332 FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 



a good queen. If, now, the bees should select a larva more than 

 three days old, the queen would emerge in less than nine days. 

 I think no one has ever known this to occur. 



Fig. SI — Eohher Bees. 



BEES no XOT PREFER TOO OLD LARVAE. 



Asa matter of fact bees do not use such poor judgment as 

 to select larvie too old when larVcB sufficiently young are pres- 

 ent, as I have jn-oved by direct experiment and many observa- 

 tions. It will not do, however, to conclude from this that all 

 queen-cells started by a queenless colony left to themselves will 

 be equally good. Bees have a fashion of starting cells for a 

 number of days in succession, and will continue to start them 

 wlien lai-vse sufficienlly young J'or good queens are no longer 



