BEE-KEEPING. 435 



pollen-plate nor brush. They make a much greater noise in their Sight thau 

 the others, and at the extremity of their body, two small corneous appen- 

 dages are to be observed, of a yellow colour, which, with some other internal 

 organs, constitute their several apparatus. 



1301. In addition to these three kinds of individuals, it is to be observed 

 that there appear to be two sorts of females, — the large and the small. 

 Reaumur, however, attributes this difference of size to the state of the eggs 

 in the body. There are likewise two descriptions of males, — one not larger 

 than the workers, and supposed to be produced from a male egg laid in a 

 worker's cell, and the other as above described. Moreover there are, accord- 

 ing to M. Huber, two sorts of workers ; the first, which he calls drier es, wax- 

 makers, being charged with the collecting of food and secretion of materials 

 for building the nest ; and the second, which he calls nourrices, or nurses, 

 smaller, and more weakly, whose cares seem to be directed to feeding the 

 young, and to the domestic concerns of the nest. IVIuch difference of opinion 

 has prevailed as to the origin of wax, it having been supposed by many that 

 the yellow matter was the farina of flowers, collected upon the thighs of the 

 bee. More recent investigation shows pretty clearly that wax is produced 

 from honey, which has been repeatedly secreted when the bees have been 

 confined where they could not obtain the farina. The wax is secreted by a 

 singular series of organs between the abdominal scales, and Mr. John Hunter 

 detected the wax reservoir under the bee's belly, and in connection with 

 the organs. 



1302. Huber also notices another kind of bee, which he terms black bees, and 

 which appear to be only casual inmates of the hive, from which they are 

 always expelled, and often killed by the workers, with which, however, except 

 in having the head and thorax of a darker colour, they agree both in their 

 external appearance and internal structure, having, like the workers, perfect 

 ovaries ; although not furnished with eggs, these black bees, Kirby and 

 Spence think, may be superannuated bees, past work, who are maintained by 

 the charity of the community. 



1303. Honey is obtained by the bees from the nectaries of flowers, which are 

 constantly secreting a sweet nectarial fluid. This is sucked up by the 

 tongue of the insect, a portion of it is consumed at once for its supjDort ; but 

 the majority of the suppl}^, although taken into the stomach of the bee, is 

 again regurgitated, and poured into the cells of the hive for the food of tho 

 grubs and the use of the community during winter. These cells are placed in 

 the most inaccessible part of the hive, and are closed with waxen lids ; but the 

 honey destined for the use of the nurses, workers, and drones, is deposited in 

 unclosed cells. The quality and taste of honey depend upon the plants 

 frequented by the bees ; the finest-flavoured and most delicate honey is col- 

 lected from aromatic plants, and has been stored in clean and new cells ; for 

 which reason, and not because it is elaborated by a fresh swarm of bees, it is 

 termed virgin honey. Hence it is advisable to have largo patches of such 

 plants as borage, vipers' bugloss, mignonette, lemon, thyme, and sage, in the 



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