260 QUEEN REARING. 



493. Other bee-keepers suppose that the newly-hatched 

 larvae, intended by the bees to be raised as queens, are more 

 plentifully fed from the first, than worker-larvae. But we 

 have always noticed, that, except daring a scarcity, the latter 

 have as much of this pap as they can eat, during the first 

 three days, since they float on the milky food (166). The 

 wise bee-keeper can ward against the rearing of poor queens, 

 by feeding his bees abundantly, if necessary, a few days in 

 advance, and during the queen-breeding. 



493. Lastly, some bee-keepers think that bees sometimes 

 use larvse more than three days old, and which consequently, 

 have already received coarser food. One of our leaders in 

 bee-culture writes that one of his colonies must have used 

 a larva four and one-half days old, since this colony hatched 

 a queen in eight and one-half days, instead of about ten, as 

 usually (110). (Cook's Guide.) But we cannot admit that 

 the nurses were guilty of such blunder, especially since they 

 would have had the trouble of replacing with better food, 

 the coarse pap already given. Most likely, some already con- 

 structed queen-cell had passed unnoticed. Every one of us, 

 old bee-keepers, has made similar errors, some queen cells 

 being deceptive (519). 



494. The worker-larvte are fed with milky food for three 

 days, and with coarse food for the three following days. 

 Not only does this coarse food change their organism, but 

 it retards their growth, since the queens are mature in six- 

 teen days, from the time that the egg is laid (19'}'), while 

 the workers do not hatch before twenty-one days, on average. 

 Thus the three days of coarse food have prolonged the growth 

 five days, or in other words, each day of coarse feeding has 

 delayed the maturity forty hours. Therefore, if we suppose 

 that bees could, and would use, larvsB four and one-half days 

 old, queens thus produced would hatch two and one-half days 

 later than those raised from larvae three days old. They 

 would consequently hatch in eleven and one-half days instead 

 of ten as usual. 



