10 



the first three weeks of her life, the desire of mating is lost and she 

 will lay eggs which produce drones. A drone laying queen can be 

 determined by the irregular deposition of eggs and several present iu 

 each cell. A mated queen deposits her eggs regularly in a concentric 

 arrangement. Eggs present in the super is a sign of limited space for 

 breeding purposes. When a queen becomes barren, shows decrease in 

 fertility, lost, injured through accident, or dies from old age, prepara- 

 tions are immediately made by the workers to rear another. The only 

 other condition under which this activity takes place in the colony is 

 in preparation for swarming. 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE QUEEN. 



The egg from which a queen develops is no different from those which 

 produce workers. The physical change that takes place is entirely due 

 to change of enviroment during development. A fertile egg, or ordin- 

 ary worker larva under three days old, is placed in a specially con- 

 structed cell resembling the cup of an acorn in shape, supplied with 



a profusion of milky food called by most 

 authors "royal jelly." In reality, royal 

 jelly is a concentrated, predigested food, 

 rich in proteids, produced from a mixture 

 of pollen and honey. At the end of six 

 days the larva has completed its growth. 

 During this time the cell increases in size 

 accordingly. The cell is now nearly com- 

 pleted and is sealed. After which the 

 bees put on a great excess of wax in 

 drawing it to a long tapering point and 

 the sides take on a corrugated appearance 

 resembling an imperfect representation of 

 honeycomb on a very small scale. Within 

 the next seven days the larva passes 

 through a complete transformation and 

 becomes a fully developed insect. The 

 condition of the temperature may slightly 

 influence this development, so that it 

 may be a day or two, or a few days longer 

 before the queen emerges from her cell. 



WORKERS. 



normally l,yj„see»,. are tbepresorfbeddutLTh. „ ' "°"" 



to psrto™. Struc.urally tl,; wTitl'.f ^In JT"' """'''""' 

 .«..,. ..e .„. are .«, devoloS-'brL^r./Ct "S'S 



(By Dadant) 



Figure 4 

 Queen Cells 



