THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



423 



weather of this month or next, will lay 

 2,400 eggs a day. The queen may 

 govern the sex of the bee produced 

 from any given egg, and may produce 

 drones without number independent 

 of the co-operation of the male. A 

 queen may live three or four years. 

 Drones seldom die a natural death. 

 Those hatched in the spring, and es- 

 caping the single duty they are called 

 upon to perform, are killed by the 

 workers in July or August, unless 

 they happen to be in a queenless hive. 

 In the laiter case the workers evi- 

 dently recognize the fact that the 

 drone may be needed, and let him 

 Live. In a hive with a queen, the 

 workers, when performing hard labor, 

 often die when less than two months 

 old. In a queenless colony, when they 

 have little work to do, they sometimes 

 live through their first summer, and 

 even throughout the succeeding win- 

 ter. 



The bee eats various kinds of food, 

 and necessarily has a complex feed- 

 ing apparatus ; there is a proboscis or 

 trunk which is an extension of the 

 lower lip, and which is thrust down 

 into the cups of flowers for the sweets 

 there to be found, or lapped in any 

 fluids which the bee fancies. It has 

 two stomachs. In the flrst it stores 

 the honey gathered from flowers until 

 such time as it is ready to yield it up, 

 when it is ejected from the mouth, 

 into which it is thrown from the 

 stomach by the muscular contraction 

 of the walls of the latter. The sec- 

 ond stomach is used for the digestion 

 of food. 



Respiration is accomplished in a 

 curious way. Instead of theair being 

 taken into the body and actiug upon 

 the blood at a single point, as in the 

 lungs, it reaches every part of the 

 body through external air tubes with 

 external openings. Without fresh air 

 bees would die in a short time. The 

 way in which ventilation is secured 

 in a crowded hive, where the temper- 

 ature ranges from 73° to 84- is strik- 

 ingly illustrative of the intelligence 

 of these wonderful insects. A certain 

 number of bees, sometimes as many 

 as twenty, are told off for this pur- 

 pose. These fasten themselves by 

 their feet to the floor of the hives, 

 and there work their wings with 

 tremendous speed, as if flying, and 

 thus create a powerful current of air. 

 Each bee works for about half an 

 hour, when another takes its place, 

 and thus contributes to the ventila- 

 tion. 



In the construction of honey-comb 

 the bee uses large quantities of wax. 

 This is a secretion of little pouches 

 in the abdomen, and exudes from 

 under the rings around the body of 

 the bee in the form of plates or scales. 

 These scales are removed when need- 

 ed by the bee itself, or by some of its 

 fellows. Bees themselves live upon 

 the honey they take into their stom- 

 ach, enough being reserved for their 

 own sustenance when that intended 

 for the comb-cells is ejected. But the 

 young are fed upon the pollen or fer- 

 tilizing dust of flowers, which is gath- 

 ered by the bee, kneaded into a little 

 ball, and placed in a cup-shaped hol- 

 low surrounded by hairs at the middle 



joint of each of tlie hinder legs. The 

 hollow is called the basket, and in it 

 the bee carries the pollen to the hive, 

 where it is stored until needed. There 

 it is mixed with honey, partially di- 

 gested, and fed. 



Scientists have made the archi- 

 tecture of the cells a subject of pro- 

 found research, and some of the prob- 

 lems solved are as interesting as any 

 to be found in mathematics. A study 

 of a piece of comb will reveal unex- 

 pected wonders, and intensify the re- 

 spect for the marvelous architects 

 that planned, and the builders that 

 constructed it. 



The cells being constructed, the 

 queen is ready to begin laying eggs. 

 The cells are of different sizes and 

 shapes to suit the character of the 

 future inmates. Those intended for 

 the working bee are the smallest. The 

 drones have a little larger cell, and 

 the queen -bee eggs are each given a 

 royal apartment fully one inch high 

 by one-third of an inch wide. 



to come within her reach she would 

 instantly kill them. 



The nurses live in hopes that the 

 old queen will swarm, which is to 

 lead part of the colony out of the hive 

 to a new home, and as long as there 

 is any prospect of her doing so, they 

 will protect the young queens. Should 

 the queen-mother leave the hive for 

 good, the young queens are liberated 

 one by one a few days apart in order 

 to prevent their destroying one 

 another. Should two get out at the 

 same time, tliey immediately fight 

 until one is killed. 



Official Report of H. 8. EntomologiBt. 



Bee-Forap a Necessity. 



N. W. M'LAIN. 



THE DEONE BEE. 



For three days no attention is need- 

 ed save that the eggs must be kept 

 warm, and this the nurses make sure 

 of by grouping themselves around the 

 comb in which the cells are placed. 

 At the end of the third day the egg 

 has developed a small white worm 

 which is the larva. The utmost care 

 is taken of this worm. It is fed with 

 the pollen and honey mentioned 

 above, and the greatest solicitude is 

 shown for its welfare. In five or six 

 days it has grown to such a size that 

 it nearly fills the cell, and it ceases to 

 eat. Its nurses then seal up the 

 mouth of the cell with wax, and for 

 36 hours the larvie devotes itself to 

 spinning a cocoon. Three days later 

 it becomes a pupa, and every pari of 

 the future bee can be seen through 

 the transparent covering. Inside of 

 a week, or 21 days from the time the 

 egg is laid, a perfect bee steps forth. 

 Its nurses gather around it with 

 every appearance of joy, caressing it 

 with their tongues, and feeding it 

 liberally. For a few days it remains 

 in the hive, acting as a nurse, and 

 then it begins its work as a honey- 

 gatherer. 



But if the egi? is destined to become 

 a queen, it is fed a peculiar jelly 

 which seems to have the remarkable 

 property of converting a worker egg 

 into a queen if desired. A queen is 

 born sixteen days from the day the 

 egg is laid, but she is not always per- 

 naitted to come out from her cell. The 

 old queen hates her young rivals so 

 bitterly that should they be permitted 



[The following is an extract from 

 the Official Report of Mr. McLain to 

 the United States Entomologist, for 

 the year 1SS6, and now just issued by 

 the Department of Agriculture, at 

 Washington, in its "Reports of ob- 

 servations and experiments in the 

 practical Work of the Division, made 

 under the direction of the Entomolo- 

 gist."-ED.l 



If excellence in the bee is the chief 

 factor in successful honey-producing, 

 next in logical order is abundant, per- 

 sistent, and cheap bee pasturage. 

 Abundant pasturage is the amount 

 necessary to satisfy the requirements 

 of the number of colonies kept within 

 a given area. Persistent pasturage is 

 that which contemplates a variety of 

 perennial honey bearing flora of hardy 

 constitution and rugged habits, whose 

 terms of blooming follow each other 

 in succession continuously from early 

 spring to late fall, thus lengthening 

 out the season in which bees may 

 gather surplus honey. Cheap bee- 

 pasturage may be such as is furnished 

 from natural sources produced in 

 forests or by self propagating plants 

 growing in waste places or upon 

 lands of little value, and requiring 

 little or no labor. Or, cheap bee- 

 pasturage may be secured by culti- 

 vating fruit and field crops, the blos- 

 soms of which are valuable for honey- 

 bearing. 



As the forests of the country dis- 

 appear, and the waste lands are being 

 reclaimed, as the necessity for other 

 honey-producing resources is felt, as 

 the industry assumes more impor- , 

 tance, and as the influence of compe- 

 tition is more sharply felt, great in- 

 terest is shown in the subject of bee- 

 pasturage. The number of days in 

 each year in which bees can gather 

 and store surplus honey will not 

 average, except in exceptionally 

 favored localities, above 30 or 3.5 days ; 

 the remaining time and energies of 

 the bees being employed in gathering 

 sufiicient for the sustenance of the 

 colony, and enforced idleness or non- 

 productiveness. Enforced idleness, 

 and the consequent waste of time, 

 stores and energies sometimes result 

 from a failure of the flowers to secrete 

 nectar, even though the honey-bear- 



