294 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



May, 1920 



^ 



U 



LAST month 

 ^ we learned 

 how to open 

 the hive, and 

 took our first 

 hasty glimpse 

 inside. This 

 month we shall 

 make a closer 

 study of the in- 



liabitants and contents of the hive. Follow- 

 ing the directions already given, let us ap- 

 proach the hive from the side and careful- 

 ly open it with as little jarring and as little 

 smoking as possible. 



On removing one of the frames and hold- 

 ing it vertically, as recommended in our last 

 talk, we note hundreds of bees moving all 

 about on the combs. Most of them are like 

 those we have often seen in the fields at 

 work on the blossoms. These are undevelop- 

 ed females and are the honey-gatherers or 

 workers. Here and there on the combs will 

 be noticed thickset clumsy-looking bees 

 somewhat larger than the workers. These 

 are the males or drones. They are unable 

 to sting or to gather honey, their only func- 

 tion being the fertilization of the queen. 

 The one largest and longest bee in the hive 

 is the queen. It is quite likely that among 

 the thousands of bees the beginner may not 

 see her the first few times he opens the 

 hive, but having once observed her, will 

 have less trouble in locating her a second 

 time. Her regal bearing and the immediate 

 retinue of worshipers, facing toward her 

 and caressing her with their antennae, or 

 occasionally reaching out their tongues and 

 feeding her, make the queen rather con- 

 spicuous to the practiced eye. This one 

 bee to whom such deference is shown is the 

 mother bee of the entire 

 colony. As she proceeds 

 over the combs she ap- 

 parently chooses the 

 cells that best suit her, 

 and then hanging to the 

 cell rim with her feet 

 she inserts her abdomen 

 in the cell and neatly 

 glues to the cell's base 

 a tiny elongated white 



egg of about the same diameter as a pin. 

 This egg-laying is the life work of the queen. 

 Appearance of Brood. 

 Near these cells of eggs will be seen cells 

 containing what appear to be pearl-white 

 grubs. These are larvaB in different stages 

 of development. Also cells will be seen 

 having light to dark-brown and slightly con- 

 vex cappings made of wax and fibrous ma- 

 terial. These cells contain the sealed brood, 

 that is, larvae that have spun their cocoons 

 and passed into the pupa stage. Whether 

 these cells are drone or worker may be de- 

 termined by the size of the cells and the 

 cliaracter of the cappings, the drone-cells 

 being i^ inch in diameter and the worker- 

 cells 1/5 inch. The cappings of drone-cells 

 are also more convex than those of worker- 



TALKS TO BEGINNERS 



By lona Fowls 



1 



cells. That part 

 of the combs in 

 which brood is 

 reared is called 

 the brood-nest, 

 and the entire 

 c h a m b e r con- 

 taining the 

 brood is called 

 the brood-cham- 

 ber. In the spring when the queen begins 

 laying, she generally starts the brood-nest 

 near the center of the hive. As the oval 

 of brood increases in size, similar ovals of 

 brood appear on adjacent combs. 



Pollen and Its Storage. 

 Here and there near the brood will be 

 noticed uncapped cells containing a yellow, 

 red, green, or dark-brown substance. This 

 is beebread, a mixture of honey and pollen 

 used especially for feeding young larv®. 

 The pollen is gathered by the bees from 

 flowers and carried home packed in pellets 

 on the rear legs. Occasionally a bee with a 

 load of pollen may be seen rushing impetu- 

 ously about the comb, looking for a cell into 

 which to deposit the load. When such a cell 

 is found the bee backs into the cell and 

 holding the rear legs down dexterously 

 brushes off the balls of pollen. 



Honey and Attachment Cells. 

 Around the outsides of the combs are 

 both worker- and drone-cells with white, yel- 

 low or bluish-white cappings, somewhat flat- 

 tened in appearance. These contain honey 

 that has been placed conveniently for feed- 

 ing the young brood. At the edges of the 

 comb, attaching the combs to the frames, 

 are irregularly shaped cells called attach- 

 ment cells. 



tthmmii t '7i@ . rigwifgiiiiit Mmiiiif ifliiri, i mutmtaim 





Queen 



Drone Woiker 



(Photographed as nearly natural size as possible.) 



Life of the Drone. 



The life histories and the activities of the 

 three kinds of individuals in the hive are 

 very interesting. Moreover, it is quite im- 

 portant that the beginner should have these 

 histories and stages of development well in 

 mind, in order that he may manage his colo- 

 nies intelligently. 



The drone or male bee develops from an 

 unfertilized egg which the queen lays in a 

 drone-cell. In three days the egg hatches 

 into a tiny larva surrounded by a milky 

 partially digested food called "chyle," 

 which is provided by the nurse bees. This 

 larva continues to increase in size until the 

 sixth day from the hatching of the egg; 

 then the* larva begins spinning its cocoon 

 and the cell is sealed, that is, a capping of 



