42 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Murdering Bees. 



Query. — I have a straw skep with wooden 

 top, in which my Bees were hived 18 months 

 ago. They threw oft' a strong swarm last May, 

 and I phiced a super over them, containing a 

 large and tempting piece of guide-comb, in 

 which they made not a drop of honey. I 

 took away the super early in September, and 

 since then my Bees have been killing each 

 other, hundreds lying dead under the hive, 

 and I see them fight on the alighting board. 

 The murdered Bees are all small compared 

 with the generality of Bees in my hive, but 

 certainly belong to it. These massacres take 

 place at an interval of a week or ten days, 

 and especially on Sundays. Can I prevent 

 this ? 



Reply. — We have had a precisely 

 similar case in our own apiary during the 

 past season. The Bees destroyed, were 

 bred in the hive, but when a few days 

 old were mercilessly massacred. The 

 queen was a pure bred Ligurian, raised 

 in May last, but from the backwardness 

 of the season and the col'dness of the 

 weather we judged she had been imperfect- 

 ly fertilized. Almost all her progeny were 

 very small, had usually only one broad 

 golden band across the abdomen, next 

 the thorax, the remainder being jet 

 black. They were pretty little Bees with 

 sharp pointed tails, quite diiferently 

 shaped to the ordinary Bees, and were 

 evidently considered useless in hive. 

 Having determined that the fault was 

 with the queen we dethroned her, and 

 gave the stock a fertile imported one, 

 and since then all has been well. 

 Whether the original queen (by stress of 

 weather) became too old ere fertilization 

 took place, or whether she met an im- 

 perfect drone, perhaps one of the proge- 

 ny of a fertile worker which are said to 

 be imperfectly developed we cannot say, 

 but judging from our own case we think 

 it probable your Bees will perish during 

 the ensuing winter months unless you re- 

 move their present queen, and give them 

 one whose progeny will be perfectly nor- 

 mal . — British Bee Journal. 



In the Island of Madagascar, and the 

 Mauritius Islands, a species of Bee is 

 found {Apis unicolor) of a bright shining 

 black, without spots or colored bands. 

 The honey, which is highly s])oken of, is 

 at first of a green shade, but becomes red- 

 dish-yellow with age. 



Plants and Trees. 



BEE AGENCY NECESSARY TO FRUITFULNESS 

 AMONG PLANTS, AND THE SORT OF TREES 

 BEST FOR ORNAMENTAL PLANTING. 



The name "hone}^," is said to be de- 

 rived from a Hebrew word signifying 

 delight. Whether ornot this derivation 

 is correct I cannot say, as I am no He- 

 brew scholar, but it seems very appro- 

 priate, as there is scarcely another word 

 which has been so universally employed 

 from the remotest ages, to represent 

 what is delightful to the senses and as 

 a figure of what gratifies the mental 

 and moral perceptiojis. For this rea- 

 son, amongst others, the labors and 

 mysteries of the Bee-hive have been a 

 source of profit and recreation to man- 

 kind in all ranks of life, as well as a 

 fruitful fund of figures and illustrations 

 to adorn the writings of poets and phil- 

 osophers. Hence people can offer few 

 truer forms of evidence of real sympathy 

 with the most elevated and refined in 

 past ages, than in the interest they take 

 in this branch of rural industry. But 

 aside from any interest in Bees as honey 

 gatherers and waxmakers, there is an- 

 other matter as important as this, aris- 

 ing from the service which Bees perform 

 in the economy of nature in the fertiliz- 

 ation of plants. All stock raisers under- 

 stand well the importance of crosses in 

 breeding. But few people are awaro 

 that the same principle holds good in 

 the fertilization of fruit and flower blos- 

 soms. Which is to say, that though in 

 the majority of plants the blossoms are 

 perfect, each one containing the pollen 

 necessary to fertilize the ovules, yet it 

 is well known to botanists and horticul- 

 turists, that the pollen of one flower has 

 a great deal more fructifying power on 

 the ovules of another flower of its kind 

 than upon its own, this causing the first 

 to set better and adding to at least its 

 quantity. Mr. Charles Darwin, Pro- 

 fessor A Gray, and other eminent botan- 

 ists have proved that many flowers in 

 which the stigmas may be easily dusted 

 with their own pollen, remain sterile 

 unless the}' receive pollen from other 

 flowers. This cross fertilization is ef- 

 fected through the agency of Bees and 

 other insects. All of which mav be 



