56 CLASSIFICATION, PHYSIOLOGY, ETC. 



the proper cells built from worker brood, and should 

 be destroyed whenever found. Many of the failures 

 to produce queens have resulted from using such 

 cells, not knowing their true character. By using 

 the queen nursery, as directed in Chap, xvn, it will 

 prevent, in a great measure, such cells being built. 



LAYING AND HATCHING OF EGGS, AND TREATMENT OF 

 THE YOUNG. 



The following quotations from Bevan, give a very 

 full and correct description of the manner in which 

 the egg is laid, and the appearence and treatment of 

 the insect in all stages to the fully developed bee. 



" It is the office of the queen bee to multiply the 

 species by laying eggs, which she deposits in cells 

 constructed for their reception by the working bees. 

 These cells vary from one another in size (and in the 

 instances of the royal cells they also vary in form and 

 direction) according as they are intended to be the 

 depositories of eggs that are to become drones, or of 

 those that are to become workers. When the queen 

 is about to lay, she puts her head into a cell and 

 remains in that position for a second or two, probably 

 to ascertain its fitness for the deposit which she is 

 about to make. She then withdraws her head, and 

 curving her body downwards, inserts her tail into the 

 cell ; in a few seconds she turns half round upon 

 herself and withdraws, leaving an egg behind her. 

 When she lays a considerable number, she does it 

 equally on each side of the comb, those on the one 



