THE HONEY BEE FAMILY 29 



a milky white substance furnished in abun- 

 dance by the nurse bees. When the eggs hatch 

 the little larvae are very delicate, white in color, 

 and show few external organs. By close ex- 

 amination the beekeeper can see them floating 

 in the royal jelly so freely supphed. The 

 queen larvae are fed with this rich food through- 

 out the entire larval period and complete the 

 larval development in about a half day less 

 time than is required for the workers. Any 

 worker egg may be made to develop into a queen 

 if the egg or newly hatched larva is transferred 

 to a queen cell where it is fed on the richer food 

 and has the larger cell in which to develop. 

 Beekeepers take advantage of this fact to rear 

 queens from good stock in large numbers. The 

 worker and drone larvge are only fed royal 

 jelly during the first three days of their growth 

 and then are weaned and fed on coarser food. 

 Six days are required for the development of 

 the worker larvse and a few hours longer for 



