THE COUNTRY HOME [chapter 



are said by some to be gentler to handle. They are 

 at least better housekeepers in the way of debarring 

 moths, while they cap their combs more perfectly. 

 The Carnoleans, and Cyprians or Syrians complete 

 the list of our domestic bees, and they have the best 

 honey record. They are harmless when not mo- 

 lested, but act like hornets when disturbed at their 

 homes. What we still need is a longer-tongued 

 bee, able to extract honey from red clover and 

 from flowers that the ordinary bee cannot probe. 



Besides the honey bee we have five thousand vari- 

 eties of bees, including bumble bees, carpenter 

 bees, burrowing bees, cuckoo bees, and potter bees 

 — all of them useful, although some of them do 

 more or less mischief as well. The bumble bee 

 does us no harm, and is especially valuable for 

 cross-fertilizing clover. Among all of the bees not 

 one is more interesting than the hornet. I have 

 elsewhere spoken of his service in destroying the 

 aphidse. The queen alone lives through the win- 

 ter, by crawling into some warm corner, possibly 

 into your garret. In the spring she begins to make 

 paper, and starts a house. The first eggs produce 

 a brood of small workers that aid in house build- 

 ing; the next brood is of larger workers, and in the 



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