QUEEN REARING. 2538 
CHAPTER VIII. 
Queen REARING. 
489. We have shown (109) that when a colony is de- 
prived of its queen, the bees soon raise another, if they 
have worker eggs or young larve. 
In general, they select, first, some of the oldest among 
those whose milky ‘‘pap’’ has not yet been changed for 
coarser food (107). Such aselection is wise, for the older 
the larva is, the sooner the colony will recover a queen. 
490. But some Apiarists fear that the bees will secure 
poorer queens, if they use larve, for they suppose that the 
food given to these during the first three days, may be dif- 
ferent from the food given to the queen-larve, although it 
looks the same, and for this reason, they prefer to raise 
their queens, from the egg. 
491. A learned bee-keeper, of Switzerland, Mr. De 
Planta, has made cOmparative chemical experiments, on the 
milky food which is first given to the larve of drones, queens, 
and workers, and has ascertained that this food is composed 
of the same substances for all, albumen, fat, sugar, and 
water, and that the only difference is in the proportions of 
these substances. Yet he concludes that these variations 
are but accessory, and not premeditated by the bees. 
We think that these conclusions are right, for Mr. De 
Planta, to get a sufficient quantity of this food, had to take 
it from different hives, and at different seasons of the year; 
and as this milky food is apparently the product of glands, 
(64), as is the milk of our cows, the proportions of sub- 
stances in the ‘‘ milk’’ of bees, may vary, as they do in the 
milk of cows, which contains more or less caseine, fat, sugar, 
