The Family i 23 



" The composition of this food has been the subject of 

 much attention and more tlieorizing. It may be consid- 

 ered as pretty certain that during the first three days of 

 the life of the larva its food is a secretion from glands 

 located in the heads of the adult workers, — a sort of bee 

 milk, to which, after the third day, honey is added in the 

 case of the worker larvae, and honey and pollen in the case 

 of drone larvae. As this weaning proceeds, both worker 

 and drone larvae receive pollen, and in constantly increas- 

 ing proportions, in place of the secretion. But this rich 

 albuminous substance is continued to the queen larvae 

 throughout their whole period of feeding." 



This highly nutritious food supplied unsparingly causes 

 the queen larva in its roomy cell to develop into the large 

 perfect female or queen-bee. 



If the queen of the hive dies or disappears before the 

 new queen cells are started, the workers, as soon as they 

 have recovered from their agitation at missing her, go to a 

 worker cell in which lies a fertilized egg, or to one in which 

 is a worker larva not more than three days old, and enlarge 

 it to about the size of the queen cell by breaking away the 

 walls of the surrounding cells. 



They carry away the eggs and larvae contained in the 

 broken cells, feed the favored infant on " royal jelly," and, 

 presto ! the obscure worker is become a queen. 



Schirach proved by experiment that worker eggs could 

 be transferred to queen cells and developed into queens, 

 by receiving the queen's food. 



Huber repeated Schirach's experiments, and numerous 

 bee-keepers and naturalists since that time have verified the 

 conclusion they reached, which, naturally enough, was at 

 first regarded with scepticism. 



The "royal jelly," with which all the larvae are at first 

 fed, is semi-fluid in consistency, and the young bees are 



