182 THE HONEY-BEE. 



days she pupates, and at the end of sixteen or seventeen days 

 emerges as the " queen." A few days later the queen flies out 

 of the hive, and whilst on the wing is impregnated by the 

 drone. She then returns to the hive to commence egg-laying. 

 As many as 3000 eggs are laid per day : these will turn into 

 workers or queens ; but should the queen not be pregnant, the 

 ova turn into drones only, and similarly at the end of queen 

 life. The female A. mellifica, unlike the worker, may live for 

 three years ; some queens have been said to retain their vitality 

 for as long as five years. 



The drone grubs feed for six or seven days, and then are 

 "capped" in their cells, the covering being very convex, a 

 feature by which we can always tell drone cells ; the wax is 

 impure, and thus the cell is darker than the others. In 

 twenty-five days the drone emerges. These males are killed 

 off by the workers, and even the drone brood is destroyed by 

 them when they are not required. Their sole function is to 

 impregnate the queen, which act entails their death, the 

 copulatory organs being left in her vulva. 



Swarming takes place when a hive or colony becomes over- 

 stocked or disturbed by mice and other causes. This swarming 

 is most erratic. The bees cling together upon- some tree or 

 fence, and then, accompanied by the queen, fly off to their 

 new home, apparently previously sought out, for they are said 

 to fly direct to their new abode, and there soon commence a 

 fresh colony. The three substances formed by bees are honey, 

 wax, and prupuUif. The first is made from the nectar of flowers. 

 The nectar is taken into the crop or honey-stomach and altered 

 into honey, which the bee regurgitates into the already formed 

 honey-cell, this cell being eventually capped. Honey is stored 

 for the use of the mature bees, and, when mixed with pollen, 

 to form food for the brood. Wax is formed as a secretion in 

 scale-like plates beneath the bee's abdomen in four pairs of 

 so-called " wax-sacs," and is seemingly formed from nitrogenous 

 food. When ripe, the wax-scales are removed by the bee's 



