The queen bee at first lays eggs which give birth to and afterwards produces eggs become drones. With unerring instinct she places each egg in the kind of cell appro priate to it, which has been prepared before hand by the workers, the drones' cells being larger than the workers' cells. The cells in which future queens are to be reared are very unlike all the others, but the eggs differ in no respect from those deposited in cells. It is a curious circumstance that queens, of which the fecundation has been prevented till they are considerably older than usual, lay mainly drone eggs. It occasionally also happens that some of the worker bees lay eggs, and these in variably produce drones.
The eggs of bees are of an oblong shape and bluish whitecolor, about one-twelfth of an inch in length. They are hatched in about three days. The larva: are little, worm-like creatures, having no feet, and lying coiled up like a ring. They are diligently fed by the working bees, until, in about five days, when large enough nearly to fill the cell, they refuse food, upon which the attendant bees seal up the cell with wax, and the larva, spinning itself a fine silken envelope or cocoon, is transformed into a pupa; and about the twenty-first day from the deposi tion of the egg the young bee, in its perfect state, breaks the covering, and issues from the cell. It is caressed and supplied with food by the attendant bees, and is believed not to try its wings until several days old. The cell from which a young bee has issued is speedily cleaned out and prepared for the reception of another egg or of honey. The fine silken en velope of the pupa, however, remains attached to the cell, of which the capacity thus becomes gradually smaller, until the cells of old combs are too small to receive eggs and earl be used for honey alone—a fact of which the importance in relation to the economical management of bees is obvious. The spinneret, by means of which the larva spins the cocoon, is a small organ connected with the mouth. The food with which the larvT are supplied is a mixture of pollen, honey, and water, with the addition, possibly, of some secretion from the bread-glands of the working bees, by which it is prepared. It varies a little, according to the and kind of the larva, and the peculiarities of that given to young queens appear to be indispensable to their fitness for their future functions. Pollen is con stantly found stored up in the cells of the hive, and is called 'bee-bread.' Most people have met with such cells in honeycomb, and have ob served the strikingly peculiar taste of the con tents.
The ronibs of a beehiiv' are parallel to each other, forming vertical strata of about an inch in thickness, and distant about half an inch from each other. The cells are therefore nearly horizontal, having a slight and somewhat vari able dip toward the centre of each comb. The central comb is generally first begun, and next after it those next to it on each side. Circum stances frequently cause some departure from this uniform and symmetrical plan, which, how ever, still remains obvious. Each comb consists of two sets of cells, one on each side ; and it may be mentioned as an illustration of the wonderful industry of bees, and the results of their com bined labors, that a piece of comb 14 inches long by 7 inches wide, and containing about 4000 cells, has been frequently constructed in 24 hours. The greater part of the comb con sists of the kind of cells fitted for breeding workers, a smaller part of it of the larger or drone cells. After the principal breeding season is over, the cells of some parts of the comb are often elongated for the reception of honey; and sometimes comb of greater thickness, or with unusually long cells, is constructed for that pur pose alone, in which ease the mouths of the cells are inclined upward more than is usual with the ordinary brood-eells. When a cell has been completely filled with honey, its mouth is sealed or covered with wax.
The comb partition is composed of a multi tude of little rhombs, or four-sided figures, with equal and parallel sides, and two obtuse and two acute angles, the obtuse angles being angles of 109° and the acute angles of 71°, agreeing with the results of mathematical analysis, applied to the difficult question of the form of the facets of a three-sided pyramid, which should termi nate a six-sided prism, so as to combinethegreat est economy of materials with the greatest strength. On looking at a piece of empty honey comb, placed between the eye and the light, we readily perceive that the cells are not opposite to each other, cell to cell; but that the point of meeting of three sides of three cells, on one side, is opposite to the centre of a cell on the other side—a circumstance which is calculated greatly to increase the strength of the whole fabric. It follows also from this that the terminating pyramids of the cells on the one side do not interfere with the form of the cells on the other side; but the three rhombic facets, which ter minate each cell, belong likewise to three dis tinct cells on the opposite side of the comb.