1136 



THE PEOPLE'S FARM AND STOCK CYCLOPEDIA. 



sumably not so good a one. In three days the egg hatches. 

 The queen larva most would call it a worm or maggot is fed 

 liberally of a rich food, called by the keepers royal jelly. So 

 much of this rich food is given her that there is always some 



more than she will need or use. In 

 five days the worker bees cap the 

 cell. This is eight days from the 

 laying of the egg. The queen larva 

 then spins a cocoon, and in eight 

 days more sixteen days from the 

 laying of the egg she comes forth 

 from the cell. In three days, if the 

 day is pleasant, the queen flies forth 

 to meet the drone, as pairing always 

 occurs on the wing. When she re- 

 turns from a successful marriage flight 

 the evidences of coition will appear 

 in a white thread hanging from the 

 tip of her abdomen. If she fails to 

 find a drone the first day she will go 

 forth on succeeding days till mating 

 is accomplished. In two or three 

 days after the queen mates she commences to lay eggs. 



After mating is accomplished a queen never leaves the hive 

 again except as she goes with a swarm. The queen, if a good 

 one, will often live three or four years. There is a great dif- 

 ference in the fecundity of queens. Some lay so abundantly 

 that the hive is kept overflowing with bees; others are so im- 

 potent that the colony is always weak and inefficient. The 

 difference is owing partly to ancestry, and partly to the care 

 she receives while yet in the larva state. If a queen fails to 

 mate for twenty days after she issues from the cell she will 

 ever be worthless. 



The Drones. The drones (Fig. 3) are the male bees. 

 They are not as long as the queens, but much stouter and 

 more robust than either queen or workers. Like the queen, 

 they have short mouth parts, and no pollen-baskets on the 



FIG. 2. OVARIES OF QUEEN. 



