20 PRACTICAL QUEEN REARING 



before hatching than do the eggs in ordinary worker cells. It 

 is after the hatching of the egg that the embryo queen receives 

 special attention, which results in the perfect development of 

 her sexual organs. The larger cell in which she finds herself, 

 together with a plenteous supply of the rich food known as 

 royal jelly, makes of her a very different creature than of her 

 sister in the worker cell. 



The queen lacks the wax secreting organs as well as the 

 pollen baskets of the worker. Neither has she the same highly 

 developed eyes as the worker. Her period of development is 

 much shorter, while her body is larger and quite different in 

 appearance. Approximately sixteen days are necessary for 

 the complete development of the queen bee from the time of 

 the laying of the egg. Of this, three days are necessary for 

 the egg to hatch, six days are spent in the larval stage, and seven 

 days in completing the final transformation, during which she 

 is sealed up in the cell. Twelve days are necessary for the 

 last stage of development of the worker, thus requiring twenty- 

 one days for the entire development. 



Apparently the queen larvae are fed for the first thirty-six 

 hours in very similar manner to the workers. After that time 

 they are fed far more of the royal jelly than they can possibly 

 consume, being left to float in the rich white substance. While 

 the worker is fed on pollen and honey during the latter part 

 of her period of development, the queen lar^•ae is fed the royal 

 jelly during the entire period of larval growth. 



The Drone. 



The drones are male bees and, apparently, serve no other 

 purpose than the perpetuation of the species. Since under 

 normal conditions a queen bee mates but once in her lifetime, 

 but few drones are needed to serve the purpose for which they 

 are designed by nature. In a state of nature, where colonies 

 are isolated it may be needful that a large number of drones be 

 reared to insure that the young queen will meet one when she 

 goes forth to her mating flight. Where dozens of hi\es are 



