35° 



THE WORLD OF ANIMAL LIFE 



kind of jelly, which is made by mixing honey with the pollen of 

 flowers. 



On the fourth day after the egg is laid, the little grub makes 

 its appearance, and begins to eat this jelly. As soon as it has 

 consumed this, the workers bring it some "bee-bread", which is 

 made of pollen pressed very firmly together. And on this it 

 feeds for the remainder of its grub life. 



In about seven days from its birth, the grub has grown to its 

 full size, when the workers, seeing that it will not want any more 

 food, cover in its cell with a waxen lid. The grub 

 then spins a silken cocoon, and turns to a pupa, or 

 chrysalis, inside it. Ten days later the skin of this 

 pupa bursts, and out comes the perfect bee. 



The drone grubs take a little longer to grow 

 into bees. These feed for eight instead of seven 

 days, and remain in their cocoons two days longer 

 than the worker grubs. But, on the other hand, 

 the queen grubs grow rather faster, for they only 

 feed for six days, and become perfect bees in a 

 little more than a fortnight from the time when 

 they spin their cocoons. 



It is an astonishing fact that the bees, if they 

 choose, can actually turn a worker grub into a 

 queen. This they do by feeding it with the jelly 

 all through its life, instead of giving it " bee-bread" 

 as soon as the first supply is exhausted. 



So if any of the queen grubs should happen 

 to be killed, a number more can easily be obtained 

 by simply changing the food of some of the young worker grubs. 



The queen bee will never allow a second queen in the hive 

 if she can help it, but other queens are often protected from her; 

 so, when these queen grubs hatch, there is a great commotion. 

 Before long the old queen, or one of the new ones, flies out of 

 the hive with a great number of workers. These, after flying 

 about for a time, gather themselves into a ball with their queen 

 in the midst. This is called swarming, and if the cluster of bees 

 is put into a new hive they will make it their home. If not, they 



Head of Bee 

 (much enlarged), 

 showing the brush- 

 hke Tongue. 



