116 Beekeeping 



castes throughout her entire larval period (called royal 

 jelly) which is free from undigested pollen and completely 

 predigested. The table (p. 115) gives the percentages of 

 the various food constituents as determined by v. Planta. 



Snodgrass (p. 93) reports finding undigested pollen grains 

 in royal jelly, contrary to the statements of v. Planta. The 

 larval food differs essentially in appearance from the con- 

 tents of the ventriculus so that it is difficult to conceive of 

 it being a regurgitated product to which is added merely 

 an acid secretion of the glands. The beekeeping industry 

 is under lasting obligation to v. Planta for his research in 

 this and other subjects, but it is no disrespect to his work 

 to express the belief that this subject should be thoroughly 

 investigated by modern methods. The methods of analysis 

 have been greatly improved since his work was done ; they 

 have, in fact, been so completely changed that v. Planta's 

 results cannot be considered as conclusive in any respect. 



Feeding of queens and drones. 



In addition to the feeding of the various types and ages 

 of larvae, the workers feed the queen and seemingly the 

 drones also during their presence in the colony. The exces- 

 sive egg-laying of the queen (p. 57) obviously calls for 

 nourishment in large quantities and during the season of 

 heavy laying the queen usually stops for a few minutes 

 about every half-hour and during this resting period she is 

 almost constantly fed. While the feeding of the drones is 

 less easily observed, there is reason to believe that the feed- 

 ing is discontinued at the close of the honey-flow, at which 

 time the drones are first driven to the lower parts of the hive 

 and finally are easily carried out, because of their weakened 

 condition. Both queens and drones are capable of taking 

 honey from cells, but apparently do not take pollen themselves. 



Other inside work. 



Little remains to be said in detail of the inside work of 

 the hive which is performed by the workers. They clean 



