On these combs are clustered adult worker bees (undeveloped fe- 
males) to the number of from 3,000 .to sometimes 100,000 individ- 
uals, depending upon the prosperity of the colony; one fertile queen 
(fully developed female) and, in the season when mating is possible, 
a few hundred drones (males); all housed in some place protected 
from the weather. Honey bees cannot exist except as colonies. 
When the number of individuals in a colony becomes small they 
perish. 
The different classes of occupants of the hive will be discussed 
separately. 
QUEEN 
The queen (Fig. 2) is a fully developed female whose only duty is 
the production of eggs. She is reared in an especially constructed cell 
which normally points downward and is usually built singly, although 
queen cells are sometimes found in groups of two or three. The inter- 
nal diameter of the queen cell is about one-third of an inch. In its 
early stages of construction it resembles an acorn cup, and when 
completed the outside is indented, somewhat resembling a peanut 
shell. In this cell a female egg is deposited from which, at the end of 
Fig. 2. Queen—Redrawn ABC. 
three days, emerges a minute grub so small as to be almost invisi- 
ble to the unaided eye. The grub is then surrounded by and floats 
in a creamy mass called royal jelly, a mixture of honey and pollen 
which has undergone a process by the nurse bees who supply it 
to the developing larva. On this the larva feeds and increases 
in size until at the end of the fifth day of its existence, or eight 
days from the deposition of the egg, the grub (larva) entirely fills 
the cell which has been elongated as the larva grew until it is up- 
wards of an inch in length. At this time it is sealed over by the 
worker bees. 
