162 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



workers spin complete cocoons, while those 

 of the female or (jueen are incomplete or 

 open at the lower end, and cover only tiie 

 head, trunk and the first segment or the 

 abdomen. 



7. Oiu- limited space will forbid any re- 

 marks concerning the hive structure or 

 comb. 



8. When fecundation has not been retard- 

 ed, two days after it has taken place, the 

 queen begins to lay eggs that will produce 

 workers, and this occupies her sole attention 

 during the lirst eleven months. But when 

 it has'lnMMi rcfeavded. after the same mimber 

 of hours she l^egius laying eggs and contin- 

 ues to produce these during her whole life, 

 the exception to this rule is exhibited in 

 females pregnated late in the year, when 

 they don't begin laying until the follow- 

 ing j^ear. Eeaumur says, that "upon an 

 average she lays about two hundred eggs in 

 a day, or a moderate swarm contains 12,000, 

 which are laid in two months." Iluber says 

 she lays "100 a day;" while M. Schirach 

 asserts, that in "one season a single female 

 will lay from 70,000 to 100,000 eggs." All 

 these statements, the observations being 

 made in different European climates and 

 perhaps luider different circumstances and 

 conditions, may be true. 



9. The swarming of bees is a very curi- 

 ous and interesting subject. Unlike other 

 gregarious insects, bees are confined to a 

 limited space, which they possess not the 

 means of enlarging; hence, to avoid the ill 

 effects resulting from being too much crowd- 

 ed, they must necessarily emigrate. This 

 they generally perform annually, but it does 

 not happen that they often wholly desert a 

 hive. 



10. It may be as well to add that bees 

 only collect honey and wax from plants, and 

 do not manufacture them, as many suppose. 

 In some future article we will give you an 

 account concerning the so-called wax secre- 

 tions. 



11. In conclusion we wish to say a few 

 words to the amateur- bee-keeper: Procure 

 a good colony, at a cost from Sil5 to ^2o, in- 

 cluding hive. This expense is final, as you 

 may easily construct all future hives your- 

 self, at a very trifling expense. Your orig- 

 inal colony, ]n-operly managed, should give 

 you from three to six colonies at the end of 

 the first season, so that your first supply of 

 surplus honey will occur at the end of the 

 second year; say at twenty pounds each 

 hive, this would give you 120 lbs. net, which 

 at thirty cents per pound, leaves you the 

 nice llftle margin of .'Sll, besides eigliteen or 

 twenty additional colonies for the ensuing 

 year. It would not seem advisable to breed 

 over 200 colonies, which will recpiire six 

 miles of ])asturage, unless artificially fed. 



12. With I'ogard to the comb or wax: 

 The bees extract it from the honey; every 

 pound of wax rein'csents about 25 pounds ot' 

 clear honey; hence the preservation of old 

 combs becomes of jiaranidunt iuiiJortauce; 

 and right hen^ in this connection, may be 

 mentioned the invention of Van liruslika, 

 of Legnano, Italy, in a niaejiine for extract- 

 ing the honey from tht^ cond)s without injur- 

 ing the cells", so that the same eouib may be 

 used by the ])ees rejx'atedly. "To give a 

 general idea of this machine, innnagiiie to 

 yourself a horizontal disk ])ut in a rotary 

 motion l)y a wheel; upon tlie edge of the 

 disk are eiglit i)ei iiemlieuJin- jiai'ts, sur- 

 rounded oi' eoinicclcd 1)\' a win^ screen, and 



thus forming an octagon on the disk. If 

 now you hang the uncovered combs with 

 their frames upon the post in the inner side 

 of this wire octagon, and put the disk in 

 motion so as to make about six revolutions 

 per second, the combs will be emptied in 

 one or two minutes. The lioney is caught 

 in a circular tube surrounding the disk, and 

 drawn off' at the bottom."- 



13. Remember, the great secret in breed- 

 ing bees successfully, as in all other orders 

 of insects, consists in observing their natu- 

 ral conditions as close as possible. Every- 

 thing of an artificial nature tends to create 

 disease ahd failure. Spare your cost from 

 patent hives, Italian oueens; and procure 

 the works of J. B. Minor, ^L Quinby, L. L. 

 Langstroth and the Ilubers. 



New Orleans, La. 



Honey Dew 



and Where 

 Prom. 



it Comes 



The honey bees are at the present time 

 very busy engaged in gathering honey from 

 the leaves and boughs of t\yi cotton- wood 

 trees in and about Sacramento. The casual 

 observer may have noticed that the leaves 

 of these trees have an iiiuisually glossy ap- 

 pearance just now, and seem to retain the 

 dew of the preceding night much later in 

 the day than the leaves of other trees ad- 

 joining them. This is the honey dew sea- 

 son of these trees, and the bees are making 

 the most ot it. With this fact the matter is 

 dismissed by the general observer, and 

 nothing more is thought of it. A little clos- 

 er examination reveals the fact that the 

 bees are not the onl^,^ insects at work on 

 these leaves and boughs, and that the 

 material which gives them a glossy appear- 

 ance, instead of being evenly distributed 

 over the surface of the leaves, is found in a 

 large number of little specks. A micro- 

 scope being brought into requisition dis- 

 closes the fact that almost every leaf, and 

 especially the new and tender ones, is a pas- 

 ture upon which are feeding great numbers 

 of insects of many sizes, forms and colors, 

 and that the spots or specks on the leaves are 

 the excrescences of these insects. These 

 excrescences form the real honey dew that 

 attracts the honey bees and upon which 

 they feed. 



This is undoubtedly the general source of 

 honey dew, on all trees and shrubs in the 

 early part of the season. These little in- 

 sects, often so small as not to be distin- 

 guishable with the naked eye. feed upon the 

 leaves aiul tender shoots, "converting their 

 sap into a thick sugary substance, which 

 they exude, and wliich during the day 

 dries up and adheres to whate\ er surface it 

 is deposited u))on, but when the evening 

 conu's and the air cools and parts with a 

 portion of its dampness, this damjuH'ss 

 softens the sugary snostance so that it drops 

 to the ground, covers the grass and soil with 

 what is generally known a-; honey dew. 

 While this is going on tiie bees are verj' 

 early risers, and as soon as it is light may 

 be heard in the morning gathering honey 

 while in a tluid condition. The honey gath- 

 ered in this way ])artakes more, or less of 

 the nature ot the tree or shrub from which 

 it is made. Tliat nuide from the Cottonwood 

 is of a dnrk color nn-l n I'MUgent taste, and 

 n >t much vaitiied as honev. 



