34 A Modern Bee-Farm 
unfavorable weather, simply because the workers do 
not see fit to have them develop, and in late Autumn 
exactly the same thing will occur with worker eggs laid 
in worker cells. The queen is allowed to deposit them, 
but the workers as much as say “No, they shall not 
hatch only to produce useless consumers.” 
Under favorable conditions the egg hatches on the third 
day, and the tiny embryo floats in the liquid, to which the 
bees continually add, until the seventh day, when the larva 
surrounds itself with a silken web, its cell being then 
capped over with a porous mixture of wax and pollen. 
According to Cheshire many more important changes 
then take place than hitherto have been supposed, and the 
student of nature will find much pleasure in perusing his 
work.* When fully developed, the insect bites its own 
way through the cap on the twentieth day after the egg 
was laid, and is readily distinguished by its light downy 
appearance. It immediately proceeds to the open cells of 
honey, and helps itself liberally. The youngster is 
generally assisted by an older bee in removing the filmy 
skin from its body, and after two or three days it goes 
out for a cleansing flight at the warmest part of the day, 
at the time many others are having an airing and taking 
stock of their surroundings. This flight of the young 
bees, when they are of the bright yellow varieties, is an 
interesting and beautiful sight. 
Our little friend gets stronger daily, and, soon after the 
seventh day we may find her coming home with a load of 
pollen on each back leg in what are called the pollen- 
baskets, being hollow parts in the legs, with strong hair 
so overhanging that the load cannot fall. She enters the 
hive, travels up the comb to near the margin of the brood 
* Bees and Bee-keeping,” Vol. I., Scientific. 
