246 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



building, and performing all the 

 artistic occupations of their sex. 



Directly after the young bee has 

 emerged from the opening made in 

 the cell, two old bees appear ; the 

 one will take the loosened cover of 

 wax in her mouth, knead it, and 

 utilize it elsewhere ; the other will 

 repair the cell, restore its hexagon 

 shape, polish and clean it perfectl3^ 

 Immediately after, hone^^ is brought 

 in, taken out again, and an egg is 

 laid in the cell. In the course of 

 six months, it will sometimes hap- 

 pen five different broods of young 

 bees will be hatched from one cell. 



Those of the young brood which 

 show lameness or the least physical 

 defect are expelled from the hive 

 by the old bees without killing 

 them ; yet they will let them merci- 

 lessly die outside, for they are 

 considered unfit to collect honey 

 and also through fear that by their 

 preservation the family of the re- 

 public might be injnred. 



There is no remarkable differ- 

 ence in the mode of hatching out 

 the royal or queen eggs and those 

 of the common bee, except that the 

 cells of the former are more spa- 

 cious and suspended and the food 

 is better prepared and more nutri- 

 tious than that fed to the latter ; it 

 is also so abundantly provided for 

 that the worm actually floats in it. 

 The nymph has its head turned 

 downwards, and the food which 

 fills the rest of the cell lies over 

 her extreme parts. The finest, nu- 

 tritive parts of the food are taken 

 in through a sort of nipple-tube, 

 the same as the young bird in the 



The hatching out of the eggs is 

 the principal and most important 

 employment, and as good parents 

 they will care most attentively for 

 all the eggs in general, but partic- 

 ularly so for those in royal cells ; 

 yet it will happen that several 

 drone eggs are laid at the same 

 time for the purpose of fructifica- 

 tion of future queens. 



Those who will not yet advocate 

 or agree to the still authenticated 

 opinion that queens may be 

 reared from worker-brood, three 

 days old, do pretend and insist that 

 to prevent the drying up of the 

 royal eggs, the bees do preserve 

 them in the corner ofcombs and then 

 wilLbegin to hatch them out when 

 a new queen is wanted, either when 

 the old queen is actually lost (in 

 which case a queen might be 

 hatched out in mild weather in 

 January!) ; or, again, on account 

 of the danger of losing the queen 

 through the repeated laying of eggs, 

 or if the number of bees in the 

 hive accumulates, or when the 

 swarming time approaches. But 

 this opinion, that the bees are capa- 

 ble of preserving eggs for future 

 use to be hatched at pleasure or 

 when needed, is erroneous, for the 

 reason that bee eggs are not anal- 

 ogous with those 'of hens which 



iJn the beginning of this year on the third 

 of January, I fonn(3 before the entrance of a 

 hive a dead queen whicli was beautiful and 

 well-formed, but had no wings. I concluded 

 that the hive was now queenless and imme- 

 diately set it under a smaller hive. But tlie 

 following night, however, its queen was killed 

 and also lay dead before the entrance, whereby 

 I was convinced that a new queen had been 

 already reared before Christmas time, or that 

 the family was enabled to rear a new queen. 



