164 



THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. 



June 



old already, and if I should let it 

 stand another year, the bees will be so 

 old, that they will not be able to 

 labour much next summer, and now 

 we are sure of a good lump of 

 honey," is clearly shown, and the reg- 

 ulation of nature for supplying new 

 generations to take the place of the 

 old ones is to a considerable degree 

 understood. Though regarding bees 

 as "annuals," he suggests that some 

 bred in the best months, May and 

 June, may survive a month or two 

 longer; yet that the bees are every 

 year renewed, seems duly established. 

 I fail to find that he makes any dis- 

 tinction as to longevity among the 

 different classes. In experimenting 

 with a new swarm, however, to test 

 the loyalty of the bees to their queen, 

 he found that she survived by several 

 days her famished subjects, who 

 clung to her, disabled by her inquisi- 

 tive owner, and thus starved to death 

 rather than to leave her. 



It is a surprise to the author that 

 they live so long, considering their 

 numerous enemies.. The chief of 

 these are mice, moths, earwigs, horn- 

 ets, wasps, swallows and sparrows. 



He recommends uniting swarms, 

 but does it after night, trusting that 

 in the darkneas neither swarm will 

 leave the hive, but that before morn- 

 ing one of the queens will be killed 

 or disabled and cast out (probable sur- 

 rounded by two or three hundred of 

 guards) while her host of subjects 

 will be enlisted under the uew ruler. 



Breeding is recommended, but only 

 in September and April, with cautions 

 as to the means of avoiding robbers. 

 Honey diluted with water is the only 

 food recommended. The necessity of 

 an abundance of water within reach 



of the bees is most emphatically ex- 

 plained, for "They drink much, and 

 fetch water often to mix up their 

 Sandarach, or Bee Bread, to feed 

 their young, especially in March, 

 April and May. So that if they 

 should be very far from water they 

 would lose much time in their many 

 journeys to fetch it." As a remedy, 

 the author advises small troughs or 

 boxes holding about one gallon, and 

 placed near the hive. Fill with water 

 and have floating on its surface small 

 boards of deal, on which they may 

 alight and obtain the moisture with 

 no danger of being drowned. 



A protest is made against the regu- 

 lation method of taking honey by 

 means of brimstone, and thus destroy- 

 ing the bees, and concise directings 

 for making hives dispensing with this 

 slaughter, are given. Though claim- 

 ing no supernatural powers, he also 

 tells with all seriousness, *'How to 

 raise dead bees to life." His cure is 

 ivarmpth, and since he regards the two 

 diseases besides old age that are fatal 

 to be hunger and cold, his success in 

 treatment is less miraculous in its 

 nature than the chapter heading in- 

 dicates. 



While the musty little volume 

 would scarcely appeal to the modern 

 bee keeper as practical, it is certainly 

 worthy of his perusal. Not so much 

 in teaching him how to work as in 

 showing him the vast amount of study 

 to which modern apiculture is indebt- 

 ed. And still more fully will be 

 realized the wisdom of the Creator 

 who placed "Such Wisdom, such 

 Curious Art, such Fortitude and 

 Foresight, so Polite a Government, 

 and such indefatigable industry in 

 Creatures so small as the bees," 



