368 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 



The 6 (lay larvsu are quite large fellows, as 

 you will see by the cut under the head of 



15KKS. 



There are some (lueer things about queen 

 cells, as you will notice. After the cell is 

 sealed, they go and put a great excess of 

 wax on it, give it a long tapering point, and 

 corrugate the sides something like a thim- 

 ble, as shown at C. This corrugation, or 

 roughness, when closely examined, will be 

 seen to be honey comb on a very small scale. 

 Now right here is a point that you will not 

 fail to observe ; bees, like other folks, some- 

 times make mistakes ; for tliey do not seem 

 to know any better than to use a drone lar- 

 va for rearing a queen, if such happens to 

 be present. Therefore, when selecting eggs 

 for this purpose, be sure yoi\ do not give 

 them any contained in drone comb. They 

 will go right on, and dose the poor drone 

 with the royal jelly, but the poor fellow usu- 

 ally dies before it is time to hatch out, and 

 then the bees and their owner wait in vain 

 for the cell to hatch. It has been reported 

 of late, that the inmate of such a cell some- 

 times hatches, but he is only a drone, even 

 then, and not a queen. Well, I am glad to 

 be able to tell you that you never need waste 

 time on this kind of cells, for the bees have 

 a way of marking them, unconsciously, it 

 Avould seem, too; queen cells containing 

 drone larvie are always smooth, having no 

 corrugation ; so you can always detect and 

 remove them before valuable time is wasted. 

 We liave pictured one at I). 



Now, it is very handy to be able to tell 

 about when any queen cells you may happen 

 to find unexpectedly will be likely to hatch ; 

 and the bees are very accommodating in this 

 respect also ; for, about the day before the 

 queen hatches, or it may be two days, they 

 go and tear down this long peak of wax on 

 the tip of the cell, and leave only a very thin 

 covering, as sliown at E. I do not know 

 what tliis is for, unless it is because they are 

 anxious to get a peep at their new mother. 

 It has been said, they do it that she may be 

 better able to pierce the capping; but some- 

 times, they omit the proceeding entirely, 

 and I have not been able to see that she has 

 any difficulty in cutting the cap off. If the 

 cell is built on new comb, or on a sheet of 

 fdn., and it be held up before a strong light, 

 at about the 1.5th day, or a little later, you 

 will see tlie queen moving about in the cell. 

 A little later, by listening carefully, you can 

 hear her gnawing lier way out. Pretty soon 

 the points of her shari) and powerful mandi- 

 bles will be seen protruding, as slie bites out 



a narrow line. Since she turns her body in 

 a circle while doing this, she cuts out a cir- 

 cle so true, that it often looks as if cut out 

 by a pair of compasses. Now observe that 

 the sub.stance of wliich the cell is made is 

 tough and leathery, and therefore, before 

 she gets clear around her circle, the piece 

 sjn-ings out in response to her pushing, and 

 opens just about as the lid of a coffee pot 

 would, if a kitten slundd happen to be inside 

 crowding against tlie lid. I have often seen 

 them ])ush the door open and look out, with 

 as much apparent curiosity, as a child exhib- 

 its when it first creeps to the door on a sum- 

 mer morning; often, after taking this look, 

 they will back down into their cradle, and 

 stay some time. This is especially the case 

 when other queens are hatching, and there 

 is a strife as to wlio will be the reigning sov- 

 ereign. 



We sliall Iiave to go back a little, and con- 

 sider this strange substance called 



ROYAL JELLY. 



The milky food l)efore described, wliich is 

 given to the young larva?, and which is sup- 

 posed to be a mixture of pollen and honey 

 partially digested, is very similar, if not 

 identical, in composition with the royal jel- 

 ly. The bees are not the only examples in 

 the animal kingdom, where the food is taken 

 into the stomach by the parent, and after a 

 l)artial digestion, is thrown up for the use of 

 the offspring. Pigeons feed their young 

 precisely in this way, until they are able to 

 digest the food for themselves. It has been 

 stated that bees use a coarser food for the 

 worker larvae, after they are a few days old, 

 and also for the drone larvic, during the 

 whole of their larval state. What I. mean 

 by a coarser food is, a food not so perfectly 

 digested ; in fact, drones are said to be fed 

 on a mixture of pollen and honey, in a state 

 nearly natiu-al. This may be so, but I have 

 no means of proving it to my satisfaction. 

 It has also been said, that the (jueens receive 

 the very finest, most perfectly digested, and 

 concentrated food, that tliey can prepare. 

 This I can readily believe, for the royal jelly 

 has a very rich taste— something between 

 cream, quince jelly, and honey— with a 

 slightly tart and a rank, strong, milky taste 

 that is quite sickening, if much of it be tak- 

 en. I am much inclined to think that the 

 same food that is giv(Ui the young larva3 at 

 first, will form royal jelly, if left exposed to 

 the air, as it is in the broad, open, queen 

 [ cells. After a (pieen has hatched, it is some- 

 I times found dried down hard, and looks 

 I much like stiff fruit jelly. Whether this is 



