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The Family: Pliny

Later the bees build a number of large thimble-shaped cells, generally on the edges of the comb, and with their mouths opening downward. These are queen cells, concerning which Pliny says, - "In the lower part of the hive they construct for their future sovereign a palatial abode, spacious and grand, separated from the rest, and surmounted by a sort of dome." At the beginning of the season the queen lays fertilized eggs in the worker cells. She walks over the combs, puts her head into each open cell as she comes to it, as though to discover whether it was occupied already or was in fit condition to become the cradle of a bee. Satisfied with the state of the cell, she deposits in it a tiny oblong shining white egg, which is glued to the bottom of the cell by one end, the ovipositor of the queen supplying a secretion for the purpose.

Later in the season the workers construct the large queen cells into each of which the queen deposits a fertilized egg in all respects like those laid in the worker cells. Meantime the queen deposits unfertilized eggs in cells like those of the honey-comb, and these hatch into drones, for curiously enough the drone is the product of an unfertilized egg. If for any reason the queen fails to mate successfully, after a time she begins to lay eggs, but these all hatch into drones, - a calamity as great as the loss of the queen.

In about three days the eggs hatch into legless, maggotlike creatures, the larvæ, or "worms," as the bee-keepers call them, which are now supplied with food by the workers.

It is the food which makes the difference between the queen and the worker bees, notwithstanding Pliny's romantic statement on the subject: - "The king, however, from the earliest moment, is of the color of honey, just as though he were made of the choicest flowers, nor has he at any time the form of a grub, but from the very first is provided with wings."

This tribute to royalty is more poetical than true, for the "king," like common folk, comes from an egg, and is a "grub" like the others, owing his ultimate superiority to his superior opportunities for gormandizing, royalty in this instance being a product of high feeding.

The bees feed the queen larva upon a very nutritious food called "royal jelly" secreted by them, giving it to her in unstinted abundance during the whole period of larvahood. Concerning it Benton says: - The Family "The composition of this food has been the subject of much attention and more theorizing. It may be considered as pretty certain that during the first three days of the life of the larva its food is a secretion from glands located in the heads of the adult workers, - a sort of bee milk, to which, after the third day, honey is added in the case of the worker larvæ, and honey and pollen in the case of drone larvæ. As this weaning proceeds, both worker and drone larvæ receive pollen, and in constantly increasing proportions, in place of the secretion. But this rich albuminous substance is continued to the queen larvæ throughout their whole period of feeding."

This highly nutritious food supplied unsparingly causes the queen larva in its roomy cell to develop into the large perfect female or queen-bee.

If the queen of the hive dies or disappears before the new queen cells are started, the workers, as soon as they have recovered from their agitation at missing her, go to a worker cell in which lies a fertilized egg, or to one in which is a worker larva not more than three days old, and enlarge it to about the size of the queen cell by breaking away the walls of the surrounding cells.

They carry away the eggs and larvæ contained in the broken cells, feed the favored infant on "royal jelly ," and, presto! the obscure worker is become a queen.