Texas Beekeeping. 



25 



Egg, larvae and pupae; 



end to the bottom of the cell. In three days from the time the egg 

 has been laid it hatches into a very small white larva, or grub. As 

 soon as the larva has hatched it is fed by nurse-bees on a milky white 

 food known as chyle, which is secreted by the glands in the mouth 

 of the bee. This is fed for the first three days, when it is followed 

 by a coarser, partly digested, food of honey and pollen until the larva 



is fully grown. During the first few days 

 the larva lies curled in the bottom of the 

 cell, later straightening out, as it grows, 

 until it lies on its back with its head to 

 the mouth of the cell. 



At this stage the bees cap over the cell 

 and the larva spins a fine coccoon within 

 it, and then goes into a quiescent, or rest- 

 ing, period in the course of which a won- 

 derful transformation takes place. Dur- 

 ing this, the pupal stage, the legs, wings and all other organs of the 

 adult bee are developed, and in twenty -one days from the date of the 

 laying of the egg, twelve days after the cell is capped, the full grown 

 worker cuts a hole through the capping of the cell and emerges upon 

 the comb. Their weak and downy appearance easily distinguishes 

 them from the older bees, who have lost most of the hairy covering 

 from their bodies and look smooth and glossy, besides having more or 

 less ragged wings from flying. The next sixteen days are spent by 

 the young bees in assisting in labors within the hive. Their first duty 

 is as "nurse-bees," feeding the larvae, after which they engage in 

 packing and sealing honey, secreting wax, building comb, hive-clean- 

 ing, and guarding and ventilating the hive, during which time only 

 occasional fiights in front of the entrance are taken in the warm part 

 of the day. These flights are known as "play spells" of the young 

 bees and are often mistaken by the inexperienced beekeeper for an 

 issuing swarm. 



The workers become foragers, or field bees, when they are about 

 sixteen days old, to remain such the rest of their lives, unless through 

 some occurrence, they are needed in the hive for nurse-bees, or other 

 purposes. After carefully marking their location and obstacles on 

 their way to the field, so they may return safely, they gather honey, 

 pollen, propolis, and water. So zealously do they labor that they 

 die in the main working season, from overwork and exhaustion, in 

 about four weeks in the field. The average life of the worker bee is five 

 to six weeks during the working season, though they live longer when 

 there is no honey to gather or little field work for them to do. In the 

 winter, when they are less active, their lives are much longer, extend- 

 ing over several months, the adult's existence being prolonged until 

 young bees again begin to hatch in the spring, when they soon die off 

 entirely. 



THE QUEEN OE MOTHER BEE. 



The queen, or mother of the hive, is not, as many suppose, a queen 

 in the real sense of the word, as she does not rule over the rest of 

 the colony. In fact, it is the workers of the body who really govern 

 the affairs of the- colony, everything being done by common consent. 



