72 NATURAL Ul^TUKY OF 7 HE BEE. 



^n egg, then a larva, then a pupa, and then, in due 

 time, she becomes the perfect queen ; but the remark- 

 able thing is that the egg which produces this queen 

 is not, so to speak, a queen egg, but an ordinary 

 worker-egg which, under usual circumstances, would 

 produce a worker-bee, but which, through tlie par- 

 ticular manner in which it is treated, and especially 

 by the way the bees feed the young larva, becomes, 

 not a worker but a queen. 



What takes place is this : For some reason or 

 another a new queen is required. Perhaps the old 

 queen dies, or is too old to lay a sufficient number of 

 eggs for the wants of the colony ; or, perhaps, she is 

 about to leave the hive with a swarm to find a fresh 

 home. To provide for this want, the workers select 

 one of the little eggs, lying at the bottom of a cell, 

 or, possibly, a young larva, so long as it is not more 

 than three days old. Then they enlarge the cell in 

 which it is — very often treating several in the same 

 way at the same time — by cutting away the cells 

 around it ; and then, with other contrivances, build it 

 out into that peculiar long shape, like an acorn as 

 before described. (See illustration, p. 43.) 



Into this large odd-shaped cell, containing the egg 

 or very young larva, they put a quantity of jelly food, 

 not of the ordinary kind, but jelly made in some 

 peculiar way (it is called ' royal jelly '), the result of 

 which is that the larva, when fed upon it, grows faster 

 than it would if fed on ordinary jelly food, and, when 

 five days old, is fit to be sealed up, and to go into its 

 cocoon. 



And now takes place the most marvellous change, 



