14 Bee-keeping for Beginners. 



days for the completion of a worker, and twenty-four 

 for a drone. This great mystery alone proves the value 

 of the queen bee. ' ' When a queen is accidentally 

 killed, or dies unexpectedly, or is removed from a 

 hive, the bees have the power to make another. They 

 take an egg meant for a worker from a common cell, 

 where, if undisturbed, it would be developed into a 

 worker in twenty-one days, and place it in a royal 

 cell, and there convert it into a queen in fourteen 

 days. " Formerly this fact was -disputed, but it has 

 long been an established fact, and cannot now be 

 denied. The power seems to rest in the treatment 

 and the food, the latter being sometimes called ' ' royal 

 jelly. " The fertilization of the queens is an important 

 matter, and ought to be understood. A day or two 

 after the queen leaves her cell she has a strong desire 

 to get married, and her method of carrying this out is, 

 like all the rest about her, extremely wonderful. In 

 the middle of a fine warm day she flies out of the hive 

 and high up into the air. She is attracted by the 

 sound of drones (the males) flying about in front of 

 the hive. As soon as the drones catch sight of the 

 queen they fly up after her and surround her. She 

 selects one, and copulation takes place in the air. 

 During this act the queen and drone twist round and 

 round in mad excitement and pleasure, the buzz of the 

 other drones probably adding to the happiness of 

 the principal actors. At last the queen and drone 

 give a kind of wrench to each other, which causes the 



