POULTRY KEEPING AND BEEKEEPING 221 



hang motionless until the wax appears on the outer surface 

 of their bodies and is taken off by the other workers. Cracks 

 in the hive are filled by means of a kind of cement, called 

 propolis, which is secured from the buds of trees. 



Care of the young. The queen lays the eggs, one in each 

 cell, and may lay two kinds, fertilized and unfertilized. 

 The first kind develops into drones, and the other into 

 either workers or queens, according to the kind of feed given 

 them. The larvae that hatch from these eggs are fed by 

 the workers on a rich food called bee-jelly, and then with 

 honey and bee bread, after which the cells are filled with 

 food and capped with wax. In about two weeks more, the 

 adult bees emerge from the pupal state and gnaw their way 

 through the wax cap. In three weeks from the time the 

 eggs are laid, the adult bees come from the cells. They then 

 take up their duty of feeding the larvae, which is the work 

 of the newly hatched bees. This is the method by which 

 drones and workers are reared, but to produce queens a 

 different plan is followed. A larger cell is made by tearing 

 down the partitions between several cells and preserving 

 only one fertilized egg. When this hatches, the larva is 

 fed entirely on bee-jelly during all of this stage, and as a 

 result a queen is developed instead of a worker. 



Swarming. In order that the number of colonies may be 

 increased, there occurs occasionally during the summer 

 what is known as swarming, when a part of a colony leaves 

 the old hive and starts a new colony. Ordinarily there is 

 but one queen in a hive, but before a swarm is to go out 

 another queen is allowed to hatch ; thereupon the old queen 

 goes away with a part of the colony, leaving the new queen 

 in the old hive. 



Food. The food of the colony consists of nectar and 

 pollen. The work of gathering this is performed by the 

 older workers. The nectar is sucked up into a honey sack, 

 where it is made into honey and then thrown out to be 



