630 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



friends will excuse us for trying to ob- 

 tain a patent on the same, which is the 

 only means by which we can protect our 

 rights. 

 Adams County, 111. • 



CoiistriictioiiofCoinl]aMHateMii£Bees. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



BY J. F. LATHAM. 



Under the caption of " In the Apiary," 

 the following article appeared in the 

 Portland, Maine, weekly Press of March 

 8th: 



THE CONSTRUCTION OF COMB AND HATCHING 

 OF THE HONEY-BEE. 



The comb consists of hexagonal cells 

 placed end to end in such a manner that 

 each cell is closed by three waxen plates, 

 each of which also assists in completing one 

 of the cells of the other side of the comb. 

 The construction of the comb and the care 

 of the young devolve upon the workers. 



In the construction of the comb the bees 

 take hold of each other and suspend them- 

 selves in clusters, which consist of festoons, 

 crossing themselves in all directions, and 

 remain immovable for about 24 hours, dur- 

 ing which time the wax is secreted in the 

 form of thin plates from between the scales 

 of their bodies. A bee makes its way to 

 the roof of the hive, and detaching its 

 plates of wax in succession from the abdo- 

 men with the hind legs works them up with 

 the tongue in the material which forms the 

 comb. This bee is followed by others, 

 which perform the work. 



As soon as a few cells are thus prepared 

 the queen-bee begins to lay her eggs. The 

 first eggs develop into workers ; the next 

 produce the drones and also the queens. 

 The eggs are deposited in the cells, and in 

 five days the maggot is hatched. The sole 

 employment of the queen-bee is laying 

 these eggs, and as only one is deposited in 

 each cell, this occupies her almost inces- 

 santly. The queen when thus engaged is 

 accompanied by a guard of workers, who 

 clear the way before her and feed her when 

 exhausted. She lays workers' eggs for 11 

 months, and afterward those which pro- 

 duce drones. 



As soon as this change has taken place, 

 the workers begin to construct royal cells, 

 in which, without discontinuing to lay the 

 drones' eggs, the queen deposits here and 

 there, about once in three days, an egg 

 which is destined to produce a queen. The 

 workers' eggs hatch in a few days, and pro- 

 duce little white maggots, which imme- 

 diately open their mouths to be fed. These 

 the workers attend to. In six days each 

 maggot fills up its cell. It is then roofed in 

 by workers, spins a silken cocoon, and be- 

 comes a chrysalis, and on the twenty-first 

 day it comes forth a perfect bee. The 

 drones emerge on the twenty-fifth day, and 

 the queens on the sixteenth. 



As for nearly a year the queen does not 

 lay any eggs destined to become queens, 

 if any evil befall her in that time the hive 

 is left without a queen. Her loss stops the 

 work of the hive, and unless another queen 

 is provided, the bees either join another 

 hive, or perish from inanition. 



From its many glaring absurdities 

 and misleading teachings in regard to 

 the economic habits and procreative 

 functions of the honey-bee, the above 

 clipping seems to require a few words of 

 comment ; as the writer, from the gist 

 of the teachings embodied in the article, 

 evinces a lack of the theoretical and 

 practical knowledge of the ways of the 

 denizens of the hive. 



After describing the correct way in 

 wliich the bees cluster while secreting 

 wax, the disclosure is clinched by the 

 assertion that "they remain immovable 

 for about 24 hours ;" with a further 

 description of the manner by which the 

 wax scales are utilized by the comb- 

 builders in forming the cells. If the 

 writer's description of comb-building is 

 derived from actual observation, there Is 

 but a slight opening for a doubt that an 

 important discovery has been made — a 

 discovery that would be received with 

 gratification by modern investigators In 

 bee-knowledge. 



" A bee makes its way to the roof of 

 the hive," etc. Did the writer know 

 that such a proceeding would be in 

 direct opposition to the real mode of 

 operation, unless the writer's delinea- 

 tions are based on box-hive principles? 

 It certainly conveys the idea that the 

 comb-builders leave the real locality of 

 their labors, if they are domiciled in a 

 movable-frame hive, with an unsys- 

 tematic impetus foreign to instinct, and 

 contrary to the conditions consonant to 

 the requirements of their tasks. 



" The first eggs develop workers, the 

 next produce drones and also queens." 

 Can the writer inform us where was ob- 

 tained the Information that a drone 

 ovum will produce a queen-bee? Next — 

 "the eggs are deposited in the cells, and 

 in five days the maggot is hatched." 

 Another indication of a lack of experi- 

 ence, as well as theoretical information 

 on the part of the writer — an absurdity 

 in direct refutation of the teachings of 

 our most experienced apicultural inves- 

 tigators and writers who have made the 

 habits of the hive-bee a life study. I 

 have verified this in more instances than 

 I can now recall, and every bee-keeper 

 must note the value of such a statement 

 if he wishes to restore a hopelessly queen 

 less colony of bees to a normal condition ' 



