BEES. 15 
Carniolan and Banat bees have some advocates, and are desirable 
in that they are gentle. Little is known of Banats in this country. 
Carniolans swarm excessively unless in large hives. Cyprians were 
formerly used somewhat, but are now rarely found pure, and are unde- 
sirable either pure or in crosses because of the fact that they sting 
with the least provocation and are not manageable with smoke. They 
are good honey gatherers, but their undesirable qualities have caused 
them to be discarded by American bee keepers. ‘‘Holy-land,” 
Egyptian, and Punic (Tunisian) bees have also been tried and have 
been universally abandoned. 
The Department of Agriculture does not now distribute or sell 
queen bees or colonies of bees of any race. 
BEEK BEHAVIOR. 
The successful manipulation of bees depends entirely on a knowl- 
edge of their habits. This is not generally recognized, and most of the 
literature on practical beekeeping consists of sets of rules to guide 
manipulations. ‘This is too true of the present paper, but is due to a 
desire to make the bulletin short and concise. While this method 
usually answers, it is nevertheless faulty, in that, without a knowledge 
of fundamental principles of behavior, the bee keeper is unable to 
recognize the seemingly abnormal phases of activity, and does not 
know what to do under such circumstances. Rules must, of course, 
be based on the usual behavior. By years of association the bee 
keeper almost unconsciously acquires a wide knowledge of bee behay- 
- jor, and consequently is better able to solve the problems which con- 
stantly arise. However, it would save an infinite number of mis- 
takes and would add greatly to the interest of the work if more time 
were expended on a study of behavior; then the knowledge gained 
could be applied to practical manipulation. 
A colony of bees consists normally of one queen bee (fig. 10, 6), 
the mother of the colony, and thousands of sexually undeveloped 
females called workers (fig. 10, a), which normally lay no eggs, 
but build the comb, gather the stores, keep the hive clean, feed 
the young, and do the other work of the hive. During part of 
the year there are also present some hundreds of males (fig. 
10, c) or drones (often removed or restricted in numbers by the bee 
keeper), whose only service is to mate with young queens. These 
three types are easily recognized, even by a novice. In nature the 
colony lives in a hollow tree or other cavity, but under manipulation 
thrives in the artificial hives provided. The combs which form their 
abode are composed of wax secreted by the workers. The hexagonal 
cells of the two vertical layers constituting each comb have inter- 
placed ends on a common septum. In the cells of these combs are 
447 
