70 
BREEDING. 
the fime the bee gets out. The covering to the queen’s 
cell is like the drone’s, but larger in diameter, and 
thicker, being lined with a little more silk. 
DISCREPANCY IN TIME IN REARING DROOD AS GIVEN BY 
HUBER. 
We are told by most writers, the period of time 
necessary to perfect from the egg, the three dif- 
ferent kinds of bees. Huber leads the way, and 
the rest, supposing him to he right, repeat in sub- 
stance his account as follows: That the whole time 
necessary to perfect a queen from the egg is sixteen 
days, the worker twenty, and the drone twenty-four 
days; Huber (as quoted by Harpers) gives the 
time of each stage of development belonging to each 
kind of bee; but is rather unfortunate in arithmetic; 
the items, or stages, when added together, “ do not 
prove,” as the school-boys say ; that is, he gains time 
by making his bee by degrees. He says, first, of the 
worker, “It remains three days in the egg, five in the 
grub state, it is thirty-six hours in spinning its cocoon ; 
in three days it changes to a nymph, passes six in 
that form, and then comes forth a perfect bee.” How 
do the items add ? 
The egg, 3 days. 
Grub, 5 “ 
Spinning cocoon, . . . li “ 
Changing to a nymph, . . 3 “ 
In that form, 6 “ 
18j days. 
One and a half days short. We will next see how 
