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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



The Ignorance of the Past Ages. 



Mr. Thomas Balcomb, Luling, Tex- 

 as, has sent us the following letter, 

 and article on bees : " I have enclosed 

 an article on bees taken from the 

 British Agriculture of 1860. How 

 strange it all reads to an advanced 

 apiarist of the present day 1" We 

 will publish it as a relic of ignorance 

 and superstition. It is as follows, 

 and will amuse and interest as well as 

 disgust our readers : 



The word "Bee "is 6co, Saxon— fti, 

 Swedish— ;*(ye, Danish— ?«e?ie, German 

 -(((/a)), Anglo-Saxon, to build— a name 

 applied to an insect animal, of which 

 the body has the appearance of being 

 composed of circles or rings, and be- 

 ing cut into divisions by " incisure." 

 Ail insect, i?i.sfcf((, Latin, being cut in- 

 to segments, is an invertebral animal, 

 without bones, breathing through lat- 

 eral spinacles, and furnished with ar- 

 ticulated extremities and movable 

 antenna. The bee is the "Apis " of 

 scientific language, from n, by, and 

 pes, a foot, as the animals cling or are 

 suspended by the feet— from Greek 

 word, as they are born without feet; 

 npio, Latin, to collect ; or from Greek 

 for the sting of poison ; and placed in 

 the order " Inscda hymenoptera" from 

 the Greek word for a membrane and 

 a wing, as having four membrana- 

 ceous wings, and a sting in tlie tail, 

 which instil poison and pierce other 

 bodies, as leaves and fruit, in which 

 to deposit their eggs. 



The species of the order are very 

 niunerous, of whicli the Domestic or 

 Honey Bee, the ''Apis meUificn,'" is 

 the type. The insect has the mouth 

 furnished with two jaws, and a pro- 

 boscis folded in a double sheath— four 

 wings, of which tlie foremost cover 

 the hind ones when at rest— with the 

 sting in the tail of the female and 

 working bees. The animals are found 

 in many countries in a great abund- 

 ance, and attracted the earliest notice 

 of recorded autitiuity, and the nature 

 and economy of the insect has em- 

 ployed much attention in the natural 

 world. Congregations of many thou- 

 sands form a society under the despot- 

 ism of a queen, and the kinds are 

 three— in males or drones, females, 

 and neuters, without sex. The em- 

 ployment is most busy, hence the 

 " t)usy bee " in extracting the honey 

 or sweet juice of plants and flowers by 

 piercing with the proboscis into the 

 growing body, and conveying tlie 

 honey into the bag within the body of 

 the bee. Three vegetable substances 

 are thence prepared— honey, pollen, 

 or bee-bread, and wax— the first is de- 

 posited in combs or cells in store for 

 food, the second, mixed with honey, 

 feeds the larvffi or young, and wax is 

 excreted bv the bee for the purpose of 

 constructing the cells. Tlie pollen is 

 extracted from the anthers of flowers, 

 and is carried on the outer surface of 

 the hinder legs, on which a hairy con- 

 cave or basket is formed for lading 

 the matters. The wax is exuded at 

 the time in building the cells. The 



nest is built in hollows of trees or sus- 

 pended from a bough, and is con- 

 structed in the interior with cells or 

 combs that have in all ages raised the 

 wonder of the mathematician and the 

 admiration of the architect. The 

 form is hexagonal with angular bot- 

 toms — the dimensions are exactly the 

 same in length, width, and height, 

 with partitions equally exact. No 

 compass is able to surmount the accu- 

 racy of the structure, which is ce- 

 mented and joined with wax as the 

 work proceeds. The cells are used in 

 storing the honey and for rearing the 

 young, as the.feniales lay the eggs for 

 the purpose of being hatched "there. 

 About twenty-four days elapse from 

 the laying of the eggs till the animal 

 emerges a perfect imago, or a winged 

 bee. The three kinds of bees, (queens, 

 males and females ) are bred separately , 

 and reared by the distinction. 



The instinct of nature directs bees 

 to separate into colonies when the 

 number becomes inconveniently en- 

 larged for one abode— the migration is 

 called " swarming," by which a new 

 family is formed under the govern- 

 mentof a queen, who leads every de- 

 parture and settlement. The cluster 

 of bees attaches generally on a tree 

 not very distant from the old abode, 

 when the swarm isenticed into a hive, 

 and carried for domestic use. Two or 

 three swarms are generally cast off in 

 a season, of which the hist is always 

 the strongest and most valuable in 

 May. 



Bees are domesticated for the pur- 

 pose of producing honey and wax, 

 both of which substances are manu- 

 factured by the animals from the 

 juices of plants. Honey is a tliick, 

 viscous fluid substance— /uhiij/, Saxon 

 — houig, Dutch— lioneq-lwiiay, German 

 — ?)iei, Latin. The article is whitish 

 or yellowish in color. Sweet to the 

 taste, soluble in water and becoming 

 vinous on fermentation, liquefying iiy 

 a gentle heat, and of a fragrant smell. 

 It was very early discovered to be a 

 most delicious food, and has been used 

 in all ifges in various forms. It is a 

 species of sugar, and of two varieties 

 — liquid and crystallized, the twoqual- 

 ities being always mixed. Honey is 

 composed of sugar, mucilage, and sn 

 acid, which are separated by melting, 

 and the cooling deposits the crystals 

 of sugar. The use of honey is not so 

 great as formerly, but still retained in 

 medicine, and for domestic purposes 

 as an article of provision. 



Domesticated bees are lodged in 

 hives 12 inches in diameter and of the 

 same height, made of rolls of straw 

 plaited together with shrubby fibres, 

 circular in shape, flat on the bottom, 

 and with a dome roof. The bottom is 

 placed on a board a little wider than 

 the hive, fronting the south and west, 

 as bees like warm temperature. A 

 small square opening cut in front ot 

 the hive and on the platform, affords 

 an entry to the animals, 3 inches h>ng 

 and 14-inch high, with a litlle shelf in 

 front on which the bees alight. The 

 position of a hive may be on the low 

 end of a garden, as laden bees like to 

 descend, and have an open view by 

 which the animals rise in the morning. 

 The door of the hive is closed in No- 



vember, and the animals are torpid 

 during winter : the hives are thatched, 

 and tlie opening for work happens by 

 the beginning of May. In October, 

 the honey is taken by suffocating the 

 bees with fumesof sulphur overahole 

 in the ground, into wliich the bees fall 

 from the comb and are buried — a cruel 

 practice, as may be said, but yet re- 

 tained, and not more cruel than the 

 killing of other animals to procure 

 Hesh for food. Bees are preserved in 

 life, and the honey, or part of it, ob- 

 tained by several methods — but the 

 animals seldom thrive, and the re- 

 maining honey is lost. The loss of the 

 animals is compensated by the great 

 increase by breeding, which would 

 soon overstock the country — the old 

 is still retained. The honey is squeezed 

 from the combs— 8 to 10 lbs. from a 

 hive, and best from the top swarms, 

 or the first casting of the spring — or it 

 may remain in the combs, which are 

 cut into portions for use. The drained 

 honey is preserved in pots and for 

 medicinal purposes and confectionery. 

 Wax, wex, Saxon— loacfcs, German — 

 v:ax, Swedish — viscum, Latin — is a 

 thick, viscid, tenacious substance, ex- 

 creted for the purpose of building the 

 cells, and at the time wlien required, 

 and from any ft>od as well as from 

 flowers and plants. The honey being 

 drained from the combs, the waxy 

 structure remains to afford the article, 

 which is purified into the manufacture 

 of several purposes, two pounds of 

 wax being got from a good hive of 

 bees. The color is a lively yellow, 

 smell like to that of honey, tough 

 when new, brittle when old, becomes 

 hard and loses the smell and line color. 

 Wax resembles resin, having a differ- 

 ent oil : contains— 



Oxygen 5.544 



Hydrogen 12.672 



Carbon 81.784 



100.000 



Both wax and honey are articles of 

 a very large use, and are correspond- 

 ingly estimated. 



The economy of bees forms a sub- 

 ject of great curiosity and delight. 

 The government by a queen has shown 

 the constitution of monarchies, and 

 the attachment to the single choice 

 exhibits the regard of subjects to their 

 superiors. The flights of the animals 

 with a number in front of the queen, 

 with a larger portion formingthe rear, 

 has exhibited the modern processions 

 of dignity, with triunpeters and out- 

 riders in the van, a central or body 

 gua'-d, and promiscuous multitude 

 bringing up the rear. The materials 

 and structure of the cells form an un- 

 ceasing admiratiiui, in the shape and 

 correct dimensions, the unerring sim- 

 ilarity, and the very thin and delicate 

 paititions. The active life in procur- 

 ing and storing food" for the whole 

 family, exhibits a lesson of care and 

 providence of universal application to 

 all observation and to every thought- 

 fulness. The smallness of the animal 

 and tlie natural provisions of the body 

 add very much to the curious investi- 

 gation, and the wonderful and most 

 useful products of iis labor are a great 

 rHCommendation to the subject. The 

 injury said to be done by boring flow- 



