GENERAL HINTS 13 
destroy her. Asa rule a fertile worker deposits 
her eggs in a scattered sort of way, but as the 
cells containing them are always capped as 
drone-cells—that is the cappings are raised in 
a dome-like way—they are easily distinguishable 
to the experienced eye. 
Metamorphosis.—The metamorphosis, or 
change of form, which occurs in the early 
life history of the bee is among the most 
interesting in the insect world. When the egg 
is deposited by the queen, it rests on end 
on the bottom of the cell and almost parallel 
with the sides. At the close of the first day it 
inclines to an angle of about 45°, and after two 
days it falls to the floor of the cell. Asa rule, 
the period of incubation is three days, and the 
grub is immediately taken charge of by the 
nurse bees, and fed according to the kind of 
cell in which it has been placed. At the end 
of five or six days the grub is sealed up in its 
cell to undergo the next, or pupa, stage of its 
existence. Generally speaking, the queen is 
ready to leave her cell on the fifteenth day, 
the worker on the twenty-first, and the drone 
on the twenty-fourth day from the time the egg 
is laid. If the weather is cold these periods 
may be extended: it is a curious fact that the 
egg of an insect can often bear a greater in- 
