66 



FARMERS' REGISTER— MANAGEMENT OF BEES. 



the signs which we shall indicate, ought to provide 

 the remedy of which we shall speak, or carry off 

 the hive for the purpose of saving what remains. 



CHAPTER III. 



The Reproduction of Bees. 



The queen bee is impregnated by meeting with 

 the male abroad, in the open air. It is thus with 

 all flying insects. She can receive the male from 

 the next day after first leaving the cell in which 

 slie was hatched ; and that her laying may be good, 

 her meeting with the male ought to take place 

 within the first twenty days after her coming out. 



Forty-six hours after having been impregnated 

 the queen begins her laying, with eggs which are 

 to produce working bees. This laying continues 

 about eleven months, including tlie time when it 

 is slackened and even suspended by the cold. In 

 the eleventh month she commences laying eggs 

 from which the drones will come. As soon as the 

 workers see that their queen is laying male eggs, 

 they prepare royal cells, in which the queen depo- 

 sits the eo-o-s v/hich are to give existence to young 

 queens. That being done, the annual laying of the 

 queen is finished; she is light, can fly easily, and 

 will depart with the first swarm to go elsev.'here to 

 recommence her annual laying. 



The queen may receive the male after the first 

 twenty days from her leaving her cell ; and she also 

 lays in forty-six hours after. But then her laying 

 is vitiated, and all her eggs will produce males. In 

 a few months after, the working bees will desert 

 this queen, unable to perpetuate the hive. Fortu- 

 nately such cases are rare. 



We call a hrood the eggs laid by the queen in 

 the cells, and all the larvcB which are produced from 

 them. From the egg, a worm hatches, which soon 

 changes to a white bee, whicli is called nympha — 

 and Avhich by degrees takes the color and appear- 

 ance of the bees which we see. In fine weather, 

 the working bee is formed and can take its flight 

 in twenty-three days from the laying of the egg: 

 the male can take his flight on the twenty-seventh 

 day, and the young queens on the sixteenth. 



The brood is at the centre of the hive, which is 

 the hottest place ; and the bees cluster there to in- 

 crease the heat to the degree necessary for hatch- 

 ing the eggs. 



One or two years is the term of life for the work- 

 ing bees. The queens, less exposed to the inclem- 

 ency of the weather, live longer ; but all are re- 

 newed continually by the prodigious fecundity of 

 the queens. Hives (or single societies) have lasted 

 twenty and thirty years. 



CHAPTER IV. 



Of the Sting of the Bee. 



The little point which we see at the extremity 

 of the body of the bee, and which is so slender and 

 delicate to the eye, is a little case which serves as 

 a sheath for the sting. Towards the top, at its 

 root, is the bag of poison, small portions of which 

 the bee darts through the hollow sheath. The 

 stinging of the bee is almost always fatal to itself, 

 by the sting being left in the wound it inflicts, and 

 a portion of the intestines being torn away with it, 

 which causes certain death to the bee. 



If the stinging of the bees is feared in visiting 

 the hives, or taking the honey, it is necessary to 

 cover the head with a cap, and to put over that a 



hood of linen having a mask of woven wire. The 

 hood should descend upon the shoulders, low enough 

 to be confined under the clothes. The hands may 

 be defended by gloves of shaggy wool, lengthened 

 with linen so that they will reach above the elbows, 

 where they should be drawn close and tied securely 

 around the arms. 



Many remedies have been prescribed for tlie 

 stinging of bees, but I know of only two that will 

 serve: these are alkali, and quick lime, either of 

 which will penetrate into the wound, and burn or 

 neutralize the poison. If we have neither alkali 

 nor quicklime, there is no surer remedy Ihan to 

 draw out the sting, squeeze the wound to force out 

 the poison, and wash the place with cold water. 



CHAPTER V. 



Of the Substances Found in the Hives of Bees. 

 These are honey, wax, pollen and propolis.* 



[Honey is an element of all vegetables; it is in 

 roots, as carrots, turnips, sweet potatoes, or onions 

 when roasted — in herbaceous stems, as in sugar- 

 cane, maize, and our cereal plants — in the trunk of 

 certain trees, as the ash which yields manna, the 

 larch which also yields the manna called that of 

 Briancon, the balm trees, &c. Far more abun- 

 dantly, honey is found in melons, fruits, and in cider 

 and wine, before they have fermented. It exudes 

 from and appears on the leaves of certain trees, upon 

 the shrubs of our hedges, the grass of the meadows, 

 and the ears of growing grain. The excrements of 

 the vine-frettcrs are of honey. Living amidst this 

 universal fluid, the urine of man and other animals 

 is impregnated with it. The bees do not alter the 

 color nor quality of honey ; they store it in their 

 hives just as they find it. As the productions of 

 nature are infinitely varied, so the color, consistence 

 and flavor of honey are varied according to the pro - 

 ductions of each country.! 



The waxen edifices of the bees or combs, con- 

 tain innumerable cells, in which the bees store their 

 honey, to serve them for food during the winter and 

 bad weather. When these cells arc full of honey, 

 the bees close them with little coverings of wax, 

 and in that manner it is preserved. When the 

 filled combs are taken from the bees, we open the 

 closed cells with the blade of a knife, and in that 

 state place the combs on sieves, in order that the 

 honey may flow into vessels placed beneath. The 

 honey which is obtained thus, without expression, 

 is the best that can be made in the country pro- 

 ducing it. When the combs are drained, they still 

 retain a little honey, which is separated by press- 

 ing the wax of the combs; this honey is inferior 

 in quality to the former. 



When we save a certain quantity of honey, it 

 must be done with care, and no bees, nor larva, 

 should be suffered to be mixed with the honey, as 

 that might give it a bad flavor. 



Wlien the dripping of the honey is finished, all 

 of the same quality should be put together in a 

 large vessel which has a hole near the bottom, but 

 which is kept closed. The honey placed in this 



* In the original, this chapter contains only tliese few 

 words. The addition made in the translation is an 

 abridgement of the several distinct articles in the same 

 general work on honey, pollen, propolis, and ivax. 



t In enumerating so much at large the sources whence 

 honey is obtained,"it is remarkable that the author should 

 have omitted yJwer*. 



