395 



4. Owing to a series of disasters, he 

 did not and could not " keep pace with 

 the blossoming flowers." 



5. The "actual yield of this gigantic 

 apiary' 1 was not enormous. On the 

 contrary, the losses of bees were so 

 great from drowning and other causes, 

 that the surplus above the wants of the 

 bees was nothing worth while. 



igg° As a source of profitable recrea- 

 tion, either for those engaged in pro- 

 fessional pursuits or following the me- 

 chanic arts, we can think of nothing 

 preferable to keeping a few colonies of 

 Italian bees. The following paragraph 

 we clip from Moore's Rural : 



Bees, as requiring but little capital, afford 

 a source of profit, and if closely observed, 

 an endless amount of information and re- 

 creation. Where they can be had to work 

 on snares, a few hives and honey boxes will 

 be all that will be required for a start. The 

 usual terms are to return to the owner at 

 the year's end the old stock and one-half the 

 increase . 



Why Bees do Work in the Dark. 



A life-time might be spent in investigat- 

 ing the mysteries hidden in a bee-hive, and 

 still half the secrets would be undiscovered. 

 The formation of the cell has long been a 

 celebrated problem to the mahematician, 

 whilst the changes which the honey under- 

 goes offer an equal interest to the chemist. 

 Every one knows what honey fresh from 

 comb is like. It is a clear yellow syrup, 

 without a trace of solid sugar in it. How- 

 ever, it gradually assumes a crystalline ap- 

 pearance—it candies, as the saying is, and 

 ultimately becomes solid. It has not been 

 suspected that this change was due to the 

 photographic action ; that the same agent 

 which alters the molecular arrangement of 

 the iodine of silver on the excited collodian 

 plate, and determines the formation of cam- 

 phor and iodine crystals in a bottle, causes 

 the syrup honey to assume a crystalline 

 form. This, however, is not the case. M. 

 Scheibler has enclosed honey in stoppered 

 flasks, some of which he has kept in per- 

 fect darkness ; while others have been ex- 

 Eosed to the light. The invariable results 

 ave been that the sunned portion rapidly 

 crystallized, while that kept in the dark has 

 remained perfectly liquid. We now see 

 why bees work in perfect darkness, and why 

 they are so careful to obscure the glass win- 

 dows which are sometimes placed in their 

 hives. The existance of their young de- 

 pends upon the liquidity of saccharine food 

 presented to them ; and if light were allowed 

 access to the syrup it would gradually ac- 

 quire a more or less solid consistency ; it 

 would seal up the cells, and in all probabil- 

 ity prove fatal to the inmates of the hive.— 

 Selected. 



^oxzxqu Unties, 



Translated from L'Apicvlteur Alsacien-Lorrain, 

 by Frank Benton. 



Comb Foundation— No. 5. 



Liepvre, September, 1878. 



My Dear Friend :— By means of an 

 awl I make in each side-bar 4 holes, 2 near 

 each other in the middle of the bar and on 

 the same horizontal plane, the other 2 in 

 the lower quarter of the bar. These 2 holes 

 separated from each other by about 2-5 of 

 an incii on the outside of the bar, approach 

 as they go toward the inner surface of the 

 piece, and meet on the median line so as to 

 form but one hole. Having thus prepared 

 the frame, I place it with the top-bar down, 

 and let an assistant, a child if need be, hold 

 it in position ; I take my comb foundation 

 and place the upper edge on the top-bar, 

 permitting the same fingers that hold the 

 frame to keep it in an upright position within 

 the frame. I press a coarse needle threaded 

 with cotton thread through one of the holes 

 of the side-bar from the outside toward the 

 inside, passing it over the surface of the 

 foundation, through the other bar (from 

 within out), then around through the other 

 hole and across the opposite face of the 

 sheet, it comes, at last, through the first bar 

 from within out, and the two ends are knot- 

 ted on the outside. The foundation is then 

 solid enough not to need holding. The 

 same operation is performed to secure the 

 comb in that part of the frame where the 

 other set of holes have been made, after 

 which I pour a little melted wax into the 

 angles which the foundation makes with 

 the top-bar of the frame, and the whole is 

 finished. When everything is at hand five 

 minutes suffices for the whole operation. 



I use the wax only at the top of the sheet 

 because some curvatures are seen, though 

 less frequently, in the upper third of the 

 frame. Near the top I leave 5 millimeters 

 (nearly M of an inch) play ; below a little 

 more. The threads hold the sheet closely, 

 hence no curvatures are possible. The lower 

 thread being near the bottom of the sheet of 

 foundation, the latter will be no more in- 

 clined to bend about a horizontal axis than 

 it is about vertical axes. The bees fasten 

 the foundation during the first day or two 

 and very soon destroy the cotton thread. 

 You will offer as an objection, that in forc- 

 ing the bees to gnaw away the two pieces of 

 thread, I rob them of precious time. Come, 

 come, my dear friend, do not spend time 

 splitting hairs. In the first place, the 

 thread is simply cotton, such as is used in 

 crochet, and which is easily cut away by 

 the bees ; but why not remove it yourself 

 as soon as you see that the industrious 

 insects have rendered its presence no longer 

 necessary? I must say, 1 have troubled 

 myself little about this ; such trifles which 

 novices are likely to magnify, have never 

 struck my fancy. 



They are very easily broken. Yes, when 

 one does not know how to handle them 

 properly. They break when handling them 

 if you work in the cold in winter ; but who 



