TUK AMERICAN BEE JOUBNAL. 



6; 



lectins; the little hairs that luul fsilleu from the 

 horses (liiriiiG; the procers of eurryinu:, makiug 

 lliem up into bundles, and (lying off with them. 

 On being watched careluliy, one of the bees 

 was seen to alight ou some grass not very far 

 from the stable, and among tlie grass was found 

 tlie nest, whieh was composed entirely of horse- 

 hair. Unfortunatel}^ tiiis remarkable nest was 

 destroyed before it was completed. 



Another very interesting deviation from the 

 usual economy of the moss-buildinir bees was 

 observed by Dr. William Bell. During the 

 summer of 18.')4, a robin built its nest in the 

 porch of his cottage at Putney. Some time 

 after this liad been observed, a humble-bee took 

 possession of the nest and adapted it to her own 

 purpose. He was unforlunalel)' not able to 

 identif}^ the species by capturing a specimen, 

 the nest having been destroyed; but Dr. Bell' 

 had seen the bee on one occasion and observed 

 that it was black, with yellow bands, probably 

 the Bomhus pratoruin. 



Moss, however, is the favorite material of the 

 Cardeir Bees, and wherever it can be obtained 

 they will use no other substance, though in 

 places where it is scarce, or not to be found, 

 thej^ employ leaves, grass, or any other suitable 

 material. Whatever may be the mutenal, the 

 bee always takes great pains to disentangle the 

 libres in order to be able to weave them in a 

 systematic manner in the nest. This process is 

 conducted by meansof the legs, the bee seizing 

 the fibre with her fore feet, and passing it under 

 her body by means of the remaining pairs of 

 legs, forming it, as she does so, into a small 

 bundle which can be easil}^ carried off. 



The object of the moss and other substances 

 is very simple. The Carder Bees do not build 

 their nests, like those of many humble-bees, 

 beneath the surface of the ground, but upon it, 

 choosing a spot where there is a slight hollow 

 of an inch or two in depth. The moss is then 

 ■woven so as to form adorned cover to the cells, 

 this dome being of variable dimensions, ac- 

 cording to the number of cells which it covers, 

 but seldom reaching more than three or four 

 inches in height above the ground. As in very 

 rainy weather this mossy dome would not be 

 water-proof, the insects line it with a very 

 coarse, dark-colored wax, similar to that of 

 which the breeding cells are made. 



The entrance to the nest is always at the bot- 

 tom, for although the insects will sometimes 

 make an opening at the top, they seem to do so 

 merely for the purpo.sc of admitting air and 

 warmth, and never enter or leave the nest 

 through it, closing it at night or in rainy 

 weather. Generally a kind of tunnel or arched 

 entrance leads into the nest, like the passage 

 into an Esquimaux snow-house, an edilice to 

 which the moss-covered dome of the Carder 

 Bee bears no small resemblance. 



The best time to search for these bees is in 

 the hay-making season, when the mowers often 

 come upon them during t'.ieir work, and a 

 promise of some small reward will probably 

 produce a tolerable harvest of nests. 



Send us the names of Bec-kecpcrs, with their 

 Post Office addres?. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



"Eureka! Eureka! Nihil," &c. 



'Oh, blood and thnudcr! Oli, blood aod wounds 1 



Mr. Editor : — I notice in your issue for Sep- 

 tember an article in criticism of my remarks on 

 Mr. Allen's hive. This is not the first time 

 that would-be great men have quoted Greek 

 and Latin to appear learned ; nor the last that 

 muddy intellects will try to cover their ignor- 

 ance by using big words. What profound 

 kaowledge of the old Greek and Roman authors 

 does this counterfeit Roman exhibit ! How 

 adroitly he lugs in their sayings upon other toi>- 

 ics, to help him on the subject of bees ! Well, 

 l)lain Eugli.sh is good enough for me, and I will 

 try and make him understand it. 



He says " Home " is a very wrong name for 

 Mr. Allen's hive, since it is so constructed as 

 to kill scores of common bees and prove the in- 

 evitable death of the tenacious Italians. In 

 fact the poor things cannot get out of the way, 

 by going to the other side. The hive is a per- 

 fect death trap that must slaughter a part of one 

 kind and the whole of another sort of bees 

 having the misfortune to be put therein. 



And all this in the face of the fact that I ex- 

 plained Mr. Allen's method to be especially 

 calculated to prevent such an occurrence, by 

 stating that the framss were withdrawn through 

 the sides of the holder, thus directlj'' taking 

 away the contiguous sides of the comb from 

 each other, or rather removing them further 

 apart, though already sufficiently so when re- 

 maining .stationery. 



By the old method of lifting the frames di- 

 rectly out, bees are ofien killed* and honey cells 

 torn open by abrasion of comb ; but if ordinary 

 care is used this cannot happen with Mr. 

 Allen's hive. It takes a genius to thus misin- 

 terpret language and set reason and common 

 sense at defiance. Such an one would see right 

 through a mill stone, and prove by a mathemat- 

 ical demonstration that the moon is made of 

 green cheese. I have seen Mr. Allen take out 

 and replace all the frames of a " Home " well 

 filled with Italian bees and honey, without 

 crushing a single bee, or tearing open a cell. 

 And he did it quicklj'' and easily. i!^o extra 

 care was taken to avoid injuring the bees, 

 though of course he might have destroyed 

 many by setting the hive on lire or knocking it 

 to pieces with an axe. But with common pru- 

 dence he could not hurt the bees, since by his 

 arrangement of frames, they not only have 

 room enough to live securely, but also to work 

 etFectively. 



The cast iron of which the frame holder is 

 made troubles Varro. 



5Iy incidental allusion to the material best 

 for iiiaking ^Ir. Allen's holder Avas not, as any 

 body can see, the point I was making. Its de- 

 sign, arrangement, isolation from the outside, 

 and application, were the things I set forth and 

 commended. And a writer who thus quibbles, 

 by putting an incidental for the main subject 

 is either ignorant of the tirst principles of 



* This dop.s not occur when the operation is properly per- 

 ruroied. Kd. 



