70 NATURAL HISTOBr OF THE HONEY BEE. 



the same time. I do not consider it as fully settled, how the 

 eggs are deposited in these cells. In some few instances, I 

 have known the bees to transfer the eggs from common to 

 Queen cells, and this may be their general method of pro- 

 cedure. I shall hazard the conjecture, that the Queen 

 deposits her eggs, in a crowded state of the hive, in cells on 

 the edges of the comb, and that some of these are after- 

 wards enlarged, and changed into royal cells by the 

 workers. Such is the instinctive hatred of the Queen to 

 her own kind, that it does not seem to me probable, that she 

 is intrusted with even the initiatory steps for securing a race 

 of successors. That the eggs from which the young Queens 

 are produced, are of the same kind with those producing 

 workers, has been repeatedly demonstrated. 



Royal Jelly. 



The young Queens are supplied with a much larger 

 quantity of food than is allotted to the other larvae, so that 

 they seem almost to float in a thick bed of jelly, a portion of 

 which is usually left unconsumed at the base of the cells, 

 after the insects have arrived at maturity. It is different from 

 the food of the other larvEB, has a slightly acid taste, and 

 when fresh, resembles starch, when old, a light quince jelly. 



I submitted a portion of the royal jelly for analysis, to 

 Dr. Charles M. Wetherell, of Philadelphia ; a very interesting 

 account of his examination may be found in the proceedings 

 of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences for July, 

 1852. He speaks of the substance as " truly a bread-con- 

 taining, albuminous compound." I hope to obtain from this 

 able chemist, an analysis of the food of the young drones 

 and workers. A comparison of its elements with those of 

 the royal jelly, may throw some light on subjects as yet in- 

 volved in obscurity. 



