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551 



WEIGHING BEES. 



The Exact Number of Bees in 

 One Pound. 



Written fur the American Bee Journal 

 BY I'KOF. JOHN PHIN. 



terminations of Collin. An exact | tained an apparatus for converting the 

 number would have been 4,700 instead 



A great deal has been written about 

 the "little black bee," the insinuation 

 being that in size it is greatly inferior 

 to the Italian. The so-called black bee 

 was the bee of England and America 

 until less than fifty years ago, and any 

 English statistics that we may have 

 prior to that time, undoubtedly refer 

 to the black bee. 



In writing the article Bee for my 

 " Dictionary of Practical Apiculture," 

 I wished to give as accurate data as 

 possible in regard to the weight of cer- 

 tain numbers, etc.. and I weighed 

 several lots to determine this point. 

 My determinations varied between 

 4,500 and 5.000 bees to the pound. 

 I preferred, however, to give the series 

 of determinations by Keys, who wrote 

 nearly one hundred years ago, and 

 who gives 4,640 bees to the pound. 

 He also gives the number of drones, 

 etc. See Dictionary, page 12. 



I was led to give Keys as the au- 

 thority, because 4,000 bees to the 

 pound was the number adopted by 

 dealers generally. It impressed me at 

 that time, that if these dealers were 

 correct, then the bee under cultivation 

 by them (which is almost always the 

 Italian), must be larger than the bee of 

 100 years ago, in the proportion of 4.5 

 to 4 (the inverse ratio of the number per 

 pound). But not being quite satisfied 

 as to the trustworthiness of the dealers' 

 data, especially in view of my own 

 experiments, I did not embody this 

 inference in the article, or allude to it. 

 Now comes Mr. A. I. Root with a 

 new and carefully-made determination, 

 in which he gives 5,333 bees to the 

 l)ound, instead of 4,000, as previously 

 published by him ; but he estimates 

 that if the bees had very much honey 

 in tlieir sacs, tlie number might be re- 

 duced to 5,000 to the pound. If we 

 accept these (lata as correct, it i.s evi- 

 dent that tlic bee has not increased in 

 size during the last hundred years. 



Keys tells us that the i-esults of such 

 weighings will never come out twice 

 alike, owing to the ditici-ence in the 

 fullness of the bees. Collin gives 

 5,000 bees to the pound, wlien in their 

 normal condition, and 4,300 when tilled 

 with honey — a dift'ernncc of 800 bees 

 to the pound. Ke3-s, no doubt, gave 

 an average, and he has struck very 

 nearl3' midway between tlie two de- 



of 4,()40. 



Numerous attempts have been made 

 to increase the size of the bee, by in- 

 creasing the size of the cell, and when 

 foundation was brought forward, it was 

 thought that this question had been 

 solved ; but tlie plan did not work. 

 Neither does the bee seem to deteriorate 

 in size by the gradual filling up of the 

 cells with the cocoons of the young 

 bees. However careless Nature may 

 be of individual bees, and individual 

 colonies, she seems to be wonderfully 

 careful of lier types. 



Cedar Brae, N. Y. 



BILL NYE. 



The llumori§t!^tudie$ the Habits 

 of Bees, 



AND WROTE THUS CONCERNING IT. 



{Copyrighted.) 



It is now the appropriate season for 

 hiving bees. Bees should not be hived 

 until they swarm. Bees begin to 

 swarm as soon as the new queen takes 

 the oath of olHce. The queen is a long- 

 waisted bee who does the toil. The 



Ni/e begins to get Restless. 



honey-bee proper belongs the order 

 Hymenoptcra, All bees, according to 

 Linnaeus, wl\o kept several stands of 

 bees himself, are included in the genus 

 Apis, but they are now divided into 

 many genera. 



I love to study tlie bee, and at one 

 time kept bees myself. I kept several of 

 them longer than I should have done. 

 But honey-bees are full of interest to 

 me. I often think of the language of 

 a late writer who goes on to state " that 

 within so small a body should be con- 



various sweets which it collects, into 

 one kind of nourishment for itself, an- 

 other for the common brood, glue for 

 its carpentry, wax for its cells, poison 

 for its enemies, honey for its master, 

 with a probo.scis as long as the body 

 itself, microscopic in several parts, tel- 

 escopic in its mode of action, with a 

 sting so exceedingly sharp that were 

 it magnitied l)y the same glass wliich 

 makes a needle's point seem a quarter 

 of an inch across, it would yet itself be 

 invisible, and this, too, a hollow tube 

 — that all these varied operations and 

 contrivances should be included within 

 half an inch of length and two grains 

 of matter is surely enough to crush all 

 thoughts of atheism and materialism." 



I also compare sometimes the new 

 colony just starting out to hustle for 

 themselves with the Pilgrim Fathers — 

 where are they ? — who came to these 

 wild, inhospitable shores, taking their 

 long, tedious, uneventful voyage across 

 the unknown ocean with no relaxation 

 whatever except prayer. 



Professor Jaeger, referring to the 

 pronounced habits of industry born in 

 the bee and frequently alluded to in 

 school-books, says : "It is impossible 

 for any retlecting person to look at a 

 bee-hive in full operation without being 

 astonished at the activity and surpris- 

 ing industry of its inhabitants. We 

 see crowds constantly arriving from 

 the woods, meadows, fields and gar- 

 dens, laden with provisions and mater- 

 ials for future use, while others are 

 continually flying off on similar collect- 

 ing expeditions. Some are carrying 

 out the dead, others are removing dirt 

 and offal, while others are giving battle 

 to any strangers who may dare to in- 

 trude. Suddenly a cloud appears and 

 the bees hurry home, thronging the 

 entrance by thousands, until all are 

 o-radually received within the inclosure. 

 In the interior of the hive we see with 

 what skill they work their combs and 

 deposit their honey, and when their 

 labor is over for the day they rest in 

 chains suspended from the ceiling of 

 their habitation, one bee clinging by 

 its fore feet to the hind feet of tlie one 

 above it until it seems impossible that 

 the upper one can be strong enough to 

 support the weight of so many hun- 

 dreds." 



The queen, during the propagating 

 season, lays as high as two tliousand 

 e"-gs in a day, and I have given much 

 thought to the grafting of the queen- 

 bee upon th(^ Plymoth Piock hen, with 

 a view to better egg facilities, but so 

 far to meet with little success. My ex- 

 periments have been somewhat delayed 

 by the loss of time in taking the swell- 

 ing out of myself after each perusal of 

 the bee character in his or her liome 

 life. The queen lives much longer 



