254 QUEEN REARING. 
or water, according to the race, the age, and the food eaten. 
492. Other bee-keepers suppose that the newly-hatched 
larvee, intended by the bees to be raised as queens, are more 
plentifully fed from the first, than worker-larve. But we 
have always noticed, that, except during a scarcity, the lat- 
ter have as much of this pap as they can eat, during the 
first three days, since they float on the milky food (166). 
The wise bee-keeper can ward against the rearing of poor 
queens, by feeding his bees abundantly, if necessary, a few 
days in advance, and during the queen-breeding. 
493. Lastly, some bee-keepers think that bees sometimes 
use larvee more than three days old, and which consequently, 
have already received coarser food. One of our leaders in 
bee-culture, Mr. Doolittle, writes that one of his colonies 
must have used a larva four and one-half days old, since 
this colony hatched a queen in eight and one-half days, in- 
stead of about ten, as usually (110). (Cook’s Guide, pages 
70 and 72). But we cannot admit that the nurses were 
guilty of such blunder, especially since they would have had 
the trouble of replacing with better food, the coarse pap 
already given. Most likely, some already constructed 
queen-cell had passed unnoticed. Every one of us, old bee- 
keepers, has made similar errors. (See ‘‘ Deceptive Queen- 
Cells (619).” 
494. The worker-larve are fed with milky food for three 
days, and with coarse food for the three following days. 
Not only does this coarse food change their organism, but 
it retards their growth, since the queens are mature in six- 
teen days, from the time that the egg is laid (197), while 
the workers do not hatch before twenty-one days, on aver- 
age. Thus the three days of coarse food have prolongea 
the growth five days, or in other words, each day of coarse 
feeding has delayed the maturity forty hours. Therefore, 
if we suppose that bees could, and would use, larve four 
and one-half days old, queens thus produced would hatch 
