184 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



their queen and cage her; place the cage 

 in among brood, wliere she can get to 

 honey; close up the hive, let her remain 

 twenty-four hours, then take the queen 

 you want to introduce; slip her in the 

 cage, after killing the one in it, let her 

 remain in it some length of time, then, 

 between sundown and dark, open the hive 

 carefully, without jar, and with sweetened 

 water, strongly scented with essence of 

 peppermint, give them a good drenching 

 — the queen too. Don't be afraid of 

 drowning them; put the queen on the 

 combs, close up the hive, and the job is 

 done. 



At other seasons they can be introduced 

 without caging; let your stock be de- 

 prived of its queen for twenty-four hours, 

 that all the bees may become acquainted 

 with their situation, then take the queen, 

 use the sweetened water and peppermint, 

 as already stated, and they will receive 

 the new queen. Caging is objectionable, 

 a great many are lost in that way. I 

 never cage, except when bees are cross, 

 and gathering but little honey. Believing 

 the inexperienced may be benefitted by 

 my suggestions, I submif for your judg- 

 ment as to whether it is worth" a place in 

 your valuable journal. 



Melrose, Va. R. W. PIarrison. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



The Wonderful Instincts of the Honey 

 Bee. 



How great is the instinct of this indus- 

 trious little insect will be seen byreac'ing 

 this article. Nothing pays better on 

 one's farm, with so little trouble and ex- 

 pense, than the honey bee. Each hive 

 will give a profit of 120 in honey sold at 

 wholesale prices, at no cost for gathering, 

 as bee pasture is free, and now is the time 

 for them to accumulate the best. The 

 white clover is beginning to bloom, and 

 honey from tliis plant is far superior to 

 that made from any other. While this 

 variety of clover is in bloom, they will 

 gather from two to ten pounds per day, 

 depending upon the strength of the hive 

 and the condition of the weather. 



The honey is taken from the flowers by 

 the bees, and on their way home it is 

 passing through a churning process, and 

 by the time they arrive home it is 

 churned. The body of the bee is put 

 together in three sections or bands, and 

 underneath the two front bands on each 

 side there is an outlet or small hole, 

 where the butter oozes out after being 

 churned. This butter is the pure white 

 wax. It is received by other bees and 

 placed in the comb or cell, and by tlie 

 mouth of the bee it is pressed out to its 

 proper thickness, and tlie balance remain- 

 ing, whicli, to carry out our simile, we 

 may call buttermilk, is thrown up by the 



bees into the cells, and the longer it re- 

 mains there the sweeter it gets, as it ex- 

 tracts the sweetness or the virtue from 

 the comb, bringing back the body of the 

 sweets which it contained in its first 

 gathering from the flowers ; and, as before 

 stated, the longer it remains in the comb 

 the sweeter it gets — one pound in the 

 comb three years old having as much 

 medical virtue as three pounds one year 

 old. 



Besides the honey, there is the pollen, 

 which is of more benefit to the bee than 

 the honey. After it is deposited in the 

 comb it is called bee-bread, as it is their 

 principal living in the winter, and their 

 young feed on it altogether, until they are 

 ready to work. 



Bees are very prolific, hatching out a 

 brood every nine days, from early spring 

 until late in the fall, from 2,000 to 5,000 

 each time; but as their life is short (only 

 six w^eeks), during working season at 

 least one-half of them die. When the 

 hive becomes so full that it is uncom- 

 fortable f(;r them to work, a certain pro- 

 portion are driven out (which is called 

 " swarming."). 



The first hatching in the spring is from 

 eggs laid late in the fall, which are pro- 

 tected in such a manner as not to allow 

 them to hatch until new pollen is to be 

 had. The last hatching is in the fall, and 

 are those which are to live during the 

 winter. 



If you kill ofl" the American Black 

 Queen, and put in her place the Italian 

 Yellow Queen, you will in six weeks 

 have hybrids something larger than our 

 own, with one yellow band around them, 

 instead of three, as in their purity. This 

 will prove the shortness of their lives. 

 Hybrids do better for me than either in 

 their purity. 



There are but two classes of bees, male 

 and female; but there are three sizes, the 

 Queen, Drone and Worker. They would 

 all be of one class if the cells were all 

 made of one size and shape; their dis- 

 parity in size makes the difierence. The 

 drone is like other male bees, only that it 

 has no sting. The worker is a female, 

 but a non-fertile bee or "neuter." This 

 is accounted for by the cells being only 

 three-quarters of an inch long and three- 

 sixteenths of an inch in diameter, while 

 the fertile bee or queen is one and a 

 quarter inch long and a quarter of 

 an inch in diameter. If they were 

 all queens there would be no out-door 

 work, as the drones do nothing. The 

 queen cells are always made on the outer 

 edge of the comb, there being more room 

 there to extend their length — the drones 

 likewise— there being but one-quarter of 

 an inch of space between the combs 

 allowed for travel. The queen C(^lls are 

 but three and five in number, allowing 

 t)ne for each swarm ; the rest are killed off. 



