146 
BROOD AND BROOD-REARING 
brood, eggs will be found in the cells the 
next day. 
If one has never seen an egg that is to 
produce a bee, he may have to look very 
sharply the first time, for they are white 
like polished ivory, and scarcely larger 
than the letter “i” in this print. (See De¬ 
velopment of Bees.) They will be seen 
in the center of the cells attached to the 
comb by one end. The egg under the 
microscope much resembles the cut:. It is 
covered, as will be noted, with a sort of 
lacelike penciling, or network it might 
properly be called. Immediately on dis¬ 
covering eggs, the date should be marked. 
A queen’s egg under the microscope. 
If the weather is favorable, these eggs 
will hatch out in about three days or a 
little more, when, in place of the egg, if 
one looks sharply enough, he will see a 
tiny white worm or grub floating in a 
minute drop of milky fluid. If he watches 
he will find bees incessantly poking their 
heads into these cells. Just before the 
inmate breaks its way out of the shell a 
milky food is placed on and about the egg. 
Experiments have proven this necessary 
to the development of the egg; for if 
eggs are removed from the hive and sub¬ 
jected to the proper temperature they will 
Batch if supplied with the milky food; 
otherwise not. These worms that hatch 
from the eggs are really young bees in 
their larval state, and Ave shall in the 
future call them larvae. They thrive and 
grow very rapidly on their bread-and-milk 
diet, as can be seen if they are looked 
at very often. They will more than double 
in size in a single half-day. This seems 
almost incredible; but there they are, 
right before our eyes. Probably it is ow¬ 
ing to the highly concentrated nature of 
this bread-and-milk food that the workers 
are so constantly giving them that they 
grow so rapidly. If the comb is taken 
away from the bees for a little while, the 
larvas will be seen opening their mouths to 
be fed, like a nest of young birds. 
RATE OF GROWTH. 
Figures under the cut represent the age 
in days from the laying of an egg. First, 
the larva just having broken the egg-shell 
on the third day; next, a larva on the 
fourth day. During the fifth and the sixth 
days they grow very rapidly, but it is 
difficult to fix any precise mark in regard 
to size. On the ninth day, the larva hav¬ 
ing straightened itself out, worker bees 
cap it over. (See Development of Bee.s. ) 
The author has made some careful observa¬ 
tions on this point, and it was just six 
days and seven hours after the first egg 
hatched that the bees completely capped it 
over. During the wannest weather, this 
may be reduced to less than six days. To 
determine when larvae begin to have legs 
and eyes, see Development of Bees. The 
wings develop toward the last of the 
growth. 
After the larvas are 6 days old, or be¬ 
tween 9 and 10 days from the time the egg 
was laid, one will find the bees sealing up 
some of the largest. This sealing is done 
with a porous-like substance in which are 
found wax shreds, old silk, bee hair, and 
sometimes pollen; and while it shuts the 
young hee up, it still allows it a chance to 
breathe thru the pores of the capping. It 
is given its last food, and the nurse bees 
seem to say, “There! you have been fed 
enough. Spin your cocoon, and take care 
of yourself.” See Development of Bees. 
After this the young bee is generally 
left covered up until it gnaws off the cap-' 
ping and comes out a perfect bee. This 
will be in about 21 days from the time the 
egg was laid, or it may be 20 if the 
weather is very favorable; therefore it is 
shut up 11 or 12 days. 
There is an exception to this last state- 
