552 



THE AMERICAJS BEE JOURNAL. 



but his education is not complete 

 until he has graduated from the bee in 

 the science of method, economy, and 

 the duties of a good citizen. 



A bee makes wise plans and works 

 for the common weal of the nation. 

 And whatsoever it Qndeth to do it 

 doeth with its might. Even when it 

 uses its sting it puts its whole soul 

 into it ; for it is soldier as well as 

 citizen. This double character has 

 led the poets to compare the bee 

 community to a state, in which every 

 member has its special duty. But in 

 this comparison the bees have the 

 advantage. Our systems are the im- 

 perfect development of ages, whereas 

 the bees received theirs perfect in the 

 beginning ; so that Virgil says they 

 pass their lives beneath " unchange- 

 able laws." Shakespeare calls them 



Creatures that, by a rule in nature, teach 

 The art of order to a peopled kingdom. 



Virgil has sung of the bees in fuller 

 strains than any other poet, and has 

 interwoven fact, theory, and legend 

 in a most charming manner. The 

 fourth book of the Georgics, the most 

 perfect of his poems, is devoted to 

 this theme. Here occurs the story of 

 the shepherd Aristseus, who lost his 

 bees and complained to his goddess- 

 mother " in her chamber in the river- 

 depth." She directs him to Proteus, 

 the seer, from whom he learns the 

 secret of replenishing his hives. 



In Virgil, the bee.s are magnified 

 types of humanity, just as the gods 

 are magnitied ones; and they go 

 about their business therefore after 

 the manner of men : 



Some seek supply of food 

 And by agreement labor in the fields; 

 Some in their narrow homes do lay the tear 

 Of the narcissus and gluey gum 

 Prom bark of trees, to be their hive's foundations. 



The contrast between the aged and 

 sedate bees and their more vigorous 

 companions is very curious : 



The agel guard the towns, and build the combs. 

 And moul'i the curious houses ; 'lis their charge. 

 But late at night the younger ones return 

 Wing-weary home, their legs thick-smeared with 

 thyme. 



But more curious from a scientific 

 point of view is the statement that 

 bees do not bring forth their offspring, 

 but gather them in their mouths from 

 leaves and sweet plants, and in this 

 way provide the "tiny freemen of 

 their Eome." One observes that the 

 Latin poet does not forget in his 

 figures to bring the bee-common- 

 wealth under Roman laws and cus- 

 toms. In another place he speaks of 

 their " setting out on their airy march 

 and pulling up the standards of the 

 camp." Indeed, the Roman bees are 

 very soldierly in their bearitig, though 

 not more so, perhaps, than their 

 English relatives. As, in Shakespeare, 

 some, 



like soldiers, armed in their stingg, 

 Make boot upon the summer's velvet buds, 



so in Virgil, 



Some stand like sentinels before the gates. 



At times the whole nation is aroused 

 by an unfriendly challenge. Then it 

 is they show themselves true Romans. 

 Their hearts " throb with the spirit 

 of war," says Virgil. A sound is 

 heard " that mimics the fitful blasts 

 of trumpets." The excited bees "flash 



their wings," " whet the points of 

 their beaks," throng around the chief's 

 pavilion, a.nd—viarabile dictu/— " with 

 loud shouts defy the enemy !" Then 

 comes the conflict, in which 



The leaders, midmost of the battle lines. 

 Conspicuous for their wings exhibit how 

 A mighty soul works in a narrow breast. 



The analogy between bees and men 

 is seldom carried more dangerously 

 near the verge of the ridiculous than 

 when a bee dies and the survivors 

 bear out the lifeless corpse 



And form the mournful funeral train. 



Time has somewhat dimmed this 

 picture, but with its suggestion of 

 the busts of dead ancestors and by- 

 gone accompaniments of a funeral, it 

 must have been somewhat vivid in its 

 day. 



The intelligence of bees and other 

 moral insects is greatly overrated, 

 both by moralists and poets. As 

 between bees and ants, the latter have 

 quite as good a claim to our respect, 

 if we may accept the conclusion of an 

 eminent English authority, that they 

 appear to possess some means of im- 

 parting information to one another— a 

 sort of ant-language ; whereas their 

 honey-making rivals work more by a 

 "rule in nature." Nevertheless bees 

 are more poetical in their associations, 

 and Virgil has invoked in their behalf 

 his Lucretian pantheism, introducing 

 it, however, with a cautious "they 

 say." According to this doctrine, the 

 fiery souls which animate their little 

 bodies are emanations from the All- 

 Soul which pervades and sustains the 

 framework of the universe, and con- 

 sequently a bee's history does not end 

 with its funeral. Its immortal part, 

 like the immortal part of a man, is 

 re-absorbed into the original fountain, 

 " and so there is no room for death," 

 says Virgil, "but each flies up into 

 the place of a star." 



Bees, along with ants, birds, leaves, 

 and hailstones, furnish the ancient 

 poets with convenient similes where 

 number was involved. Homer com- 

 pares the Greeks gathering for 

 battle to "swarms of closely-thronging 

 bees, always issuing in fresh numbers 

 from the hollow rock." .^Eneas, 

 looking down on Carthage from a 

 distance, saw the people at work on the 

 new buildings like so many bees in 

 summer. And Milton, whose mind 

 was filled with classic forms, makes 

 Satan's minions swarm to the council 

 at Pandemonium, 



As bees 

 In the springtime, when the sun with Taurus 



rides. 

 Pour forth their populous youth about the hive 

 In clusters. 



In American poetry Emerson's 

 "Humblebee"and Whit'tier's "Telling 

 the Bees" are unlike anything tlie 

 ancient Muse produced, and differ 

 widely from each other, both in style 

 and sentiment. The former contains 

 the thoughts which arise in the mind 

 of a philosopher as he calmly con- 

 templates the 



Sailer of the atmosphere 



making his tiny voyage from flower to 

 flower; whi.V the latter is a simple 

 and very efective appeal to the 

 affections. r. Whittier's poem is 



founded on the curious custom, in- 

 troduced from England and said to 

 have prevailed to some extent in the 

 rural districts of our own country, of 

 informing the bees, in the event of a 

 death in the family, and draping the 

 hives in black. This was supposed to 

 be necessary to prevent the bees from 

 flying away in search of a new home : 



Under the garden wall, 

 Forward and back. 

 Went drearily singing the chore-girl small. 

 Draping each hive with a shred of black. 



And the song she was singing ever since 



In my ear sounds on : 

 "Stay at home, pretty bees, fly not hence? 



Mistress Mary is dead and gone !" 



As good order is so strikingly 

 exhibited in " the government of the 

 bees, for the bees, and by the bees," 

 it seems appropriate that in Egyptian 

 hieroglyphics the bee should represent 

 royalty, and, in later times, become 

 the symbolof the J'rench Empire. In 

 France the royal mantle and standard 

 were thickly sown with golden bees, 

 and in the tomb of Childeric, in 1653, 

 there were discovered three hundred 

 bees, made from the same precious 

 metal. 



For the American Bee JoumaL 



Separators-FasteniiiE Fonndation. 



C. THEILMANN. 



Mr. Dibbern takes me to task on 

 page 265, because I have not as yet 

 progressed so far as to use separators 

 between sections, in order to obtain 

 straight combs. I admit that I have 

 never as yet used any separators for 

 that purpose, but I have made 

 many experiments to get straight 

 and true combs built in the sections, 

 without the use of objectionable 

 machinery to the bees, and have 

 for a number of years accomplished 

 the desired results almost to perfec- 

 tion. Even with the small crop of 

 basswood honey this year (I did not 

 get any clover), my sections of honey 

 are all built straight. It would have 

 been a pleasing sight to any bee- 

 keeper, to see about one hundred 

 section-cases stored in my honey- 

 house with all perfectly straight 

 combs built in them— at least they 

 were as straight as need be for any 

 purpose ; if 8 or more of these cases 

 were piled on top of each other, the 

 bee-spaces between the combs could 

 be seen clear through the whole of 

 them, if light was admitted in the 

 lower one, and I doubt very much if 

 Mr. D. could tell the difference 

 between those which contained combs 

 from last year, or those with new 

 sections and new foundation, as I 

 could not do so myself, and be sure of 

 it. My cases are all one size, and 

 hold 24 sections i^xA}^ by 2 inches, or 

 28 sections, 7 to the foot. 



Arriving at this point of perfection, 

 I would hardly know what to do with 

 separators— in fact I would not thank 

 a man for a load of them, for my own 

 use. I know that this will not agree 

 with some of our best authorities and 

 practical bee-masters, but we must 

 take into consideration that they have 

 their bees in different hives and man- 



