THJgp 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Ode to the Honey Bee. 



MRS. A. M. SANDERS. 



Welcome, thou ever busy bee : 



Come in among my flower:-. 

 And with thy cheerful hum beguile 



The tedious summer hours. 



I like to watch thy graceful flights 



Beneath these shady bowers : 

 Then yield thee to temptation's spell 



And linger 'round my flowers. 



Here is a leaf of richest mole 



Enfolding petals rare, 

 Shedding around its sweet perfume 



On balmy summer air. 



Come, draw fr^m i rat their coral depths 



The sweets that heaven distill ; 

 Reluctant, then. I'll let thee go. 



Thy waxen cells to fill. 



But come again, thou beautiful 



Italian, golden-hued ; 

 Thy presence doth inspire my heart 



With humble gratitude. 



Oh : come : free access shalt thou have 



To all my floral treasure ; 

 Thy joyful singing takes me back 



To childhood's time and pleasure, 



When through the leafy woods I roamed 



And fragrant fields of clover ; 

 When every blossom swayed beneath 



A honey-seeking rover. 



And then, the ever- fresh delights 



My appetite afforded ; 

 By feasting on the honeyed sweets 



The bees so neatly hoarded. 



Oh : gentle bee, come help me feel 



Imagination's power. 

 By lulling me to sweetest dreams 



Of childhood's happy hour. 

 Sheridan, Mich. 



From the Bienen Zeitung. 



The Several Races of Bees. 



REV. DR. DZIERZON. 



Since we have become acquainted 

 with the various foreign, and somewhat 

 different colored races of bees, apicul- 

 ture has sained greatly in interest and 

 profit. Many questions, upon which 

 views greatly differed in former times, 

 can now be solved in a simple manner. 

 If Baron Ehrenfels was alive to-day. be 

 would not dare t«» argue bis former 

 opinions in regard to the duration of the 

 life of worker bees. viz. : that it could 

 reach the age of the queen if it escaped 

 all threatening dangers— consequently 

 could live several years. For whoever 

 has experimented with queens of dif- 

 ferently colored races, has learned how 

 rapidly the bees perish, and that in the 

 season of activitv. scarcelv six weeks 



will pass away before the former genera- 

 tion will have passed away, to make 

 V >< 'in for a new. That the fructification 

 of the queen takes place only outside of 

 the hive, and frequently at a distance 

 from the same, and that she can la> eggs 

 without being fertilized, concerning 

 which disputes were formerly carried 

 on witli a good deal of feeling. Since 

 the introduction of the Italian bee in 

 particular, these will not be questioned. 

 Such an important correction and en- 

 richment of the theory, could naturally 

 not exist without exerting its influence 

 in regard to practice, and necessarily it 

 was forced to elevate the advantages of 

 management indirectly. 



But the introduction of foreign races 

 of bees also furnishes direct advantages, 

 inasmuch as some of them possess val- 

 uable qualities not found in the domestic 

 race. 



The common bee. cultivated through- 

 out the greater part of Germany, pos- 

 sesses, it is true, some excellent traits. 

 It is a real honey-bee. One valuable 

 peculiarity I find is the fact that young 

 queens do not deposit any drone eggs 

 the first year, and consequently the 

 workers do not build drone cells. 



When Herr Bruning, in the first vol- 

 umes of the Bienen Zeitung, reported of 

 •• after-swarms."" which, after they had 

 only about half-finished their filling up 

 thestraw hive, again made preparations 

 to swarm, by depositing drone eggs, it 

 appeared to me more like fiction than 

 truth, because at that time I was not 

 aware of the anomalous peculiarity of 

 the heather bee. among which colonies. 

 with queens of the present year, prepare 

 themselves, by depositing' drone eggs, 

 for issuing another swarm. This never 

 happens with the common German bee. 

 It is. therefore, not a swarm-bee. but in 

 reality a '' honey-bee.*" 



But, in showing so little inclination 

 to swarm, they make it unpleasant for 

 an apiarist who desires to increase his 

 apiary. Its irritability ami stinging 

 propensities also often renders the man- 

 agement of the apiary a disagreeable 

 task. Although the "true bee-keeper 

 does not mind an occasional sting. one"s 

 good-nature certainly gives out when 

 this inclination to sting degenerates into 

 real madness: when every occupation, 

 be it ever so pressing, must be suspend- 

 ed : when animals and human beings 

 have to take to their heels far and near. 

 and you are expecting every moment to 

 see the police arrive and command you 

 to remove the hives, so that the neigh- 

 borhood may live in peace. For this 

 reason it must be considered a great 

 gain in apiculture to know of races of 

 bees which, although possessing a sting 



