78 MANUAL OF THE APIARY. 



a rapid motion to and fro of the head, always carrying the 

 delicate thread, much like the moving shuttle of the weaver, 

 seems to bring exhaustion and need of repose. She now 

 assumes the nymph or pupa state (Fig. 26, i). At the end 

 of the sixteenth day she comes forth a queen. Huber states that 

 when a queen emerges, the bees are thrown into a joyous excite- 

 ment, so that he noted a rise in the temperature of the hive 

 from 92° P. to 104° F. I have never tested this matter 

 accurately, but I have failed to notice any marked demonstra- 

 tion on the natal day of her lady-ship the queen, or extra 

 respect paid her as a virgin. When queens are started from 

 worker larvae, they will issue as images in ten or twelve days 

 from the date of their new prospects. Mr. Doolittle writes 

 me that he has known them to issue in eight and one-half 

 days. 



As the queen's development is probably due to superior 

 quality and increased quantity of food, it would stand to 

 reason that queens started from eggs are preferable ; the more 

 so, as under normal circumstances, I believe, they are almost 

 always thus started. The best experience sustains this 

 position. As the proper food and temperature could best be 

 secured in a full colony — and here again the natural economy 

 of the hive adds to our argument — we should infer that the 

 best queens would be reared in strong colonies, or at least kept 

 in such colonies till the cells were capped. Experience also 

 confirms this view. As the quantity and quality of food, 

 and the general activity of the bees is directly connected with 

 the full nourishment of the queen-larva, and as these are 

 only at the maximum in times of active gathering — the time 

 when queen-rearing is naturally started by the bees — ^we 

 should also conclude that queens reared at such seasons are 

 superior. My experience — and I have carefully observed in 

 this connection — most emphatically sustains this view. 



Five or six days after issuing from the cell — Neighbour 

 says the third day — if the day is pleasant, the queen goes 

 forth on her "marriage flight ;" otherwise she will improve 

 the first pleasant day thereafter for this purpose. Huber was 

 the first to prove that impregnation always takes place on the 

 wing. Bonnet also proved that the same is true of ants, 

 though in this case millions of queens and drones often swarm 



