I02 First Annual Report 



inserts it. She remains but a second or two and tlien leaves the cell, when 

 an egg about a sixteenth of an inch long may be seen attached to the base 

 of the cell, usually a little to one side. 



HATCHIG. 



The eggs remain unchanged for three or four days. They are then 

 hatched, the bottom of each cell containing a small white worm, which floats 

 in a whitish transparent fluid, which is deposited by the nursing bees, and 

 by which it is probably nourished. It gradually enlarges until its two extrem- 

 ities touch, which forms a ring. It continues to increase during five or six 

 days, until it occupies the whole breadth and nearly the length of the cell. 

 The nursing bees now seal over the cell with a light brown cover. As soon 

 as the larvae is perfectly enclosed, it begins to line the cell by spinning around 

 itself a silky cocoon. When this is finished it undergoes a great change, from 

 the grub to the the nymph or pupa state, and does not bear a vestige of the 

 previous foi m . It has now attained its full growth, and the large amount of 

 nutriment taken serves as a store for developing the perfect insect. 



Queens are reared from eggs that, if deposited in worker cells, would 

 produce worker bees, but by larger cells and royal jelly queens are de- 

 veloped. The time required to raise a queen is three days in the egg, and 

 five days as a worm, and on the sixteenth day she has attained the perfect 

 state of a queen bee. The working bee comes forth perfected in twenty-one 

 days from the time the egg is deposited. The drone takes twenty-four or 

 twenty-five days. 



IMPREGNATION OF THE QUEEN. 



It is acknowledged by all apiarians of the present day, that the act of 

 copulation takes place high up in the open air, and usually between the 

 fourth and tenth days after leaving the cell. If fertilization does not occur 

 before she is twenty days old it never takes place, and the eggs deposited 

 will only produce drones. 



THE WAILINGS OF THE QUEEN. 



The queen has two notes; one of defiance, called piping; the other is a 

 note of fear, a plaintiff, pitiful wail, mournful in the extreme, and lingering 

 long in the memory when once heard. This mournful note is set up when 

 removed from their hive, when seized by the other bees to destroy her life, 

 or when her colony are starving. Whenever this note is heard turn not a 

 deaf ear, but immediatly respond to the call, for there is something wrong. 

 Rigidly examine the hive and remove the cause of complaint. 



An unimpregnated queen is called a "virgin queen." They are capable 

 of laying only drone eggs. A fertile queen is one which has mated with a 

 drone, and is capable of laying eggs which may become either workers, 

 drones or queens. A barren queen is one who has passed the stage of 



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