34 A Modern Bee-Farm 



perature these eggs will never hatch without the addition 

 of such fluid. In the Spring eggs laid in drone cells 

 may be seen day after day, week after week, during 

 unfavorable weather, simply because the workers do 

 not see fit to have them develop, and in late Autumn 

 exactly the same thing will occur with worker eggs laid 

 in worker cells. The queen is allowed to deposit them, 

 but the workers as much as say " No, they shall not 

 hatch only to produce useless consumers." 



On the third day the egg hatches, and the tiny 

 embryo floats in the liquid, to which the bees continually 

 add, until the seventh day, when the larva surrounds 

 itself with a silken web, its cell being then capped 

 over with a porous mixture of wax and pollen. 

 According to Cheshire many more important changes 

 then take place than hitherto have been supposed, and the 

 student of nature will find much pleasure in perusing his 

 work.* When fully developed, the insect bites its own 

 way through the cap on the twentieth day after the egg 

 was laid, and is readily distinguished by its light downy 

 appearance. It immediately proceeds to the open cells of 

 honey, and helps itself liberally. The youngster is 

 generally assisted by an older bee in removing the filmy 

 skin from its body, and after two or three days it goes 

 out for a cleansing flight at the warmest part of the day, 

 at the time many others are having an airing and taking 

 stock of their surroundings. This flight of the young 

 bees, when they are of the bright yellow varieties, is 

 an interesting and beautiful sight. 



Our little friend gets stronger daily, and, soon after 

 the seventh day we find her coming home with a load of 

 pollen on each back leg in what are called the pollen- 



* " Bees and Bee-keeping," Vol. I., Scientific. 



