BSE- CULTURE. 



1071 



It requires some three days to hatch a worker-egg into the 

 larva form ; in six 'days thereafter the worker-bees have capped 

 over its cell ; after this a silken cocoon is spun by the larva, and it 

 assumes the chrysalis state ; and in twenty-one days there emerges 



Fig. 1439.— Queen's Egg under Microscope. 



Fig. 1440.— From the Larva Jusi 

 Hatched, to the Bee. 



from the cell a fully organized worker-rbee, ready to begin its life- 

 work. A queen-bee develops in sixteen days, and a drone-bee in 

 twenty-four days. 



It is a singular and interesting fact that after impregnation, 

 which takes place as the/ queen meets a drone on the wing, the 

 queen, having returned to the hive, never leaves it unless when the 

 entire swarm takes flight. About two days after impregnation- she 

 begins to lay worker-eggs. Anothdr singular fact is that she can 

 lay drone-eggs before impregnation. When the queen drops the 



tiny egg "in the proper cell, 

 a viscid fluid which surrounds 

 the egg makes it adhere to 

 the bottom of the cell. From 

 2,000 to 3,000 eggs per day 

 will be laid by an ordinarily 

 prolific queen. While the av- 

 erage existence of the queen- 

 bee lasts about three years, 

 the workers generally live 

 but a few weeks, therefore 

 nature has wisely provided 

 for a replenishment of the 

 stock. Drones are usually 

 killed off by the workers early in the .summer. 



The industry of bees is fourfold. First, they gather ■ honey ; 

 second, they manufacture the Wax out of which the cells are made, 

 and which forms the, beeswax of commerce ; third, they collect pol- 

 len, or bee-bread, which forms the staple food of young bees ; fourth, 

 they gather a substance called propolis, or bee-glue, which, being 



Fig. 1441— Apiary of G. W. Phelps, Galena, Md. 



