42 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



and strawberry bed, from which he re- 

 ceives soi-.ie benefit, shows dihgent at- 

 tention. Strawberries won't thrive with- 

 out care. 



Another farmer in the same locahty 

 with 140 acres of land and a large flock 

 of thoroughbred sheep to claim his at- 

 tention, sold six hundred dollars worth 

 of honey, the product of one season, 

 from a small apiary. 



He is thorough in his work and knows 

 the value of good queens and will have 

 no others. 



Bees in this locality made small in- 

 crease, producing very little honey the 

 past season and, in many instances, 

 have gone into winter quarters to starve 

 before they can help themselves, when 

 the same old cry, of "froze to death and 

 1 don't know why / have such luck," 

 will be heard. 



Luck has no influence for good or bad 

 results, it is management ; give the bees 

 the attention you would other things 

 around you from which you expect a 

 profit, and you can rely on them for re- 

 turns as you can the horse for his labor, 

 and the sheep for wool when they have 

 had resonable care. 



W. Richfield, Ohio. J. S. S. 



GIANT BEES OF INDIA. 



( Continued from page 31 ) 



The warm sun of approaching sum- 

 mer awakens her and she crawls out. 

 Immediately she looks about her for a 

 nest suitable to breed in. Having set- 

 tled upon quarters, she begins collecting 

 pollen trom the flowers, storing it away 

 in two pockets which she carries on her 

 hind legs. Into the nest chosen, she 

 puts the pollen and goes for more, fetch- 

 ing load after load until she has formed 

 a ball of pollen perhaps as much as an 

 inch in diameter. 



In the ball of pollen she lays her eggs, 

 and after a few days they are hatched, 

 bringing forth little warm-like larvae. 

 The larvge hatched in the mass of pollen 

 feed upon the nutritious material, con- 

 suming the portions nearest at hand, un- 

 til each one has cleared a little room. 



Then it proceeds to spin a cocoon around 

 itself, and after a little while it comes 

 out of this chrysalis a full-fledged work- 

 er bee. Almost immediately these new 

 hedged bees begin gathering |)ollen, 

 which they continually add to the origi- 

 nal lump, making it bigger and bigger, 

 while the queen goes on laying eggs in 

 it as long as warm weather lasts. Per- 

 haps before winter arrives the mass will 

 have grown to the size of one's two fists. 

 It is literally honeycombed with cells 

 from which the young bees have made 

 their escape, and these empty chambers 

 are used for the storing of honey. Most 

 of the honey gathered by bumble-bees 

 is obtained from red clover. Up to 

 nearly the end of the summer the queen 

 lays only workers' eggs — that is to say 

 eggs which produce females that are un- 

 developed sexually. They are tlie honey- 

 gathering and comb buflding class. 

 When autumn is coming on, however, 

 she produces males called drones. At 

 the same period also she lays eggs which 

 give birth to full developed females, all 

 of wliich are destined to be 



QUEENS THE FOI.LOWINO YEAR. 



These females mate with drones and 

 thus are rendered able to reproduce their 

 si)ecies in the next season. From six to 

 twelve or the future queens are turned 

 out by each hive. When cold weather 

 arrives they crawl into snug places, where 

 they hibernate during the winter, gather- 

 ing pollen in the spring and laying their 

 eggs in it. Thus is completed the cycle 

 of their species. Only the queen sur- 

 vives, all the workers and drones dying. 

 Thus it may be said that every bumble- 

 bee hive is wiped out each autumn. 

 Here is one of the reasons why this 

 genus of Apidffi is not useful to mankind. 

 They do not gatlier in numbers suflicient 

 to accumulate large stores of honey, not- 

 withstanding their industry. Ordinarily 

 a single colony will not number more 

 than thirty or forty individuals. An- 

 other cause for their worthlessness is 

 that their cells, being formed in the man- 

 ner described, are huddled together 

 without order, so that the honey cannot 



