INSECTS 41 



workers that are acting as nurses. The grubs are then 

 fed with a mixture of pollen and honey, and at the end of 

 six days after hatching they are supplied with enough of 

 this mixture to last during the rest of the larva stage, and 

 the cells are then capped over with wax by the workers. 

 There the developing bees pass through the third or pupa- 

 stage (Fig. 29), and at the end of twelve, days bite their 

 way out of their nursery cells and take their share in the 

 busy toil of the hive. 



Drones, we have said, develop in somewhat larger cells 

 than worker bees. When the colony wishes to produce a 

 queen, the workers build a cell about as large as the end- 

 joint of one's little finger (Fig. 27), and as soon as the egg is 

 hatched they stuff the little grub throughout the larval 

 stage with what is called " royal jelly," never giving it the 

 undigested pollen mixture that is supplied to the grubs of 

 workers or drones. 



33. Swarming. We come now to one of the most interesting 

 events in the story of bee colonies. If several queens emerge from 

 their cells at the same time, they attack each other in a royal battle, 

 for it is said that a queen never uses her sting except against a rival. 

 When the conflict is over, the victorious queen becomes the mother 

 of the hive. For in the meantime the former queen, surrounded by 

 half the drones and workers, has left the old hive, abdicating in her 

 daughter's favor. After emerging from their old home, the swarm 

 of bees thus formed alights on a neighboring tree, clinging to each 

 other in a solid mass. It is then comparatively easy for a beekeeper 

 to shake the insects from the limb into a new hive, and if the queen 

 is secured, the swarm will usually begin work at once in their new 

 home (Fig. 30) . If, however, the bees are not captured, scouts go 

 out to search for a hollow tree ; and when satisfactory quarters are 

 found, the whole swarm follows their guides, and build their comb 

 in the home thus secured. 



