California Agriculturist and Live Stock Journal. 



The Inmates of the Hives. 



5S N order for a colony of bees to maintain 

 3 '. an existence (other conditions being favor- 

 J j- able), it is necessary for the hive to con- 

 s\ tain three kinds of bees: 1. The work- 

 ifj crs, which are undeveloped females, are 

 those bees that perform all the labor of the 

 hive. They elaborate the wax, build the comb, 

 provide for and uurse the young, gather the 

 honey, collect the pollen, and defend and 

 protect the hive. The life of a woi'ker bee, 

 during the busy season, is very short — not 

 over 80 days — CO days may be an average. In 

 seasons of inactivity — as when torpid from 

 cold — they live much longer. 2. The queen 

 bee is the mother of the colony. She is 

 sometimes called "the king" by the ignorant. 

 There is only one to each hive.' The term 

 "queen" leads many persons to siippose that 

 she rules the hive like a sovereign with a roy- 

 al scepter. Such is not the case. It is true 

 she has a queenly look, but her office is only to 

 lay eggs that are to hatch and develop into 

 young bees. After she deposits the egg, she 

 cares no more for it, but leaves it entirely to 

 be provided for by the workers. It is very 

 important for the bee keeper to be familiiw 

 with the appearance of the mother bee, so 

 that she can be readily distinguished and 

 found when necessary. The abdomen of the 

 queen is much longer than that of a worker, 

 and is also free from hairs. The wings look 

 shorter, while the legs are longer and have no 

 baskets for carrying pollen. The black queen 

 resembles a black wasp more than a worker 

 bee. As she runs rapidly when scared, and 

 seeks a place to hide, the novice often has 

 great difficulty in finding her. When you 

 wish to look for her, disturb the bees as little 

 as possible, and commence to look carefully 

 on the second or third frame from the outside. 

 Look in the corners and around the sides of 

 the frame. Examine closely each frame. If 

 she is not to be found on the frames of comb, 

 and has not been overlooked, then she is on 

 the sides or bottom of the hive. Sometimes 

 it may be necessary to remove all the frames, 

 and shake the bees on a sheet in front of the 

 enti'ance, and then look out for the queen as 

 she goes in. After the eyes once get familiar 

 with her appearance, very little trouble wall 

 ever be experiencecf in finding her. Italian 

 queens are very readily distinguished by their 

 bright color and quiet habits. On removing 

 from the hive the card of comb containing the 

 Italian queen, she seldom ever runs like the 

 black one, but often proceeds with her opera- 

 tion of laying as though she were in the hive. 

 Ciueens usually live about three years; and 

 are said never to leave the hive except to meet 

 the drone or to lead out a swarm. AVhen 

 once fertilized, the operation is for life. 

 Queens are often superseded. As soon as the 

 vigor of a qucon becomes impaired, the work- 

 ers, in seeming anticipation of her barren- 

 ness or death, proceed to make preparations 

 to rear another mother for the colony. After 

 selecting the egg or young larva, they proceed 

 to enlarge the cell around it, and to deposit a 

 great mass of a whitish gelatinous substance 

 around the young grub, called royal jelly, 

 which is the food that noiirishes, develops and 

 transforms the larva that would otherwise be 

 a common worker into a princess. How this 

 royal jelly accomplishes this wonderful trans- 

 fcu-nuition is a great puzzle with apiarians. 

 Many untenable theories have been advanced 

 to account for it, but no doubt the bees will 

 keep the true secret to themselves for some 

 time to come. In about six or seven days 

 from the time the cell is started the bees seal 

 it over. It now has some little resemblance 

 to a ground pea. On an average, the young 

 queen will hatch in about twelve days from 

 the start of the cell. In from five to ten days 

 she will go out to meet the drone, and in a 

 few days more she will be laying. This field 

 of apistical science ati'ords great room for 



thought and observation. 



3. The drones are the male bees. They are 

 large, lusty lookiug fellows, and make a loud, 

 coarse sound when on the wing. Their mis- 

 sion is to fertilize the young queens. When 

 this is accomplished, the workers have no fur- 

 ther use for them; and as they are non-pro- 

 ducers from necessity, not having the requi- 

 site organs, and having no sting or means of 

 defense, they are unceremoniously ejected 

 from the hive or killed, when the honey or 

 pasturage begins to fail. They are retained 

 much longer in strong colonies than in weak 

 ones. When one colony keeps its drones long 

 after the rest have destroyed theirs, it argues, 

 in all probability, that it has no queen, and 

 needs attention. 



The bees that Sampson found in the lion's 

 carcass no doubt l:>uilt their comb to the skel- 

 eton ribs in the same geological forms that 

 bees of the present day build theirs. This 

 may be instinct, the same that characterizes 

 many of their other operations; but I have 

 never yet found the economy of the hive to be 

 governed by invariable law. Many of their 

 actions and operation seem to be actuated by 

 a higher instinct, bordering on the principle 

 of cause and effect. Who of us is always 

 capable of drawing the exact line of demarka- 

 tion between instinct and reason? — /. P. II. 

 Broimi, in Our Ucmie Journal. 



Shade for Bees. — My observation and rea- 

 soning have led me to the conclusion that 

 shade is an advantage, and a decided one, to 

 bees. I do not mean a dense shade, but one 

 partially relieved by sunshine, such as bees 

 left to themselves "vould and do naturally se- 

 lect — in the tops or upper part of trees, in a 

 forest, seldom if ever the lower, humid part of 

 the wood. Why is this? Evidently because 

 bees require a temperate condition of the ut- 

 mo.sphere, neither too cold nor too warm, too 

 damp or too dry, too light or too dark. These 

 three conditions are of importance, and it 

 should be the business of the bee keeper to 

 aim at securing them. I presume no one will 

 pretend that they are a disadvantage; that an 

 excessively hot or an extremely cold season is 

 a favorable one; that bees will do well in a 

 season of severe drouth or great humidity, or 

 with little sunshine to enliven them. The 

 point is not alone the abundance of honey to 

 be collected, but the condition and inclination 

 of the bees to gather it. Bees prefer to be 

 undisturbed; require harmony in the hive, and 

 a fiivorable condition of the atmosjjhere. 

 There are many other things that have an in- 

 fluence on bees, so that we see that it is not 

 alone good pasturage that is required. How- 

 ever mui'h honey there is to be gathered, on a 

 wet day little is done. The same is the case 

 with an extreme of cold, and to a certain ex- 

 tent with excessive heat ; but not so much 

 with the latter, as bees on the wing or in col- 

 lecting honey, feel less the solar influence. 

 This brings mo back to my iioint, the locality, 

 the habitation of the bees, which is different 

 from its range. The one has air, freedom; 

 the other combines heat, if the hive is jilaced 

 in the sun, and especially on a southern in- 

 dication with the wind warded off. Such a 

 situation I have found generally to be unfav- 

 orable. I say generally, as there are cool and 

 otherwise favorable seasons that are excep- 

 tions, in which colonies so situated hare done 

 well. . 



But how can the favorable atmospheric con- 

 ditions be secured? Nothing is easier. An 

 orchard or a grove will do it. It needs only 

 part shade, piu-t sunshine. This tempers the 

 rays of the sun, and secures the necessary 

 moisture in a drouth, and also leaves a chance 

 for the escape of an excess of hiimidity. 

 There is a protection, and the encotiragement 

 which boes seem to derive from the presence 

 of trees — perhaps from their long habit of as- 

 sociation with them. Here there is no melt- 

 ing heat concentrated on the hive. Itiscom- 

 jjaritively cool inside and pleasant without. 

 The best success I have ever known with 

 bees has been in orchards and shaded door- 

 ways, unless I except a few cases in the woods, 



where wild swarms turned out the most 

 honey. Now there are some seasons in which 

 the exposed hives will do as well as those pro- 

 tected by trees, and even better sometimes — 

 when there is a lack of sun, for instance. But 

 take the seasons on an average, and the dif- 

 ference is decidedly in favor of protection. I 

 am persuaded that an elevated range is, on 

 the whole, better than a low place or valley. 

 — Counlry Gentleman. 



Bees, Wasps and Gkapes. — Some persons 

 imagine that the bees injure fruits, and es- 

 pecially grapes. They are greatly in error. 

 It is useless to insist on the part taken by 

 bees and hornets in the prejudice done to our 

 vineyards. First let us consult the books. I 

 do not find a siujle book on agriculture, hor- 

 ticultnx'e, fruit or grape culture, that does not 

 cit« the wasp among noxious insects that 

 should be fought incessantly and mercilessly; 

 while not a single book mentions as such the 

 industrious honey bee, whose vindicator I 

 now am. 



The wasp pierces the fniits; to the grapes it 

 leaves nothing but the skin and the seeds. 

 The bee only profits by those spoils; for she 

 usually goes from blossom to blossom, gather- 

 ing honey in gardens and fields. If at times 

 she is seen in orchards and viaeyards, where 

 she only goes after the wasps, it is only to 

 gather the remains of the feast. 



Curious experiments have been tried, it ap- 

 pears: Some sound fruits were placed simul- 

 taneously within the reach of both wasps and 

 bees, the former have soon achieved the their 

 work of destruction, while the latter stars'ed 

 to death. 



Therefore bees do not eat grapes. So, it is 

 with i^rofound conviction that I say to those 

 who wish, if not to prohibit, at least to render 

 impossible the establishment of hives in the 

 neighborhood of large cities, under the fal- 

 lacious pretext that they destroy grapes. Ke- 

 spect the bee, since she respect our fruits; let 

 her Uve in peace near us, she never will be 

 ungrateful. Is she not the mysterious instru- 

 ment that helps and facilitates the phenome- 

 non of the fertilization of flowers, and per- 

 haps produces those innumerable and 

 beautiful varieties by carrying pollen from the 

 calyde of one into that of another? Is she 

 not the living image of work, and gives us 

 the perfumed honey and the wax that we use 

 so diversely? 



Respect the hives, leave them where the 

 industrious genius of man placed them, for 

 they are a source of wealth for the roof that 

 shelters them, and for the country that nour- 

 ishes them. — Buclier du Sud Utccsl. 



Alwats feed your bees for two orthree days 

 after they have swarmed, be the weather fair 

 or foul. They will repay your attention and 

 your liberaUty with usury, before the season 

 is over. 



Human Nature in Checkers. 



An aged couple were verj- fond of checkers, 

 and played qviite frequently. When be beat 

 she lost her temper.and declared she wouldn't 

 play again. It vexes him to have her act so, 

 but he controls the in'itation, and talks to her 

 about it. He tells her how wrong it is for 

 people at their ago in life to be disturbed by 

 such trifles, add shows her so clearly the folly 

 of such a course, that she becomes ashamed 

 of her weakness and returns to the game, and 

 plays it so well that she beats him. Then he 

 throws the checkers in one direction and kicks 

 the board in another, and says he will never 

 play with anybody who cheats so all-firedly, 

 and stalks moodily to bed, and leaves her to 

 pick up the things. 



The rate on fruit between Santa Clara and 

 San Francisco the coming season, by rail, will 

 be as follows: On berries, per chest, '25 cents; 

 half chest, 12;^ cents. Other kinds of fruit, 

 shipped in boxes or otherwise, 15 cents per 

 huiidrid weight. 





