22 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



We miss lieaving the farther praises of the 

 bee-cap whilst mak:ng the following note in our 

 diary : — 



1. "In the year 1865, the Berlin Acclimatisa- 

 tion Society sent through the photographer, 

 Hammerschmidt a bee-cap, which Vogol had 

 Jurnislied, to the Arab Solimiin, in Old Cairo. 

 This cap is the first in Egypt." 



We are pleased at the truthfulness of the 

 Arab, who does not extol hiir.self as the inven- 

 tor of the bee-cap, whilst we pardon his niis- 

 takef in ascribing the invention to Vogel. 



In order not to weary the reader with the 

 diffuse and pompous sj^eeches of the old Arab, 

 we merely extract the farther notices from our 

 diary, permitting ourselves only to add some 

 explanatory remarks. 



3. "The ruler of the bees is slender as a palm 

 tree, the male heavy as a crocodile ; the slaves 

 are most like the mother, must work day and 

 night, cleave in love and service to the ruler, 

 and slaughter the males at command. The 

 ruler orders the murder of the males as soon as 

 the flowers are withered in the hesit of summer; 

 the males are unable to defend themselves, in 

 that they are sliuglefs. If the males were to 

 remain alive in the summer they would obtain 

 authority ; but in the bee community only the 

 mother shall rule." 



The Arab also knows three different kinds of 

 bees — the queen, drones and workers. He says 

 that the worker-bees may be so attached to the 

 queen because they owe their existence to her. 

 The egg of the bee is not unknown to the Arab 

 bee-master ; he knows that out of it will cornea 

 worm, and in time a young bee. 



3. " Bees swarm in Old Cairo in the month of 

 March, when the clover begins to flower. At 

 this time the Arab daily lays his ear on his 

 stocks, in order to hear when the old mother- 

 bee begins to 'weep.' When this ' weeping 'is 

 heard lie counts upon a swarm being pleased to 

 issue the next day. As the queen will then for- 

 sake her children and her government to found 

 a new empire, the Arab deems the sounds of 

 lamentation very natural." 



We can scarcely understand this mistake in 

 respect of swarms. Soliman firmly maintains 

 that swarms can be looked for only when the 

 rulers "weep" (pipe or clack.) From what 

 we heard, we concluded that the Arab first 

 watches lor swarms when a stock has already 

 sent ofi" a prime swarm, and Avhen the young 

 queens in the stock hives pipe and clack. The 

 first prime swarm must theielore certainly fly 

 off", unless he should by accident discover them 

 hanging on a tree. To the question, Whether 

 he did not sometimes have a swarm without the 

 queens having "wept," he answered that then 

 he had either missed hearing the "weeping," 

 or the swarm found was a wild (flown away) 

 one. 



4. "The swarms are shaken into empty cyl- 

 inders. In order that the bees may be pleased 

 Avith their new dwelling, empty and full honey- 

 combs are set up in it. This can be ea&ilj' done, 

 as all the cylinder-hives are of equal width. 

 Each' comb must be placed on a forked stick, 



i Err are humanum est. 



and by means of this may be firmly fixed, if 

 the length of the slick be the same as the diam- 

 eter of the hive." 



It is ceitain that during the past hundred years 

 the Egyptians have been able to prevent swarm- 

 ing. Solimaii is, in this point of his practice, 

 perfectly Dzierzonian, without, hoM'ever, know- 

 ing Dzierzon's name. That the Arab pievents 

 swarming in order to dry the tears of the ruler 

 of the swarm, is, practically, of no importance 

 whatever. 



5. "If a stock swarms, notwithstanding that 

 the queen has not yet " wept," the Arab makes 

 an artificial swarm. When the bees have taken 

 flight, he, towards evening, stops the entrance 

 in the front disc of the cylinder, opens the door 

 behind, takes out a portion of the comb with 

 the bees hanging on it, and places it carefully 

 in an empty cylinder. In order not to weaken 

 one ttork too much, he takes combs and bees 

 from two or three hives, and foims his artificial 

 I swarm by putting them all together. When the 

 I back door is again closed, the front entrance is 

 opened, so as to receive into the parent stock, 

 instead of into the artificial swarm, those bees 

 which have collected du'ing the removal of the 

 combs. The Arab thinks that he has then a 

 i queen in the new stock, and that otherwise the 

 operation fails. 'When,' says Soliman, 'I do 

 not divide and remove the bees at the light time, 

 the young bees kill their old mother, and cast her 

 dead body out of the hive.' " 



Our friend Soliman also understands dividing 

 and transporting. He only divides those stocks 

 that have young queens which pipe and clack. 

 He always takes care that he has a young queen 

 in the artificial swarm, because afier a queen 

 has been hatched the divided SAvaim Avould not 

 have suitable brood for raising a queen, as when 

 a stock pipes and clacks after the first swarm 

 has issued all the brood is already sealed over. 

 That artificial swarms may be made Avith brood 

 only, passes the comprehension of the Arab, 

 and thinking is not his metier. I doubt not 

 that to this day there are old boys in Germany 

 that know no more of the manner in which a 

 queen is produced than Soliman himself. Some 

 years since a bee-keeper died in this neighbor- 

 hood, who never could thoroughly comprehend 

 that it was possible for the bees to raise a queen 

 out of an ordinary worker egg or larva;. In 

 order to demonstrate the matter to him ad in- 

 staniium and ad oc^ilos, I made on my own stand, 

 and before his eyes, an artificial swarm, by 

 means of brood comb. Every comb did he most 

 rigidly examine, and finally declared it certain 

 that no royal cells were {here. Eiiiht dnys 

 afterwards I took this opposer of the march of 

 intellect to the artificial swarm, lifted out the 

 combs, and showed him five adhering royal 

 cells. " Yes," he admitted, "those are queen 

 cells." I detained the old man in order to con- 

 vince him, and desciibed the manner in which 

 a queen-bee Avas reared. During my discourse 

 he shook his head, as I fondly thouglit, in won- 

 der at the marvellous instinct of the bee ; but 

 some days afterwards I heard that this incred- 

 ulous and mistrustful blockhead thus expressed 

 himself: — " Why, this blunderer would make 



