AprU 6, 1876. 1 



JOURNAIi OF HOKTICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



279 



along grooves of the etinga into the flesh or part stung. This 

 may be correct, but we know that bees can poison their arrows 

 near their poiuts before they come in contact with anything. 

 Let anybody catch a bee by both wings and cause it to project 

 its sting, and he will or may see a drop of venom attached to 

 the sting near its point, and this he may wipe ofi with one of 

 his finger nails and taete : we have frequently done it. The 

 sweets of a storehouse of bees are tempting alike to men, beasts, 

 and creeping things, and the wisdom of the Creator in furnish- 

 ing them with such weapons of defence is manifest. But for 

 this provision bees would have been destroyed by pillage and 

 plunder centuries ago. 



A domesticated monkey found himself perched one day on the 

 top of a hive of bees, and there heard a buzzing sound beneath 

 hum. He gave the hive a shake, which made the bees make a 

 greater buzz and come to the door of the hive in great numbers. 

 Another shake from the monkey caused them to rise to defend 

 their citadel. They had their revenge, and stifled the monkey's 

 curiosity by stinging him to death. 



In defending their homes and possessions, bees, I have said, 

 resort to no kind of shift or shuffling, but fairly meet every 

 foeman in open field — in one word, they are inartifioially cou- 

 rageous ; but when they become aggressive and encroach on the 

 rights and possessions of others they are cowardly and cun- 

 ning, resorting to all the shifts of stratagem. In witnessing the 

 stealthy conduct of robbers I have been provoked to knock them 

 down many a time. The great characteristic of Ligariau bees is 

 their robbing propensity. By universal acknowledgment they 

 are " Italian brigands." 



Bees in stinging animals of all kinds lose their stings and 

 destroy themselves. But in using them in fighting other bees 

 they hurt and kill without injury to themselves. A large swarm 

 may be whoUy destroyed by the stings of a smaller swarm if it 

 be clumsily and unwisely cast into the hive containing the 

 smaller number. "We cannot explain how it happens that bees 

 kill one another without hurting themselves. The barbs on the 

 point of the sting of a bee are a wonderful provision, though 

 they do not appear to act in the body of another bee. 



Some twelve or fifteen months ago I made some remarks in 

 this Journal on the five senses of bees — viz., smelling, touching, 

 tasting, hearing, and seeing — all of which are perfect and acute. 

 No intelligent, open-eyed man can be long amongst bees with- 

 out getting abundant and striking evidences of the existence and 

 power of all these senses. How keen their sense of smelling 

 must be in finding a small honey-flower in the centre of a forest 

 or field ! How soon bees are disturbed and discomposed by the 

 presence of a strange bee in their hive ! How readily they smell 

 honey in houses, and often try to reach it by going down the 

 chimney or through the keyhole of the door ! We mention the 

 senses of bees here, not with a view to dwell on or exhibit their 

 powers, but simply to let the reader know that bees possess all 

 the five senses, that they are all necessary in the economy of 

 bees, and their powers are often manifested in a marvellous 

 manner. 



The manufacture of the material of combs is one of the 

 wonders of a bee hive. Bees do not gather it, but in a sense 

 create it. Wax is both a secretion and an excretion of bees. It 

 is manufactured from honey, sugar, or treacle in their bodies, 

 and is excreted on their abdomens. The wax first appears in 

 lamina or flakes on the belly {in one of the rings) of a bee, one 

 flake on either side. How these flakes are detached and after- 

 wards manipulated cannot be well explained. But the wonder 

 is that bees have the power to secrete wax when they like. It 

 ia really a creation of their own will. Where in the animal 

 world can we find a power or manifestation of voluntary secre- 

 tion ? The secreting of wax is a voluntary action on the part 

 of bees. They make wax when they like, and when they do not 

 want it they do not make it. If the bees of a full hive in which 

 no combs are in course of erection, and no wax produced, be 

 driven into an empty hive, they commence at once to secrete 

 wax and build combs. The closer and longer we observe bees 

 at work, and the more we study this power of voluntary secre- 

 tion, the more wonderful it appears. 



Honey as a secretion of plants in a crude state is gathered 

 by bees and carried to their homes, and is there sweetened, 

 thickened, and greatly improved. It is there made into honey 

 proper. No one can approach the subject of swarming without 

 finding both a first and a second swarm of wonders, all of which 

 baffle and beggar description. Whenever we attempt to study 

 the phenomena of swarming wo find ourselves in an entangle- 

 ment of fancies, and cannot advance very far. Swarming is an 

 instinct or law of the honey bee. It is as natural for bees to 

 swarm as it is for a flake of snow to dance and dandle in falling, 

 or as water to mingle with water. But what thoughtful pre- 

 paration is necessary before swarming takes place ! Royal cells 

 must be built, and royal infants cradled in them. Drones, too, 

 must not be forgotten ; some must be provided. If there be no 

 drone cells in the hive a few drone eggs are set in worker cells. 

 Nothing is forgotten in preparing for the advent of swarming. 

 The combs of the hive are filled with brood, and the hive itself 



is crowded with bees. Now, which bees will emigrate, and which 

 remain at home ? Those that go must take three days' rations 

 with them. How busy the scouts are in looking for a place to 

 go to ! A place has been chosen, and the whole community 

 know. " If it rain or be cloudy or cold we sha'n't go ; " but tha 

 sun shines, and the signal is given inside the hive to depart. 

 What a rush, and gush, and stampede ! Thirty thousand bees 

 bidding farewell to their companions, and leaving the comforts 

 of their home never to return, full of enthusiasm, and making 

 the air ring again with their joyful shouts ! Brave and wonder- 

 ful bees, we wish you prosperity wherever you may find a home. 

 But why settle on a branch of a tree ? They cannot abide there. 

 Have they ulterior intentions, and merely congregate and rest 

 there for a short time ? I am of opinion that in settling on the 

 branch of a tree they have no ulterior intention of departing 

 to a place of protection and convenience. It is natural for 

 swarms to alight near home on trees, bushes, hedges, or promi- 

 nent objects. In ninety-nine cases out of a hundred they 

 alight on one or other of these. If the scouts sent out before 

 swarming find a suitable hole and cavity in a tree or wall, or 

 roof of a house, the swarm goes direct to it without halt or 

 hesitation; and it is an easy mode of getting swarms cheaply to 

 expose hives filled with empty combs in a garden in the neigh- 

 bourhood of bee-keepers. 'The people who wilfully do this are 

 dishonest to the backbone, coveting and stealing and retaining 

 that which belong to their neighbours. 



If swarms are not hived from the branches on which they 

 alight, scouts are again sent ofJ to find more comfortable and 

 convenient homes. If they succeed the swarms will go to them 

 before sunset. The scouts sometimes do not succeed for days, 

 though they go far and near. Sometimes no cavity in tree, or 

 wall, or roof can be found, and swarms have been known to 

 seek lodgings in a sitting-room of a house, and enter by an open 

 window. Some of the American writers on bees are foolishly 

 extravagant and fanciful. The Eev. L. L. Langstroth says, 

 " I find a swarm can be determined to some selected spot by an 

 old black hat, or even a mullein stalk, which when coloured 

 black can hardly be distinguished at a distance from a clustering 

 swarm. A black woollen stocking or piece of cloth fastened to a 

 shady limb, in plain sight of the hives, would probably answer 

 as good a purpose before first swarms issue. The bee-keeper 

 may educate his favourites so that they will alight where he 

 likes." This is perfect nonsense, and is the outcome of a very 

 fanciful gentleman. Bees are not such blind simpletons as to 

 be attracted by a black hat, or stocking, or mullein stack. In 

 most cases swarming bees never saw a clustering swarm since 

 they were born, and nothing like it can have the slightest in- 

 fluence on them. Another American clergyman gathers dead 

 bees and strings them like beads, then rolls them into a ball 

 as large as an egg, which he hangs on the end of a stick like a 

 whip-handle, and calls this ball of dead bees " a bee-bob,'* dand- 

 ling it amongst his bees when swarming to make them settle on 

 it. Poor fellow ! his bees select the place they go to, and neither 

 he nor his bee-bob can divert them from it. — A. Pettigkew. 



ITALIAN V. ENGLISH BEES. 



The question keeps cropping up in the pages of this Journal 

 and elsewhere relative to the superior merits of the Italian or 

 English bee. That they are both good there can be no maimer 

 of doubt, but which is the best? or is one so superior to the 

 other as to make it desirable to go to the expense and trouble of 

 getting rid of the one and substituting the other ? These are 

 constantly being asked, and we have answers varying and con- 

 flicting. Mr. Pettigrew has more than once, and again quite 

 recently, challenged a trial or comparison of the two kinds in 

 the same garden and under like circumstances of management, 

 for he is firm in his attachment to the dear old ugly English 

 bee, whose utility has been so abundantly tested and proved 

 by himself beyond question. If we could have before us a 

 balance-sheet of his apiarian venture during the last half 

 century, I think we should all of us be reconverted to our old 

 admiration of the bee of whom all our English poets have sung 

 from time immemorial, and yet it is in comparison an ugly bee. 

 So sang Virgil eighteen hundred years ago. He describes it as 

 " deterior visa "—i.e., " more ugly to behold " than the hand- 

 some native of the Italian Alps which had won a position in tha 

 neighbourhood of Mantua; and the appearance of the bees 

 generally he speaks of as follows; — "Alice tiirpes horrent; ceu 

 puluere ah alto quum venit, at sicco terrain spuit ore viator 

 aridiis." Very uncomplimentary language this, which describes 

 Mr. Pettigrew's favourites as "vilely rough to look at," and "re- 

 sembling the saliva which the dry and dusty traveller spits out 

 of his mouth." Whereas his favourites, "Eluccnt alicr et fulgore 

 coruscant ardeiites auro, et paribus lita corpora guttis "—they 

 " shine forth conspicuous, and flash in the sunlight, burnished 

 with gold and adorned with spangles in regular order." Nor 

 does Virgil merely describe the beauty of this bee — in somewhat 

 exaggerated terms it must be admitted ; he speaks of its 

 superior vigour : — " Hac potior auholes ; " and plaiidy indicates 



