BEES. 



59 



BEES AND FRUIT. 



provident, and starvation comes, they all 

 suffer alike, and, we do believe, without a 

 single bit of hard feeling or censure toward 

 any one. They all work together, just as 

 your right hand assists your left; and if we 

 would understand the economy of the bee- 

 hive, it were well to bear this point innniid. 



Shortly follow- 

 ing the impulse 

 for pollen-collect- 

 ing, comes that for 

 honey - gathering ; 

 and the bee is 

 probably in its 

 prime as a worker 

 when a month old. 

 At this age it can, 

 like a man of 40, 

 "turn its hand" 

 to almost any do- 

 mestic duties; biit 

 if the hive is well 

 supplied with 

 workers of all 

 ages, it now prob- 

 ably does most ef- 

 fective service in 

 the fields. See 

 Age or Bees. 



When a colony 

 is formed of young 

 bees entirely ,they 

 will sometimes go 

 out into the fields 

 for pollen when 

 but five or six days 

 old. Also when a 

 colony is formed 

 wholly of adult 



he placed sound fruit, consisting of grapes, 

 peaches, apricots, and the like, in hives con- 

 taining bees that were brought to the verge 

 of starvation. This fruit was left in the 

 hives day after day, but it was never once 

 molested. Then he tried breaking some of 

 the fruit, and in every rase all such speci- 



GRAPES FIRST PUNCTURED BY BIRDS AND DESPOILED BTBEES. 



bees they can build comb, feed the larvse, 

 construct queen-cells, and perform work 

 generally that is usually done by younger 

 bees ; yet it is probably better economy to 

 have bees of all ages in the hive. 



BliES AIMD FRUIT. Every now 

 and then we hear complaints of how bees 

 will attack and eat up fruit ; and to a casual 

 observer, at least, they apparently do bite 

 through the skin, extract the juices, until 

 the specimen is shriveled up to a mere 

 semblance of its former shape and size. 

 Careful investigation has shown repeatedly 

 that bees never attack sound fruit no matter 

 how soft the skin nor how juicy and pulpy 

 the contents within the skin. 



Some years ago. Prof. N. W. McLain. 

 then in the employ of the Department of 

 Agriculture, Washington, D. C, conducted 

 an elaborate series of experiments in which 



mens were attacked by the bees sucking up 

 the juices until nothing but a dried skin and 

 the stones or seeds were left. 



Years later. Prof. H. A. Surface, economic 

 zoologist at Harrisburg. Pa., tried a similar 

 experiment, but in no case did the bees at- 

 tack the sound fruit, although they partook 

 freely of that which he had broken. 



At the Wilmington State Fair, held Sept., 

 1908, in Delaware, Mr. Joel Gilfillan, of 

 Newark. Del., had on exhibition a three- 

 story observation hive containing two combs 

 of bees. In the third story was hung a 

 peach, a pear, and a bunch of grapes. This 

 was kept on exhibition during the entire fair 

 where the general public could see it. As is 

 shown, this fruit was never once visited by 

 the bees. The general verdict of those who 

 saw it, fruit-men and farmers alike, was that 

 bees would and could not injure sound fruit. 



