cottager and Smallholder 5 



opening at the bottom, while in all other cases the cells open 

 sideways. 



Queen cells are made very stout, and consist of wax with 

 a liberal mixture of pollen. They also have upon them a 

 number of depressions or indentations, which, by forming 

 ribs, make the cell stronger, and the cavities allow of porosity. 



Transition cells are those between, when drone cells are 

 being merged into worker, or vice versa, they are irregular in 

 shape, and are used only for the storage of food. Attach- 

 ment cells are those by means of which the bees connect the 

 combs to the material upon which they are being built; they 

 are stored with food only. 



To produce the worker a fertilised egg is laid in a worker 

 cell; it is incubated for three days, the temperature required 

 being 98 deg. Fahr., then from it hatches a little grub 

 which is fed on pap or digested food for three days. The 

 grub floats in this food, and absorbs it through the skin, as 

 well as the mouth, therefore it grows very rapidly. At the 

 end of three days the grub is weaned, i.e., the food given 

 consists of honey and partly digested pollen instead of the 

 pap. It is fed until it is nine days old, when it is sealed 

 over with a porous capping made from pollen and wax. The 

 creature then passes through all the stages incidental to 

 insect life, i.e., it spins a cocoon, rests, becomes a nymph, 

 and eventually an imago or perfect bee, the time occupied 

 being twenty-one days. On the twenty-second day the 

 worker eats its way from the cell, and in the course of a 

 few hours commences to work, acting for the first fourteen 

 days — during which period it does not leave the hive — as 

 nurse to the grubs in the cells and the adult queen, and drones, 

 making the pap upon which they are fed. At the end of a 

 fortnight it becomes a foraging bee, working in the fields. 



Queens are produced, like the worker, from fertilised eggs. 

 A queeai cell is built in which the queen lays an egg, 

 or one is carried and placed in it by the workers, or they 

 enlarge the base of a worker cell already containing an egg. 

 This is incubated in the same manner, and for the same 

 period as that which produces a worker. The grub is fed on 

 the same kind of food, but with the difference that no weaning 

 takes place. It is sealed over on the ninth day, and goes 

 through identically the same changes as the worker, except 

 that the time occupied is shorter, being about seventeen 

 days. JJeing reared in a larger cell, and the grub having 

 the rich food given throughout its existence, a female fully 

 developed in all her organs is produced, capable of mating 

 and reproducing either sex. 



