596 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1)EC. 



enabled us to secure this elegant electrotype, 

 which we finally obtained of parties in Lon- 

 don. 



It seems our friends have chosen a hill- 

 side for their apiary, which offers an advan- 

 tage to the bees in going out, where they 

 are arranged so closely together. If I am 

 correct, there are about 84 hives in the pic- 

 ture, and I should judge they are not more 

 than four or five feet apart. We should be 

 very glad indeed to know how they get their 

 surplus honey, and what the average yield 

 per annum is from such an apiary. Have we 

 a friend among our readers who can tell us 

 more about itv 



FACTS AND FALIiACIES IN APICUI.TURE. 



WORK DONE BY TWO QUARTS OF BEES, BEFORE 16 

 DAYS OLD. 



R. DADANT does not believe in miracles, and 

 Mr. Root does not believe in such as Mr. Da- 

 dant suggests. He does not see that a mira- 

 cle would be required to change the sex of a worker 

 egg, and make it produce a drone. One declares 

 that a queen-bee do«^8 not know the sex of the egg 

 she lays; the other thinks she does know. I opine 

 that it would not be difficult to show that the Ubiq- 

 uitous Life Power (that vivifying principle that ani- 

 mates all nature), the essential principle, the intel- 

 lectual part of the honey-bee, Is sufficiently conscious 

 of its condition and its necessities to be able to per- 

 form the required duties to perpetuate its race; 

 but to show that the worker-bee has any means by 

 which it can reduce the worker egg back to a drone 

 egg, would be to show that animated beings can 

 change fate at discretion, and, at certain stages of 

 development, dissect and remove both body and 

 soul by sections, as desired. 



Throughout the month of August, the flow of hon- 

 ey had been such that no attempt at robbing had 

 been made when honey was left exposed; and the 

 thermometer had indicated from 60° in the morning 

 to 90° or more at noon in the shade. These were 

 very favorable conditions for lesting the business 

 capacity of the honey-bee, the time required to de- 

 velop its various characteristics, and its growth 

 through its various stages of development. At 4 

 o'clock p. M., the 26th of August, we extracted the 

 honey from 8 frames that contained capped brood 

 ready to hatch, and placed them in a hive that had 

 been dried and warmed, and these we put in a frame 

 containing capped honey and uncapped brood. Care 

 was used that no bee get into the hive, which we 

 now closed tight. On the 27th, at 4 o'clock, we 

 opened the hive. We found several hundred bees 

 scattered in little clusters around on the combs, 

 where they had hatched. The honey in the extract- 

 ed combs had daubed them, and they already had a 

 dark shining appearance. When an insect was put 

 near them they hastened away in a frightened man- 

 ner, and would not attempt to sting. To eat and to 

 avoid danger were all the traits of character yet de- 

 veloped. At the end of the second day, a pint of 

 bees or so was hatched. They had gathered into 

 clusters, and had cleaned part of the honey off from 

 themselves. At the end of the third day they had 

 cleaned themselves, and collected the honey on the 

 extracted combs, and put It into cells. 'They had 

 also started a few queen-cells. We opened the en- 



trance, and some dragged fragments of comb and 

 dead bees out, and a few flew a few feet from the 

 hive; and returning, some stood on the entrance- 

 board and fanned themselves. They were still 

 frightened at insects, and when the finger was 

 placed near them. On the forenoon of the fourth 

 day, a light mist fell. At noon it cleared off, and 

 some of the bees gathered moisture on the grass. 

 On the fifth day the older bees were strong enough 

 to fly with dead bees, and at 2 o'clock they had a play- 

 spell, flying briskly for some time. At 4 p. M. we put 

 a frame of uncapped brood and eggs into the hive, 

 to compel them to work on the next day if possible. 

 At 2 o'clock on the sixth day wo saw loaded bees en- 

 tering the hive; and saw some feeding others at the 

 entrance. The oldest bees in the hive were now 

 several hours less than six days old. On the sev- 

 enth day several hundred bees gathered honey, and 

 partly filled several cells. One now tried to sting. 



Sept. 3d, about 2 quarts of bees were hatched, 

 sufficient to continue our experiments with, and no 

 pollen had yet been gathered. To force them to 

 gather it, we removed all the frames at 8 a. m., and 

 put two whole frames of comb, and eight frames 

 with but little comb in them, into the hive. These 

 frames had not been in use for two seasons. They 

 had nothing in them that the bees could use. into 

 one of these we inserted several square inches of 

 worker comb containing uncapped brood and eggs, 

 and five cells pirtly filled with honey. Thei-e was 

 no pollen now in the hive, and no drone-cell in the 

 comb containing brood and eggs. The bees filled 

 several cells of old comb with honey during the day, 

 but no pollen was gathered and no queen-cells start- 

 ed. They commenced to repair the old combs, and a 

 few specks of new comb were stuck here and there 

 on the combs. The oldest bees were now less than 

 8 days old. 



Sept. 4tb, honey was gathered and new comb made; 

 but no pollen was gathered, anrl no queen-cells were 

 started. On the 5th, at 4 o'clock p. m., the usual 

 hour at which we made our examinations, there was 

 no bee-bread in the hive, and no bees had oeen seen 

 to enter the hive with any, though we had given It 

 considerable attention durmg the day. About two 

 pounds of hnney had now been gathered. A hun- 

 dred or more of the eggs that were in the piece of 

 brood-comb when given them were now missing, 

 and seven queen-cells, half built, were on the piece 

 of brood-comb. On a frame with fragments of old 

 comb in it, two patches of new worker comb, about 

 four inches apart, were built. Each contained four 

 or five square inches of comb. All the skill com- 

 mon to the race (they were Italians) when older, ap- 

 peared to be developed in these infant bees, all of 

 which were less than 10 days old. A knowledge, 

 however, of the uses to which pollen is put by older 

 bees had not yet been acquired; probably at a time 

 when honey was scarce it would have been gathered 

 by them, but the honey-gathering now absorbed 

 their entire attention. The young brood in the 

 queen-cells was well supplied with royal j^lly, and 

 the brood hatched from the eggs was supplied with 

 the requisite food, into neither of which pollen m':'!!- 

 ifestly entered as an ingredient. 



On the 6th, in the forenoon, a worker entered the 

 hive with pollen or propolis. At 4 o'clock, four of 

 the queen-cells were capped, two remained open, 

 and one was destroyed. The two pieces of new 

 comb had doubled in size— one was all worker, the 

 other was drone comb at the lower extremity. On 



