THE BEE NATION. 
13 
held her captive, and then forces her way out, a weak 
and silvery-grey young bee, the moist hairs adhering 
to her. In about twenty-four hours she will be ready to 
commence work in the hive as a nurse, and it is not 
until ten or twelve days afterwards that she will be 
able to fly out and collect food for the support of 
others. As soon as a bee leaves a cell, this is cleaned 
out by others, and numbers of them will be seen con- 
stantly examining the cells with their antennae. 
The queens are reared in large cells of peculiar 
shape (Fig. i, f, g, h), whose sides as well as cap- 
pings are porous (Planta, 129) and consist of wax and 
pollen. They are produced from eggs fertilised in 
the same way as those of workers, and the difference 
in the development of the insect is caused by the 
peculiar kind and great abundance of rich food ad- 
ministered to the larva, which literally floats in it, and 
it being, as Leuckart (93) and Planta have shown, 
fed with the same kind of food during the whole of its 
larval existence, instead of being weaned like the 
workers and drones. This has the effect of fully de- 
veloping her ovaries, and she leaves the cell, in about 
fifteen days from the day the egg is laid, as a lemale 
capable of reproducing the species. 
The drones, .as we have said, are produced from 
unimpregnated eggs, and take about twenty-four days 
from the laying of the egg to reach maturity. They 
are weaned by having honey and undigested pollen 
added to their food after the third day. The cappings 
of their cells (Fig. i, k) are more convex than those 
of the workers, but are also porous. 
