no THE LORE OF THE HONEY-BEE 



but a drone-breeder. But the bees are seldom 

 caught napping in this way. Long beforp this 

 happens the building of the royal cells will have 

 commenced in the hive. A queen-cell has been 

 likened, by various writers, to an acorn, and when 

 half completed it bears a very close resemblance, 

 both in size and shape, to an inverted acorn-cup. 

 This is commonly hung mouth downwards at the 

 side or base of one of the central brood-combs, 

 but it may be placed right in the middle of the 

 comb, in which case the cells around it are cut 

 away to give it air and space. Whether the old 

 queen herself deposits the egg in the royal cell — 

 thus unwittingly supplying the means for her own 

 future dethronement — or whether the worker-bees 

 transfer to it an egg or grub from a common cell, 

 is not yet finally ascertained. As, however, the 

 mere sight of a royal cell usually excites the queen 

 to fury, the chances are that she is never allowed 

 to approach it at any time, and the egg would then 

 be placed there by the worker-bees. But, in the 

 great majority of cases, it is probable that new 

 queens are raised by enlarging an already existing 

 worker-cell, in which an egg has been previously 

 deposited. As far as is known, this is always the 

 case when a young grub is used for the purpose 

 instead of an egg. It is possible, also, that the 

 queen is physically incapable of laying in a royal 

 cell an egg that will produce a female bee ; but this 

 curious point will be touched upon at a later stage. 



