Beeton's book of poultry and domestic animals - Thurman Lodge ...

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merest whisper of her ambitious designs. Besides, it wonld be
impossible for a common bee to become queen, as it is the
queen's sole business to populate the hive, and, as has already
been observed, the power of propagation is denied the working
bee. The physical diflferences between the queen bee and the
working bee are broad and unmistakable. The worker has
strong jaws to knead wax and carry building material ; the
jaws of the queen are delicate things, not half the size or
stoength : the workers have a long proboscis with which they
collect honey from flowers in their business jaunts ; it is no
business of the queen to gather honey, and so her proboscis is
just long enough to supply her ^with food, and that is all : the
worker's wings are a third longer than the queen's, though 'her
body is much longer and heavier than theirs ; her legs are
smooth and delicate, theirs are rough and hairy ; the sting of
the worker is long and strong—a Border spear, compared with
which the weapon of her majesty is the merest Stiletto.
Thus you see, for a dozen reasons, a worker bee is vastly
different from a royal bee, and it would greatly puzzle the
united science of the whole world to transform the plebeian bee
into the royal. The secret, however, is known to the bees, and
is commonly practised by them : it is simply a matter of
commodious cradle-room and superior feeding. It has been
already observed that the cell of the worker egg is much
smaUer than that of the queen, and it may here be observed
that the food of the ,two when they reach larva-hood is likewise
different. In the first three days royal and common grubs
are fed alike, on what naturalists call " royal " paste, which is
pure honey prepared in a certain way by the nurse-bees. After
the third day, however, a more common diet is substituted in
the case of the workers ; pollen is mixed with the honey, and
on this vulgar food they grow to be submissive labourers. In
the case of the royal larva the food is never changed— " royal
paste is its sole food, and by-and-by it kicks out of its roomy
cradle a long-bodied, short-winged, thorough princess.
Well, finding themselves without a queen and without a
royal egg, the workers select a cell nontaining a worker egg,
and at once proceed to demolish the partitions of the cells that
surround it, that it may have royal room. When the lucky
larva bursts into life, it is treated with the same attention as
though it was of royal stock ; nothing more common than
" royal " paste is ever offered it, and lo ! there presently issues
trom the jealously-guarded cell an insect " every inch" a queen.
"