30 HOW TO KEEP BEES 



by her reproductive organs are stimulated and fully 

 developed, which is not the case vi^ith the workers. 

 Think how much farther advanced are the bees than 

 we, since, by giving the proper food, they are able 

 to develop and fit each class of citizens to do* the 

 work required of it in the social organisation ! 



The queen larva is fed for five days on this most 

 nourishing food, and then her cell is sealed. Within 

 this cell the royal princess is for the first time self- 

 dependent, and weaves about herself a silken cocoon 

 and changes into a pupa. When she issues from 

 this state she waits a little until she ''finds herself," 

 and then starts to cut an opening in the cell. She is 

 a good mathematician, and with her jaws, cuts a 

 circle very accurately, usually leaving it hinged like 

 the lid to a pot. Professor Kellogg tells us that some- 

 times when she cuts this door, the workers do n6t 

 wish her to come out. They accomplish their pur- 

 pose by carrying wax and pasting it over the 

 opening as fast as she cuts it, at the same time 

 quite devotedly feeding her through a small crevice. 

 But if they wish her to come out, they rush to assist 

 her, and perhaps for two or three days before she 

 issues, make the wax thin where she is to cut. It 

 usually requires sixteen days to develop a queen 

 from the egg to the adult. 



When a queen issues from her cell, she is light- 

 coloured and, as her body is not yet distended with 

 eggs, it is scarcely larger than that of one of the 

 workers. Sometimes she chooses to stay in her 

 cell for a day or two after it is opened. When she 



