The eggs are very small, of a bluish white color, and of a long, oval shape. They remain unchanged for four days and are then hatched. At first, the young bee is only a white worm or maggot, and may be seen floating at the bottom of the cell, in a whitish fluid, furnished by the nursing bees. It grows rapidly, and as it lengthens coils itself into a ring. It is then called a grub-worm, or larva.
The little worms are carefully attended by the nurses, and as soon as these approach and touch them, they open their minute jaws and receive the food. This consists of a nice kind of soft, sweet pap, formed by the farina of flowers, honey and water, carefully mixed, and partly digested in the stomachs of the nurses.
When Miss Betsey Piper had got to this point, Jack spoke as follows:
“That’s very queer, aunt Betsey, and very interesting; but don’t it remind you of the story about the old Dutch landlady, in the state of New York?”
“No,” said aunt Betsey.
“Why,” said Jack, “don’t you remember that Mr. Roley told us about it? He said that he was once travelling in the western part of the state of New York, when he came to a little brown tavern, kept by an old Dutch woman. It was evening, and he asked for supper. The old lady had very little in her house but bread and milk, and he concluded to have some of this. ‘How do you like it,’ said the landlady—‘mummed or crumbed?’ Now Mr. Roley didn’t know what mummed was. So, out of curiosity, he told her he would have it mummed. Upon this, the landlady got a large bowl of milk, and several large slices of bread. Then, standing over the bowl, and taking a slice of bread, at each end, with her fingers, she began to bite off pieces, and, after a little chewing, dropped them into the milk. This was what she called mummed bread and milk! I suppose she did it all for kindness, but Mr. Roley couldn’t eat a bit of it.”
“Well,” said aunt Betsey, “don’t you think the little bee-worms like the sweet pap that is made for them?”
“Oh, very likely they do,” said Jack, “for they don’t know how it is made; besides, I have seen little infants eat things that had been chewed for them by the nurses; and it seems that the infant bees are treated in the same way. Really, the bees seem to be very rational kind of creatures. But what makes me wonder very much, is how they should know anything without any books, or instruction.”
“That is indeed very wonderful,” said aunt Betsey, “and we can only explain it by referring it to that admirable teaching of their Creator, called instinct.” The dialogue here ceased, and the narrator went on.
When the little worms are about four or five days old, and have grown so large and fat as to fill their cells, the nurses seal them up with a brown cover of a conical form. No sooner does the larva find himself shut in, than he begins to work up and down, and to wind around himself fine silky threads, which he draws in two strands from the middle part of his under lip. Round and round he goes, for he knows what is to be done; nor does he stop till he has woven about himself a thin pod or pellicle, just the size of the cell. In this condition, the creature is called a nymph or pupa.