8 
BEE. CULTURE. 
she leaves an abundance of worker eggs ; from these egg; the 
bees remaining in the hive will proceed to rear for themselves 
a queen. Three-fourths of the bees, old and young, gen- 
erally leave with the swarm one-fourth, most of them less 
than a week old, remaining in the old hive. The old hive 
will then contain perhaps twenty thousand eggs and young 
bees, the eggs hatching daily for three wee\s. Bees do not 
hatch by litters, but are hatching every minute of summer * 
Yes, I said the old colony; will raise a queen from a com- 
mon egg, as men make a president of a common citizen. 
Queens and workers arc all females ; but workers seem like 
other animals not yet arrived at puberty. 
“But of nil customs which the bee can boast, 
‘Tie this that claims our admiration most: 
That none will hymen’s softer joys approve, 
Nor waste thoir spirits in luxurious love . 
But all a long virginity maintain, 
And bring forthyoung without a mother's paiD." — V irgil. 
By what means do the workers convert a common egg to 
a perfect queen? We know of no means except that she is 
reared in a much larger cell, and receives a different kind of 
jelley or paste for food, and receives six times as much of it, 
thus developing in sixteen days to a perfect queen, instead 
of twenty-one days necessary to develop a worker. Gener- 
ally, queen cells are started before the swarm leaves. 
Most invarially the queen will hatch in eleven days from the 
time the cell is started. Why so? Because they usually 
take eggs that are five or six days advanced. 
An egg is nearly the size and shape of a timothy seed. 
When three days old, it is hatched and becomes a worm, mag- 
got or larva of the young bee, when it is supplied with a 
limpid jelly, made of honey, bee-bread, and water. After a 
few days they deposit enough food to develop it; It is then 
sealed over and left till it is able to eat its way out. 
I said when the swarm left, the old colony proceeded to 
rear themselves another queen ; but they usually rear from 
five to fifteen ; and why, since only one is needed in the hive? 
The old queen is gone, and they have now none to lay eggs in 
case an accident should befall the oue they are trying to raise. 
"The eggs of a bee hatch out in throe days. From that timo until they are 
capped oyer aud assume the shape of a bee, they are called worms, maggots, or 
larvie. I 1 rom the time they assume the shape of a bee and aro capped over 
until they leave the cell, they are called chrysalis, nymph, or pupa. The 
term brood includes each and all the stages of development. Tho term 
hatch is applied both to the changing of an ei-gto a larvre, and the nymph 
coming lrom the cell. Royal cells are cells in which queens aro reared. 
