AUGUST 1, 1914 



pile of straw on one side, and a heap of 

 split bramble wands on the other. The 

 material is cheap enough, and a knife is the 

 only tool for the making of these and their 

 warm haekels of straw. 



The swarms are hived in the newest and 

 best skeps ; and when they want feeding the 

 beeman whets the edge of his knife upon 

 the side of his shoe and proceeds to cut an 

 alder stick from the garden hedge. 



A short piece is selected, split apart, tlie 

 pith scraped out, and here are two feeders 

 ready for use. They are thrust into the hive 

 mouth, and filled each evening with a mix- 

 ture of any thing sweet until the bees can 

 take care of themselves. If in a talkative 

 mood he will tell you with pleasure about 

 " owd Tom's bees as died arter all, although 

 'e fed 'em while 'e could git about." " And 

 what could 'is widder expect wen she ne'er 

 woke 'em up, nor put 'em in mournin'?" 



" Bees be curis things now," he will observe, 

 lighting his pipe, " and I well mind 'ow 

 when Uncle Jim died 'is skep perished the 

 follerin' winter, 'cause 'e ne'er put a scrap 

 o' black on any on 'em. Now, when my 

 father died, close on thirty 'ear ago, I took 

 care to wake the bees up, and put all the 

 hives in mournin'. I cut up his old black 

 weskit on jDurpose, and not one on 'em per- 

 ished ; and they was the forridest of any 

 about to swarm and cut that spring. Wot a 

 woppin' lot of honey I 'ad that 'ear too! 

 Sold £6 worth, 'sides wot was eat at 'ome, 

 and brewed a big barrel of mead in t' 

 bargain." 



The accompanying photogi'aph shows 

 part of a quaint Cotswold bee-garden with 

 its owner, who spends many happy hours 

 among the bees. 



Cheltenham, England. 



A STUDY OF THE 



BY P. GREINEB 



The process of incubation, as well as the 

 growth of insects, the development of the 

 fetus of and within our different domestic 

 animals, etc., is not so exactly fixed to the 

 minute that we can depend on such exact- 

 ness. There ai'e retarding influences at work 

 sometimes, of which we are ignorant, which 

 leave us to make guesses, and very many 

 times we are obliged to confess that we do 

 not know the reasons. 



Dr. Miller has observed worker bees to 

 mature in 20 days minus two hours. This is, 

 I believe, the shortest time on record up to 

 this time so far as I know. I have seen bees 

 emerge from cells into which I saw the 

 queen lay the eggs. It was during very 

 warm weather in August, and the colony I 

 was experimenting with was of normal 

 strength, but in a contracted brood-chamber, 

 capacity five L. frames. The tim.e varied 

 from twenty days and two hours to twenty 

 days and fourteen and a half hours. I ob- 

 served that the larva? of these same bees 

 were sealed over in their cells in from eight 

 days and fourteen hours to just nine days. 

 In no case did it take any longer. 



I have seen queens deposit eggs in drone- 

 cells. These same cells were sealed within 

 ten days ; some may have been sealed a little 

 earlier. The matured drones came forth, 

 and I saw them emerging in from 24 days 

 16 hours to 24 days 22V2 hours. 



I have kept bees since 1874, and since 

 1875 have handled from 100 to 300 colonies 

 each year; but I have not yet been fortunate 

 enough to surprise a queen in the act of 



depositing an egg in a queen-cell. I am 

 most anxious to satisfy myself as to just 

 how much time is required to bring a queen 

 to maturity under perfectly normal condi- 

 tions; but I am afraid I shall have to leave 

 it for others to find out. 



Other interesting facts along this line, and 

 observations made, I might mention. I have 

 noticed bees coming in loaded with pollen 

 when five days old — this under abnormal 

 conditions; and under normal conditions 

 they were twelve days old. 



In a colony of native bees, which had been 

 requeened with an Italian mother, the bees 

 that were at work in the sections were all of 

 the yellow type when the oldest yellow bees 

 were ten days old. 



When the youngest native bees were 

 eighteen days old, none were seen in the 

 sections. All the bees hanging in strings in 

 the sections secreting wax, and others climb- 

 ing up and down on them looking for and 

 gathering wax-scales, Avere yellow bees. In 

 other words, the comb-building was done by 

 the young bees. 



In conclusion I want to recommend to all 

 young beekeepers ro make a study of th^ 

 hive, to watch the behavior of the bees, and 

 to make note of all observations made in 

 detail, using for the purj^ose a special note- 

 book. The interested student will find the 

 woik most fascinating, and will find a great 

 many things to write down he never liad 

 thought of before. He may observe the 

 feeding of the larv^, the sealing of the cells^ 



