PRODUCTION OF QUEEN CELLS. 



89 



Chapter II, any egg whicli has been fertilized maybe made to develop 

 into a queen. So also larvie from sueli eggs may, up to the third day, 

 be taken to rear from without danger of i)roducing inferior queens. 

 Cells in which to produce queens will be started over some of these 

 larvae on the edges of the combs, or, by tearing down partitions and 

 thus enlarging the lower portion of the cell, a beginning is obtained 

 for a queen cell. Fig. 63 shows such c[ueen cells constructed over eggs 

 or larvje originally designed to i)roduce Avorkers. They are known 

 as emergency cells. The young larva is at once liberally supjilied 

 with a secretion, which is probably a production of the glands of the 

 head, and which analyses have shown to be rich in nitrogen and fatty 

 elements, being similar to that given at first to the worker larva. 

 This iscontinued throughout the whole feeding period, while, as Dr. Yon 

 Planta has shown, in the case of the workers and drones, after the third 

 day the proportion of the constituents of the larval food is so changed 

 that they receive much less albumen 

 and fat and more sugar. It is chiefly 

 the influence of this food which causes 

 the larva that would have developed 

 as a worker to become a queen. The 

 latter has somewhat changed in- 

 stincts, and its reproductive system 

 is developed, instead of abortive as 

 in the case of the worker. The size of 

 the cell, and, to a less extent per- 

 haps, itsi^ositiou, no doubt influence 

 this development, but the food seems 

 to be the main factor, for small cells 

 built horizontally, if their larvic are 

 supplied with the food designed for 

 royal larva', will be found to contain 

 queens, and frequently these queens, 

 even though small, are (piite prolific, 

 and sho^^- in all respects the instincts 

 of a queen. 



It is believed by most queen raisers that in order to secure the best 

 development of the young (pieens a colony should be allowed to build 

 but a few cells at a time. That their belief is not well founded is shown 

 by the facts just cited concernir.g the large numbers of well-develoi)ed 

 (pieen cells which produce also perfect and prolific queens. It lies 

 within the skill of the beemaster to establish conditions favoring the 

 production of food for the queen larva^— the so called '* royal jelly"— 

 and this having been brought about, there need be no hesitancy in per- 

 mitting the construction of hundreds of (jueen cells in one colony if 

 such numbers are needed. 



It was formerly the plan, after removing the queen from a colony in 

 order to secure queen cells, to trim the lower edges of the combs con- 



FlG. 6:5. 



-Queen cells ami worla r brood iu vari- 

 ous stages. (Ori^iinal.) 



