32 THE BEE-KEEPER’S MANUAL. 
in a colony, but sinking into a trifle before the far 
eveater oljection that they evince a propensity to 
destroy any proper queen. Happily they are not very 
frequent in hives which are in a settled condition, 
but make their appearance usually in those that are 
queenless, destroying however any queen which the 
apiculturist may introduce. Their origin, to a cer- 
tain extent, is clear enough—a queen is wanted for 
the hive, and the royal jelly is plentifully provided, 
but it is partaken of too late to produce genuine 
queens. About the third day of the existence in the 
larva form is the latest at which this change can be 
accomplished; but the bees become so demented, 
when deprived of their royal mother, that they 
supply it to much older brood—nay, to drones, and 
even to lumps of pollen—and the appearance in 
some queenless hives of fertile workers by wholesale* 
makes it safe to conclude that such late fostering 
has been the cause. Whether a worker once hatched 
can develop the same power, has not as yet been 
satisfactorily shown; but it is strongly so suspected 
by some, and it seems possible at least that such 
feeding upon royal jelly may account for the anti- 
pathy to queens which some individual bees go sin- 
gularly manifest; the jelly sufficing, if for nothing 
more, to produce this feeling of superiority, and 
consequent animosity to rivals, which are so charac- 
teristic of the mother bee. If a fertile worker ap- 
pears under normal conditions, the occurrence may 
* Dr. Dénhoff mentions an instance in which the bulk of the bees in 
a hive developed this faculty ; but without more definite particulars we 
cannot deduce herefrom at what precise stage of their existence the 
acquired the power. a i 
