30 GRAMMAR OF ENTOMOLOGY. 



86. For eleven months the queen lays only 

 workers' eggs ; after that, those which produce 

 drones : as soon as this change has taken place, 

 the workers begin to construct royal cells, in 

 which, without discontinuing laying the drones' 

 eggs, the queen deposits here and there, about 

 once in three days, an egg which is destined to 

 produce a queen. 



87. The workers' eggs hatch in a few days, 

 and become little white maggots, which imme- 

 diately open their mouth to be fed ; these the 

 workers attend to with unerring assiduity : in six 

 days each maggot fills up its cell ; it is then 

 roofed in by the workers, spins a silk cocoon, and 

 becomes a chrysalis ; and on the twenty-first day 

 it comes forth a perfect bee. The drones emerge 

 on the twenty-fifth day, and the queens on the 

 sixteenth. 



88. It has been already stated, that the queen, 

 for nearly a year, lays no eggs that are destined 

 to produce queens; it therefore follows, that if 

 any evil befall her, the hive is left without a 

 queen : it sometimes happens that she dies, or is 

 taken away by the owner of the hive, to observe 

 the result. 



89. For twelve hours little notice is taken of 

 the loss ; it appears not to be known, and the 

 workers labour as usual : after that period, a 

 hubbub commences ; work is abandoned ; the 

 whole hive is in an uproar ; every bee traverses 



