50 THE BEE keeper's MANUAL, 



brood combs are never safe when taken for any considera- 

 ble time from the bees, unless the temperature is fully up to 

 summer heat. 



" *The young bees break their envelope virith their teeth, 

 and assisted, as soon as they come forth, by the older 

 ones, proceed to cleanse themselves from the moisture and 

 exuvias vi'ith which they were surrounded. Both drones and 

 workers on emerging from the cell are, at first grey, soft 

 and comparatively helpless so that some time elapses before 

 they take wing." 



" With respect to the cocoons spun by the different larvae, 

 both workers and drones spin complete cocoons, or inclose 

 themselves on every side ; royal larvEe construct only im- 

 perfect cocoons, open behind, and enveloping only the head, 

 thorax, and first ring of (he abdomen ; and Huber con- 

 cludes, without any hesitation, that the final cause of their 

 forming only incomplete coooons is, that they may thus be 

 exposed to the mortal sting of the first hatched queen, 

 whose instinct leads her instantly to seek the destruction of 

 those who would soon become her rivals," 



" If the royal larvee spun complete cocoons, the stings of 

 the queens seeking to destroy their rivals might be so en- 

 tangled in their meshes that they, could not be disengaged. 

 ' Such,' says Huber, ' is the instinctive enmity of young 

 queens to each other, that I have seen one of them, imme- 

 diately on its emergence from the coll, rush to those of its 

 sisters, and tear to pieces even the imperfect larvsE. Hith- 

 erto philosophers have claimed our admiration of nature for 

 her care in preserving and multiplying the species. But 

 from these facts we must now admire her precautions in 

 exposing certain individuals to a mortal hazard.' " 



The cocoon of the royal larva is very much stronger and 

 coarser than that spnn by the drone or worker, its texture 

 * Bevan. 



