun will shine on 

 the milk}' food, these larvje can now be seen 

 quite plainly, even to the motion of the 

 mouth as they are feeding, for they are 

 voracious eaters at all stages of their larval 

 existence. I have many times used these 

 twelve-hour-old larvae for queen-rearing; 

 but after many experiments I do not con- 

 sider them any better than those 36 hours 

 old. At this age the bees accept them, 

 which they are not inclined to do nearly as 

 readily as the older ones. 



When 36 hours old the larvae are still 

 further " coiled up," something like a eat 

 when prej^aring for sleep, and have attain- 

 ed a length of about 3/32 inch, their diam- 

 eter in the largest place being about 1/32 

 inch. These are the larvae which I always 

 select, as nearly as may be, for transferring 

 to the cell cups when rearing queens. From 

 many experiments and much careful obser- 

 vation, such larvae as these are the ones 

 selected bj' any colony of bees during a 

 copious flow of nectar, where the apiarist 

 takes away the queen that the bees may 

 rear others to take her place, or for his use 

 in the apiary. At 48 hours the larva has 

 reached a length of about Vs inch, and a 

 diameter of about that of a coarse sewing- 

 needle. If such larvae are still floating on the 

 milky food, good queens will result from 

 their use, but otherwise they should be re- 

 jected. At 72 hours the larva lias nearly 

 doubled the size it was 24 hours before, and 

 attained a length so that the extremities 

 nearly or quite touch each other as it lies 

 curled up in the bottom of the cell. A 

 careful observation at this stage will reveal 

 that, with the majority of colonies in a 

 normal condition, very little chyme can be 

 seen in the bottom of the cell, or surround- 

 ing the larva, which shows thai they are 

 being fed a coarser food so that they may 

 become tlie working force of the colony 

 ratlier than fully developing them for be- 

 coming a molher. 



From now on to the sealing of their cell, 



