104 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[Nov., 



hups — starts from the crowd and lays the first 

 piece of wax, which is the foundation of a new 

 comb." This is not quite true. If he had left 

 out "starts from the crowd," and simply said 

 " liiys the first piece of wax," it would have 

 been nearer the truth. The first pieces laid are 

 not always foundations of comb. The fact is, 

 the first bee remains in the crowd when putting 

 down the first lump, and is not in sight. 

 Lumps of wax are stuck on the branch of a 

 tree before the swarm has been there thirty 

 minutes. A few hours after being hived they 

 will have scores of these lumps, varying in 

 size from a pin's head to a small pea. These 

 disajjpear after the combs are commenced. 



The lecturer continues: " The first bee hav- 

 ing made the first cell, a second bee comes and 

 stands opposite her, head to head; then anoth- 

 er at her side, so that the two stand side by 

 side; and the rest follow in definite position, 

 each building a cell around itself, until gradu- 

 ally a good sized comb is built." I am much 

 surprised at this. We have only to examine 

 the process of comb building by taking out 

 the bees occasionally, and we shall find no first 

 cell at all until irregular lumps of wax joined 

 together extend an inch or more downward. 

 How a bee can " build a cell around itself" is 

 a curious speculation. If the bee had a thin 

 sheet of wax just the right size rolled out like 

 paper, and Cfmld wrap it around its body, it 

 might possibly be conceived. But comb is 

 built in no such way, and the great naturalist 

 is nowhere more grossly in error than here. 

 The bee uses neither hands nor feet, but man- 

 dibles, and these it uses very much as a mason 

 does a trowel. We can see this if we look — 

 not, indeed, by trying to see into the dense mass 

 of bees just hived — but by observing them 

 through glass, when they have combs project- 

 ing outside the cluster, generally in glass sur- 

 plus boxes best. We can see them detach a 

 tiiin scale of pure white wax from the under 

 side of the abdomen, one-sixteenth of an inch 

 in diameter, then seize it with the mandibles 

 and chew or work it into a sort of lump and 

 apply it to the center of the comb or end of 

 the cells. This lump is ten times the thickness 

 of the partition wall of ordinary cells when 

 finished. Warmth to make it pliable seems 

 necessary. With their forceps they then re- 

 move the superfluous wax until just a thin 

 plate at the center is left. The bottom of the 

 cell is finished first, but wax is applied to 

 lengthen the cell wall in the same way. It is 

 polished with their teeth as they proceed. 

 Wlien the cell is one-fourth of an inch deep — 

 if the yield of honey is abundant — it is nearly 

 filled with honey, or receives an egg. The 

 lengthening of the cell continues. If for a 

 bee, one-sixteenth over a half inch in length is 

 made. If for honey only, cells several inches 

 long are sometimes constructed. One cell is 

 not made first, but all advance together, and 



all are filled as they proceed, only leaving 

 room to smooth and polish the end. Of course, 

 the impossibility of the bee being inside a cell 

 nearly full of honey to build anything around 

 itself is apparent. 



More might be said. But surely this is 

 enough to show the folly of taking any man, 

 however great, as an infallible authority. I 

 can only hope that the Agassiz teaching on oth- 

 er topics may be free from the mistakes which 

 he certainly makes in this lecture on bees. 



M. QUINBY. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



A New Trouble. 



It was, for the season, an exceptionally warm 

 day — mercury 80" in the shade at three p.m. 

 At each of our seven hives there was the eager 

 bustle and stir of harvest-time. I had just re- 

 marked to Nellie that the recent frost must 

 have spared some of the flowers, for, apparent- 

 ly, the bees were hard at work, when suddenly 

 there appeared at the open door a bright-faced 

 little urchin, quite breathless from the haste 

 with which he had trotted over the mile of 

 road between the village and our "corner." 

 With a face full of that couscious importance 

 which not the wisest of mortals can wholly 

 conceal, when, like Caesar, he feels himselt to 

 be '• a great part" of some important affair, he 

 silently extended a folded paper. Taking it, I 

 read: 



Miss Cynla : A congregation of your bees 

 is out on a rampage, and have assembled in 

 Mr. Hondel's kitchen. I think there is a 

 swarm out. M. L. 



" What does it mean?" asked Nellie. "There 

 can be no swarm out — this 27th day of Sep- 

 tember! Besides, with the doors all open, as 

 they have been to-day, we must have seen them. 

 Perhaps it is our run-away swarm of last June, 

 or a detachment therefrom." 



" Oh, no! They went away in just the oppo- 

 site direction, you remember. It must be a 

 swarm of wild bees from the woods — unless — " 



" Are they all together, all in a bunch ?" I 

 asked, turning to the boy. 



" Oh, no ma'am ! They're all over the win- 

 dows, and they're — they're all over ! and they 

 keep coming, and we can't drive 'em out!" 



" I think I can guess what it means. They 

 must be robbers in search of plunder — and 

 I'm afraid that they belong here, too. What 

 shall we do?" I said to Nellie, "I can't shut 

 them up on such a bright warm day." 



" It would be as well to make sure that they 

 are our bees, before proceeding to extreme 

 measures," she replied, " I can hardly believe 

 that they would invade a kitchen more than a 

 mile from home, and yet not trouble us in the 

 least" 



"Ah! but I remember now that I did close 

 the pantry door in the face of a bee a few min- 

 utes ago. And it may be that without much 



