No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 265 



the centre of the hive. She does this with system, passing around 

 the comb in widening circles from the center toward the outside. 

 These eggs hatch in three dajs, and if they be made queens they 

 develop into the winged queen and mature in about 15 days. The 

 v/orkers require 21 days and the drones take about 24 days to de- 

 velop. The number of eggs may vary from 800 to 3,000 per day and 

 depends to a great extent upon the number of bees in the colony to 

 care for the young and the amount of honey coming in. During 

 a time of scarcity there are very few eggs laid and during a heavy 

 honey flow there are a great many if the queen can then find room 

 for them. 



It is possible to take advantage of this knowledge and build up 

 a colony by artificial feeding at a time shortly previous to a heavy 

 ho>iey flow, in order to get the benefits of a strong colony at such 

 time. By feeding ray bees upon syrup made with granulated sugar 

 (1 part) and vrater (2 parts), I have induced egg-la3'ing and brood- 

 rearing to such an extent that the hives were full of bees at the 

 height of the fruit season and an immense amount of honey was 

 stored before most of the other bees commenced to do much work. 



The most essential instrument in working with the bees is a 

 smoker and I would as soon think of making a practice of driving 

 horses without lines as of working with bees without a smoker. It 

 immediately surpresses all insubordinate bees and lets them know 

 they have a true master. However, bees should not be smoked in- 

 discriminately, at all times, or to a point of sufl'ocation, as even a 

 small puff keeps them in a hive for sometime and consequently re- 

 duces their services as honey-gatherers for that length of time. 

 Some persons will go among their bees frequently and handle them 

 with neither veil or gloves and not be injured by them, while others 

 are badly stung and say they can not keep bees at all. We must 

 remember there arp three things which arouse the anger of bees, 

 and when they become fully infuriated they become utterly indiffer- 

 ent to their own death or suffering: One of these is a compara- 

 tively light tapping or jarring of the hive; another is the breath 

 blown gently on them and also offensive odors from the operator, 

 and the third is the sight of fur or hair. The explanation of this is 

 that for centuries the home of the bees has been in trees and their 

 greatest enemies were the bears and such other animals as could 

 climb the trees. The slight scratching of the bears on the bark 

 of the trees as they climbed was sufficient to apprise the bees of 

 the approach of their enemy, and as a consequence this instinct or 

 inherited fear and quick anger under such conditions is retained 

 to-day. Another thing, the bear approached the hole in which the 

 bees lived and breathed in it and they thus became aware of their 

 enemy and would make an attempt to dislodge it. In this is found 

 the reason for the anger of the bees when a warm breath blown 

 gently upon them. The anger from seeing hair or fur is a relic of 

 the time when their greatest enemies were the hairy animals. Con- 

 sequently, when bee-keepers go into the bee yard, especially ladies, 

 without a hat or veil it is only to be expected that the bees will be 

 angered and that they will be stung. Likewise it is a common be- 

 lief that in order to hive bees with the best success the owner or 

 operator should wash himself and change his clothes. This prob- 

 ably has for its basis the fact that bees are offended at certain odors, 

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