THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL AND GAZETTE. 



153 



its hair-clad proboscis into their recesses, sweeps 

 out tlie sweet juice, passes the laden proboscis 

 througli its jaws, scrapes off the liquid, and 

 swallows it. The juice then passes into a little 

 rccoptacle just within the abdomen, called the 

 "honey-bag," which is apparently composed of 

 an exceedingly delicate membrane, and seems 

 to discharge no other ofRce than that of a vessel 

 in which tue juice or nectar can be kept while 

 the bee is at work. 



As soon as the honey-bag is filled, the bee 

 flies back to the hive and disgorges the juice 

 into one of the cells. All the food that is eaten 

 by the bee passes through the honey-bag, which 

 is closely analogous to the crop of a bird, and it 

 would seem that the honey ought rather to pass 

 into the stomach than be disgorged at the will 

 of the insect But the bee is enabled to perform 

 this operation by means of a little valve which 

 leads from the honey-bag into the stomach, and 

 is plainly perceptible even with the unassisted 

 eye. Under ordinary circumstances the valve 

 just permits the food to pass gently and gra- 

 dually into the stomach; but the violent effort 

 which is made in ejecting the food closes the 

 valve, and only allows the honey to flow up- 

 ward through the mouth. 



The ofiice of the worker and drone-cells is 

 two-fold— first, to act as nurseries for the in- 

 sects while passing through their preliminary 

 stages, and, next, to serve as repositories for 

 food, whether liquid or solid. The egg of the 

 queen-bee is placed nearly at the bottom of the 

 cell, exactly on the angle where the points of 

 the lozenges meet. It is soon hatched into a 

 little white grub, which is assiduously fed by 

 the nurses, and grows with wonderful rapidity. 

 As soon as it has eaten its last larvfe meal, it 

 spins a silken cover within the cell, and remains 

 there till it has become a perfect insect. It 

 then bites its way out,:and after six or seven 

 days devoted to hardening and strengthening 

 its limbs in nursing the young brood, repairing 

 the combs, &c., it issues from the hive and 

 joins in the out-door labors of the older mem- 

 bers of the community. 



That bees can remember agreeable sensations 

 at least is evident from the following anecdote 

 related by Huber : 



"One autumn some honey was placed on a 

 window; the bees attended it in crowds. The 

 honey was taken away, and the window closed 

 with a sliutter all the winter. In the spring, 

 when it was re -opened, the bees returned, 

 though no fresh honey had been placed thei'e." 

 I— • ■«• «« » ■ — 



From the earliest times the little citizens of 

 the hive have had the character of being an ir- 

 ritable race. Their anger is without bounds, 

 says Virgil, and if tliey are molested, this char- 

 acter is no exaggeration. Some individuals, 

 however, they will suffer to go near their hives, 

 and do almost anything with them, and there 

 are others to whom they seem to take such an 

 antipathy, that they will attack them unpro- 

 voked. A great deal, perhaps, depends on this 

 — whether anything has happened to put them 

 out of humor. 



For the American Beo Journal. 



Frame Hives vs. Box Hives. 



" I wish to manage my bees as they did a 

 century ago, or, in other words, let them 

 manage themselves; and when the season is 

 over, take them up. Now, which class of hives 

 would you advise me to use — the box-hive or 

 the frame-hive V" 



My advice to every bee-keeper is, use the 

 frame-hives by all means. They can be made 

 almost as cheaply as box-hives, the only 

 difference in cost being the expense of a set of 

 frames. A set of ten can be had, ready made, 

 for fifty cents. Swarms can be put into frame- 

 hives with as little trouble as into the other 

 class, and they will work just as industriously, 

 and store as much honey at least. 



When you wish to " take them up," you will 

 save at least fifty cents in time and trouble. 

 There will be no cutting of combs, and conse- 

 quently no waste of honey. In the central part 

 of the hive you may find two or three frames, 

 last used for brood, filled with valuable comb, in 

 which is considerable bee-bread, and but a 

 small quantity of honey. These combs are of 

 little worth to the bee-keeper; but if saved till 

 another year, and then given to new swarms, 

 they will add much to their prosperity. A 

 frame of empty comb is richly worth 25 cents, 

 or a set often, $2.50. All the comb, therefore, 

 saved in the way indicated, is clear gain, and 

 so much in favor of frame-hives. 



Now, it seems to me that any person, whether 

 a keeper of bees or not, can see the tmth as 

 pointed out, and will be forced to the con- 

 clusion, however unpalateable, that the frame 

 hive is the better class for all bee-keepers to 

 use. There are many arguments that might be 

 used in support of this proposition; but let what 

 has been said suffice for the present. 



M. M. Baldridge. 



St. Charles, Kane Co., III. 



The combs of bees are always placed by them 

 at a uniform distance from each other, some- 

 what more than one-third of an inch, which is 

 just wide enough to allow them to pass easilv, 

 and have access to the young brood. On one 

 occasion, in consequence of Huber's arrange- 

 ments in the interior of a hive, the bees began 

 to build a comb near to the adjoining one than 

 the usual interval, but they soon appeared to 

 perceive their error, and corrected it by giving 

 to the comb a gradual curvature, so as to re- 

 sume the ordinary distance. 



Bees are extremely neat in their persons and 

 habitations, and remove all nuisances with 

 great assiduity, at least as far as their powers 

 enable them. Sometimes slugs or snails will 

 creep into a hive, which, with all their address, 

 they cannot readily remove. But here their 

 instinct is at no loss; for they kill them, and 

 afterwards embalm them with propolis, so as to 

 prevent any offensive odors from incommoding 

 them. 



