54 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



J AX. 15. 



larvse. Why or how this results in a queen, so dif- 

 ferent in character from the rest of the bees, has 

 never been learned. 



Several queen-cells are built at the same time, as 

 if to provide ag-ainst possible failure. The first 

 queen hatclied kills the others, usually by biting 

 open the cells and stinging them, unless swarming 

 is contemplated, in which case the bees cluster 

 tightly over the cells and prevent their destruction. 

 One queen in a colony is the rule. They are very 

 jealous of their rights, and settle the question of 

 supremacy in mortal combat when more than one 

 queen appears in the hive. 



THE PHODUCTS OF THE HIVE. 



Besides honey and wax there are two other products 

 — pollen and propolis — making four distinct prod- 

 ucts of the hive. Honey is the principal food of the 

 bees, and is nectar gathered from the tlowei's, and 

 sweets from various other sources, wliich is licked 

 or sucked up with the tongue, imd conveyed to the 

 honey-sac, and carried to the hive and delivered to 

 the nurse bees, who dispose of it in the combs, 

 where it remains unsealed until it goes through a 

 process of evaporation or ripening. When satisfied 

 with its condition the bees seal it over and it be- 

 comes the finished product. It requires, on an 

 average, about 20,000 bees to carry 1 lb. of nectar 

 from the field to the hive. When nectar is abun- 

 dant in the flowers the bees gather and store it with 

 astonishing rapidity, and usually accumulate a 

 surplus— that is, more than they can use— which 

 constitutes the reasonable share of the bee-keeper. 

 The bees that gather and store the honey with so 

 much care and labor do not live to enjoy it, but it is 

 consumed by their posterity of the following sea- 

 son. It is used largely in brood-rearing at the be- 

 ginning of the season in the spring. How faithfully 

 this animal instinct is portrayed in the human 

 family ! 



WAX. 



Wax is the material from which the combs are 

 built. It is not gathered l)y the bees, but is elab- 

 orated or secreted in the wax-pockets on the under 

 side of the body, and extruded in little thin white 

 pellets, or scales, from between the segments, or 

 rings, from whence it is taken and wrought in a 

 most wonderful manner into combs. The secretion 

 of wax by the bees is somewhat analogous to the 

 secretion of fat by animals. It is only during the 

 season of honey-gal hering, when the bees are con- 

 tinually gorged, that wax is secreted. Only when 

 combs are needed dors nature furnish the material 

 from which to build them. The fame results may 

 be obtained by liberal feeding. Combs serve the 

 purpose of storage for honey, and for cradles 

 for the infant bees. There are two sizes of cells, 

 apparently made to fit the two kinds of bees. 

 The workers are raised in the small cells, and the 

 drones in the large ones. The large cells are in- 

 variably built where only storage combs are needed. 

 Note the economy ! 



POLLEN. 



This is the farina, or fertilizing dust, of flowers. 

 It is gathered and stored in the combs by the bees, 

 in considerable quantity. It is known also as bee- 

 bread. It is gathered in little pellets, and carried 

 on their posterior legs, on the outside of which 

 nature has provided a place most wonder fully adapt- 

 ed to this purpose. The bees kick these little pel- 

 lets off into the cells of the comb, and the young 

 bees pack them in with their heads. They will 

 gather flour, and various other substitutes for pol- 

 len, in an emergency. It is intensely interesting to 

 watch the process of gathering the pollen, and the 

 packing of it upon the pollen-baskets. Honey and 

 pollen, in a partially digestod state, constitute the 

 pabulum upon which the larva is fed, and is abso- 

 lutely necessary for brood-rearing. 



The gathering of both honey and pollen has an- 

 other phase that is very interesting as well as im- 

 portant. It is the fertilization of the flowers by the 

 bees hv the carrying of the pollen-dnst from one 

 flower to another. The flowers are robbed of their 

 sweets only to be enriched. 



PROPOLIS, OR BEE GLUE. 



This is a resinous substance which the bees gather 

 upon their legs in the same way that they do pollen, 

 and is used by them to seal up cracks, and cover 

 rough places in the hive, and to strengthen the 

 combs. When gathered it is soft and pliable, but 

 hardens with age. 



Note. — My efforts were rewarded by the best 

 of attention, and many flattering complinaents 

 were paid nae at the conclusion of this talk. 



East Townsend, O. 



[Perhaps the foregoing address may seem a 

 little elementary for a bee- journal: but we 

 have a list of beginners among our subscribers 

 who, I know, will be glad to read this, especial- 

 ly as It comes from one of our brightest and 

 most successful bee-keepers. What Mr. B, has 

 said, I know comes from solid experience, with 

 a very little that he perhaps may have picked 

 from the general aplcultural literature.— Ed.] 



THAT WINTEKING SYMPOSIUM. 



LAYING OUT A QUADKUPLE-HIVE APIAKY. 



By E. France. 



I was asked to write an article on the subject 

 mentioned above, but was unable to do so, on 

 account of sickness— first myself ten days, then 

 my wife. Then as I did not get the article 

 written in time I was asked to review and com- 

 ment on the others. 



The first article, by J. E. Crane, take it as a 

 whole, is an excellent one. I find no fault with 

 it, except one point — a very important part of 

 the winter problem. He says he fed 8500 lbs. of 

 syrup this fall. Now, I want to know why he 

 fed the sugar syrup. Did you feed that syrup 

 for the same reason that I fed mine syrup — be- 

 cause the bees did not gather enough honey to 

 winter on ? or did you take the honey from the 

 bees, and feed syrup, knoiving by your experi- 

 ence that syrup, as you make it, Is a better win- 

 ter feed than honey gathered and stored by the 

 bees? Do you practice taking away the honey, 

 and then feed syrup for winter feed ? 



The next article, by J. A. Green, is excellent. 

 His ideas of an abundance of feed for winter 

 just suit me, as my motto is that a great deal 

 too much honey is just enough. I don't want 

 to feed bees in the spring if it can be avoided. 

 It doesn't do any harm if the bees have a few 

 pounds left over. I believe all who winter out- 

 doors in the North agree that the hives must 

 have thick walls, or double, filled in with chaff 

 or some other packing. I see that Mr. Green 

 packs four hives together to winter, and puts a 

 large box around the four packs inside of the 

 large box, around the single hives. I think it 

 would be less trouble for him to use a quadru- 

 ple hive, without side packing. He would then 

 have his four colonies ready at any time for 

 winter by filling the top chamber with straw,or 

 putting on top cushions. That is the way we 

 do it. It is just as good, and saves lots of hard 

 work. I see he also uses sealed covers. So do 

 we. 



All the other articles pertain to indoor win- 

 tering. As we winter all outdoors, I am "not 

 in it," and have nothing to say. I will say this: 

 Take all the articles together, they are good — 

 very good, and I think it will be a long time be- 



