PRODUCTION OF QUEEN CELLS. 
89 
Chapter II, any egg which has been fertilized may be made to develop 
into a queen. So also larva? from such eggs may, up to the third day, 
be taken to rear from without danger of producing inferior queens. 
Cells in which to produce queens will be started over some of these 
larva3 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 queen cells constructed over eggs 
or larvae originally designed to produce workers. They are known 
as emergency cells. The young larva is at once liberally supplied 
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 is continued throughout the whole feeding period, while, as Dr. Von 
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, its position, no doubt influence 
this development, but the food seems 
to be the main factor, for small cells 
built horizontally, if their larvae are 
supplied with the food designed for 
royal larvae, will be found to contain 
queens, and frequently these queens, 
even though small, are quite prolific, 
and show 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 queens 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 concerning the large numbers of well-developed 
queen 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 m per- 
mitting the construction of hundreds of queen 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- 
Fig. 63.— Queen cells and worker brood iu vari- 
ous stages. (Original.) 
