132 The Bee People. 
heads; it is very nutritious, and is the 
same as the royal jelly with which the 
queen is fed. They place the food in the 
cell with the larva, and watch to see that 
it always has enough. They feed it with 
honey and pollen as it grows older; and 
how it does eat! 
In a few days it has grown so large 
that it almost fills its cradle-cell. 
It would not do to let this ravenous 
infant grow entirely out of bounds, but 
I doubt if you could guess what the nurse- 
_ frees do to prevent it. 
They simply stop 
F 2 feeding it. 
That is certainly a 
sure way to check its 
growth; only most 
babies, if treated so, would make up their 
minds that life without dinner was not 
worth living, and would die right off. 
But bee-babies do not die; they wait 
to see what will happen next. 
