THE EGGS OF BEES. 17 



Twenty-one days after the egg is first laid (unless 

 cold weather should have retarded it) the bee quits 

 the pupa state, and, nibbling its way through the waxen 

 covering that has enclosed it, comes forth a winged 

 insect. The eggs of drones require twenty-four days, 

 and those of queens sixteen days, to arrive at maturity, 

 and are hatched in warm summer weather, a higher 

 temperature being necessary. In the Unicomb Obser- 

 vatory Hives, the young bees may distinctly be seen as 

 they literally fight their way into the world, for the other 

 bees do not take the slightest notice, nor afford them any 

 assistance. We have frequently been amused in watch- 

 ing the eager little new-comer, now obtruding its head, 

 and anon compelled to withdraw into the cell to escape 

 being trampled on by the apparently unfeeling throng, 

 until at last it has succeeded in making its exit. The 

 little grey creature, after brushing and shaking itself, 

 enters upon its duties in the hive, such as the nursing 

 before alluded to, or secreting wax, and in (say) a 

 week issues forth to the more laborious occupation of 

 gathering honey in the fields — thus early illustrating 

 that character for industry which has been proverbial at 

 least since the days of Aristotle, and which has in our 

 day been rendered familiar even to infant minds through 

 the nursery rhymes of Dr. Watts. 



