THE AMEKICAN BEE JOURNAL AND GAZETTE. 



U9 



It may be rciiiarked, however, that it is only 

 tbo hatchiug-out of brood which can be bene- 

 ficial to the bee-keeper. Thus, egg-laying is 

 desired in order that the stocks by its means 

 may not only be kept from retrograding, but 

 may even make progress. If, however, breed- 

 ing slops at this stage by reason of the stores of 

 honey and pollen falling short before the tem- 

 perature of the outer air permits of their being 

 replenished, then are the disadvantages of 

 early breeding found to be greater than its ad- 

 vantages. 



On the Df.gree op Warmth Necessary for 

 THE Bee. — The limits of temperature within 

 wiiich a single bee can exist have been far too 

 widely extended. It cannot be denied that 

 bees arc capable of a short flight with the ther- 

 mometer at 45°, or that they may, at any rate 

 when heated, take wing and return cjuickly to 

 the hive when it is even a few degrees colder; 

 but the question is, At what temperature can 

 they exist singly for an extended period outside 

 the hive ? And it is certain that they may be- 

 come chilled at as high a temperature as 62°, 

 whilst with the thermometer at 52° they gra- 

 dually lose the use of their limbs until they can 

 ueitlier crawl nor eat. When, however, Herr 

 Schonfeld extends the opposite limit to 134°, 

 he evidently goes much beyond the truth. Such 

 a more than semi-boiling heat permits very little 

 animated nature to quit the shade, but least of 

 all is the bee able to withstand it. Herr Schon- 

 feld has evidently confounded the heat com- 

 municated to solid bodies with the temperature 

 of the surrounding air. Never but once have 

 1 seen the thermometer stand so high as 134°, 

 even when exposed to the full noontide heat, 

 but even then it was certainly only the adjacent 

 window-frame and the thermometer-bulb which 

 had become so heated from long exposure to 

 the sun in a confined situation, as I am satisfied 

 that the temperature of the surrounding atmos- 

 phere did not exceed 100°. As heated air be- 

 comes rarefied, and therefore lighter, it ascends, 

 its place being constantly supplied by that which 

 is cooler. Hence the shimmering haze which 

 overspreads the plains when exposed during a 

 calm day to the glowing heat of a summer's sun. 

 Thus does continual fluctuation produce a con- 

 tinual balance of the disturbed equilibrium; the 

 bees themselves assisting, when exposed to the 

 burning rays of the sun, by fanning with their 

 wings, and driving the heated air behind them, 

 and in this way producing a cooler temperature. 

 That bees do not drown readily is well known, 

 but put them in water heated to 134°, and ob- 

 serve the consequence. Herr Schonfeld may 

 convince himself, by careful observation and 

 experience, that the extremes fixed by him at 

 iS-^ to 134° are much too wide, and should be 

 reduced by nearly one-half— to the limits of 59° 



to 105°. — DZIERZON. 



The hive-bee is probably never, strictly 

 speaking, torpid in the winter, though, with 

 regard to the precise state in which it passes 

 the winter, a considerable difference of opinion 

 has obtained. 



Bee-Cells in Honey-Combs. 



[From "Homes Without Hands."] 



The bee has always been one of the most in- 

 teresting insects to mankind on account of the 

 direct benefit which it confers upon the human 

 race. There are many other insects which are 

 in reality quite as useful to us, and, indeed, are 

 indispensable, but Avhich we neglect because we 

 are ignorant of the importance and value of 

 their labors. The bee, however, furnishes two 

 powerful and tangible arguments in its favor — 

 namely, honey and wax, and is sure, therefore, 

 to enlist our sj^mpathies in its behalf. 



Independently, however, of these claims to 

 our notice, if the bee never made an ounce of 

 honey; if the wax were as useless to us as a 

 wasp-comb; if the insect were a mere stinging 

 creature, with a tetchy temper, it Avould still 

 deserve our admiration, on account of the won- 

 derful manner in which it constitutes its social 

 home, and the method by which that home is 

 regulated. 



I need not, in this place, repeat the well- 

 known facts respecting the constitution of the 

 bees, nor describe the duties of the queen, 

 drones, and workers. Suffice it to say that the 

 former is the mother as well as the queen of the 

 hive, and that the workers are undeveloped 

 females, which are properly called neuters, and 

 that the drones are males which do not work 

 and have no stings. 



There are three kinds of cells in a hive — the 

 worker cell, the drone cell, and the royal cell, 

 which latter is usually destroyed, or at least par- 

 tially razed by the workers after the young 

 queen has been hatched. It is totally unlike the 

 nursery of a subject, whether drone or worker, 

 and is almost always placed on the edge of a 

 comb. It is very much larger than an ordinary 

 cell, and is built with a lavish expenditure of 

 wax that aflbrds a curious contrast with the 

 rigid economy observed in the structure of the 

 other cells. 



Although the primary object of the worker 

 and drone cells is to serve as nurseries and 

 storehouses, they are also made to answer other 

 purposes. When the bee seeks repose, it almost 

 invariably creeps into a cell and buries itself 

 deep therein, the whole head, thorax, and part 

 of the abdomen being hidden. If a hive be 

 examined in the winter time, every cell that 

 happens to be empty, within the range of the 

 cluster, will be found tenanted by a bee; and 

 when the poor insects are put to death by the 

 absurd and cruel plan of smothering them with 

 the fumes of burning sulphur, they will be found 

 to have vainly sought escape from the suffocat- 

 ing vapor by forcing themselves into the re- 

 cesses of the empty cells. 



As a general fact the bees place the honey in 

 the coolest part of the hive, and the young 

 brood in the warmest, so that bee-keepers are 

 enabled to procure honey-comb of wonderful 

 purity by affixing glass or wooden caps to their 

 Lives. These caps are necessarily cooler than 

 the body of the hive, and therein the bees will 

 store large quantities of honey. 



The chief point which distinguishes the comb 



