BEES. 485 
EGO AND BROOD. 
b, and c, eggs, t, pupa of queen in queen cell, d, e,f, g, various sizes of 
larvae. k ) k, k, caps, h, pupa. 
The worker egg when first laid is a mere speck. In three days it hatches 
into a small white ^rub or worm. It is fed by the worker bees and grows 
rapidly ; in six days the cell which contains it is capped over by the worker 
bees ; then the larva spins a thin silken cocoon, and in three days assumes the 
pupa state. Then comes a long period of repose. In twenty -one days, the fully- 
formed worker bee emerges from the cell. A queen is more quickly developed 
than a common or worker bee. She comes forth, a perfect insect, on the six- 
teenth day from the laying of the egg. The drone takes longer to mature, 
and requires twenty-four days for its growth from the egg to the perfect con- 
dition. 
DEVELOPMENT AND FUNCTIONS OF THE QUEEN. 
After hatching out, a queen requires impregnation to fit her for her maternal 
duties. This takes place during flight. Five or six days after issuing 
from the cell, or perhaps earlier, if the weather be pleasant, the young queen 
goes forth on her bridal tour, meets a drone on the wing, and returns to the 
hive impregnated for life. She never leaves the hive again, except when she 
does so with a swarm. As only a single drone, and one sexual act is needed 
to render a queen fertile for life, wonder has been expressed that there should 
be so many drones. It is doubtless a provision of nature to prevent the 
extinction of bees when in single colonies in the woods. Bee-keepers who 
understand their business, knowing that only a few drones are needed in an 
apiary, will reduce their number by cutting out drone comb when it is super- 
abundant. About two days after she is impregnated, the queen usually begins 
to lay worker eggs. It is a curious fact in bee-life that a queen can lay fertile 
drone eggs, without impregnation, another wise provision of nature for the 
preservation of the species. Before laying an egg the queen generally looks 
into a cell, to see if it be empty. Finding all right, she turns about, inserts 
her abdomen in the cell, and drops the tiny egg, which by virtue of a 
sticky fluid which encases it, is immediately glued to the bottom of the cell* 
