CHAPTBE IV. 



NATURAL INCBEASE. 



Egg-Peoduction. 



If a strong colony be examined early in the new year 

 the centre combs will be found to contain small patches 

 of brood. These are extended as the season advances, 

 provided there is an ample supply of food, until by the 

 time of the honey-flow the queen is laying over two 

 thousand eggs daily. 



The first eggs of the season are deposited in the 

 small horizontal cells, and, after being exposed to the 

 heat of the hive, they hatch in three days, a small 

 white grub appearing. The grubs are then fed by the 

 nurse bees, with a food composed of honey and pollen, 

 for five days, by which time they will have increased 

 in size to such an extent that they almost fill the cells. 

 The bees then cover the mouths of the cells with a 

 capping, differing from that placed over honey in that 

 it is not air-tight. Behind the capping the grub is 

 gradually transformed into the perfect insect, which 

 eats its way out of the cell in about thirteen days, or 

 twenty-one days in all from the laying of the egg. The 

 queen continues to deposit eggs in the worker cells 

 until the hive is becoming crowded with worker bees, 



