254 I'llEVKNTION OF NATURAL SWARMING. 



or water, according to the race, the age, and the food eaten. 



492. Other bee-keepers suppose that the newly-hatched 

 larvffi, intended by the bees to be raised as queens, are more 

 plentifully fed from the first, than worker-larvse. But we 

 have always noticed, that, except during a scarcity, the lat- 

 ter have as much of this pap as they can eat, during the 

 first three days, since they float on the milky food (166). 

 T'he wise bee-keeper can ward against the gearing of poor 

 queens, by feeding his bees abundantly, if necessary, a few 

 days in advance, and during the queen-breeding. 



493. Lastly, some bee-keepers think that bees sometimes 

 use larviB more than three days old, and which consequently, 

 have already received coarser food. One of our leaders in 

 bee-culture, Mr. Doolittle, writes that one of his colonies 

 must have used a larva four and one-half days old, since 

 this colony hatched a queen in eight and one-half days, in- 

 stead of about ten, as usually (llO). (Cook's Guide, pages 

 70 and 72). But we cannot admit that the nurses were 

 guilty of such blunder, especially since they would have had 

 the trouble of replacing with better food, the coarse pap 

 already given. Most likely, some already constructed 

 queen-cell had passed unnoticed. Every one of us, old bee- 

 keepers, has made similar errors. (See " Deceptive Queen- 

 Cells (519)." 



494. The worker-larvse are fed with milky food for three 

 days, and with coarse food for the three following days. 

 Not only does this coarse food change their organism, but 

 it retards their growth, since the qvieens are mature in six- 

 teen daj's, from the time that the egg is laid (197), while 

 the workers do not hatch before twenty-one days, on aver- 

 age. Thus the three daj^s of coarse food have prolonged 

 the growth five days, or in other words, each day of coarse 

 feeding has delayed the maturity forty hours. Therefore, 

 if we suppose that bees could, and would use, larvae four 

 and one-half days old, queens thus produced would hatch 



