THE AMERICAJSI BEE JOURNAL. 



679 



about three days for an egg to hatch, 

 and in adjoining cells you will see 

 white grubs coiled up in the bottom 

 of the cell. Some of them have just 

 hatched out, and you can hardly see 

 them with the naked eye. Others fill 

 up the cell pretty well, and were 

 hatched about a week ago. Then you 

 can see them of all intermediate sizes. 



After the grub hatches out of the 

 egg, it is fed by the workers for about 

 six or seven days, when they seal it 

 over. You see a great many cells 

 thus sealed over, and after being 

 sealed over the grub, or larva, as it is 

 properly called, spins a cocoon about 

 itself, and in twenty-one days from 

 the time the egg was laid, the young 

 bee gnaws its way out of its cell, a 

 perfect-worker. A drone is hatched 

 in twenty-four days from the laying 

 of the egg, and a queen in sixteen." 



" Oh, see the big bees !" said Dan- 

 iel, pointing quickly with his finger, 

 almost touching them. 



" Be careful, my boy," said his 

 Uncle, " or you may get another 

 sting." 



Daniel's hands were instantly in 

 his pockets. 



" One of the first things to be 

 learned in handling bees," continued 

 his Uncle " is to make no rapid move- 

 ment. Be gentle with them. Those 

 big bees are drones, and have no 

 stings. On this next frame we find a 

 small patch of drone comb. You see 

 the cells look much larger. They 

 measure 16 to the square inch, or 32 

 on both sides. But we haven't seen 

 the most important member of the 

 community yet. Ah ! here she is," as 

 he lifted out another frame. 



THE QUEKH-BEE. 



" She is longer than the workers," 

 observed Ralph, " but her wings look 

 short." 



"Does she control all the rest?" 

 asked Grace. 



" Very far from it," was the reply ; 

 " instead of being called queen, she 

 should be called mother-bee, for she 

 does nothing in the world but lay 

 eggs. How many do you think she 

 can lay in 24 hours 'i* Guess big." 



" Twenty," said Grace. 



" Fifty," said Ralph. 



" Five hundred," said Daniel, and 

 was laughed at by the others. 



"None of you have guessed enough," 

 said their Uncle. " At her best she 

 can lay 3,000 eggs in 24 hours. 



ROBBEK BEES. 



" Oh, see what a shiny black bee," 

 said little Daniel, making an effort to 

 point with his elbow, his hands being 

 in his pockets. 



" Yes," said Uncle Charlie, " that 

 is a robber bee. See how quick it 

 darts away when another bee comes 

 near it. There ! one bee was too quick 

 for it, and has caught it by the leg. 

 See how it struggles to get free. Ah I 

 it has broken loose and is gone. It is 

 probably an old hand at the business, 

 and its shiny appearance is due to the 

 fact that the feathers or down have 

 been rubbed off of its body, possibly 

 by crowding through narrow places in 

 its efforts to steal." " Does the robber 

 bee belong to this hive V" asked Ralph. 



" Oh, no, it belongs to some other 

 colony, possibly this one standing 

 next, possibly it came from some hive 

 a mile or two away." 



" How can the bees tell it from their 

 own bees V" said Grace. 



" I don't know," said her Uncle, 

 " possibly by the smell. At any rate 

 the bees seem to have little difficulty 

 in distinguishing a stranger. I have 

 known 2 colonies to be put into the 

 same hive together, and every bee of 

 the last colony to be stung to death 

 by the others. But I want you to 

 notice whether there is any difference 

 in the color of the bees." 



HYBRID BEES. 



" Yes, sir,'" said Daniel, " some 

 have more yellow color on them than 

 others." 



" Yes, a colony of pure Italian bees 

 will have all workers with the first 

 three rings or segments of the ab- 

 domen yellow. The common black 

 bee has no yellow. This colony is a 

 mixture of black and Italian. They 

 are called hybrids. Not many years 

 ago there were no Italians in this 

 country, although now there are a 

 great many, and Italians and hybrids 

 are considered superior, generally, as 

 honey gatherers. Great pains are 

 taken to have good stock, and quite a 

 number of men make their principal 

 business the rearing of queens to sell. 

 Thousands of queens are sent every 

 year, through the mails, in little cages, 

 with a few worker bees to accompany 

 them. Importing queens from Italy 

 is also quite a business. Yonder hive 

 contains a queen which was hatched 

 under the sunny skies of Italy. I paid 

 .six dollars for her." 



" How can bees tell their own 

 hives V" asked Ralph. " The hives 

 all look alike." 



BEES KNOWING THEIR HOMES. 



" I'll answer you presently," said 

 his Uncle, as he finished closing up 

 the hive they had been inspecting. 

 Then he went along some distance, 

 looking at the different hives, till he 

 came to one where he said, "Now 

 watch the bees flying in front of this 

 hive." 



" Why," said Grace, " there are 

 more bees than at the other hives, 

 and they just keep flying in sort of 

 circles, and not darting in and out as 

 they do at the other hives." 



" I don't know," said her Uncle, 

 " that there are any more of them, 

 but the way they "fly about makes 

 them look so. .Just fix your eye upon 

 one bee as it starts out of the hive. 

 Instead of darling, like the bees of 

 other hives, straight out of the hive 

 as if the whole family were sick, and 

 it were sent for the doctor, it comes 

 bustling out of the entrance, shaking 

 itself and running about on the 

 alighting-board with a very important 

 air, as if to say, ' I tell you, it just 

 needs me about to have things go 

 right,' and then when it takes wing 

 it flies slowly a very little way from 

 the entrance going in circles a little 

 further and further away, keeping its 

 head constantly turned toward the 

 hive. These are young bees having a 

 play spell, and they fly thus carefully 



with their heads toward the hive to 

 mark their location, apparently trying 

 to fix in their little heads the position 

 of surrounding objects. Ever after, 

 they seem to fly back to that same 

 location on returning home, and if 

 their hive is moved away, only a few 

 feet, they will never find it, but fly 

 around and around the site of their 

 old home, in a dazed sort of way, per- 

 haps finally entering one of the 

 nearest hives, where they are likely 

 to be kindly received, providing they 

 enter well laden." 

 Marengo, 5 His. 



The Honey Resources of Iowa. 



EUGENE SECOR. 



If one takes the time to observe and 

 the trouble to enumerate them, he 

 will be astonished at the almost end- 

 less variety of honey-yielding plants 

 within the State. It would require a 

 skilled botanist to name them all. 



The All-wise Father has provided 

 nearly all plants and trees with either 

 honey or pollen, to attract the insect 

 world. He spreads a continual feast 

 for the bee, that the important object, 

 perfect fertilization, may be the more 

 certainly attained. The bee that slips 

 from flower to flower, rollicking in 

 the golden dust among the new-born 

 anthers, playing hide-and-seek in the 

 opening corollas, is performing a 

 work of untold value in the wise 

 economy of nature. The honey se- 

 creted by the blossom is for the pur- 

 pose of inviting cross-fertilization, 

 and to prevent inand-in breeding. 



If no insect is there to utilize the 

 drop of nectar, it is evaporated and 

 scattered to the four winds of heaven. 

 No one is richer for the ungathered 

 sweets, and no one isthe poorer whose 

 fields are searched by the tireless 

 little worker, whose instincts lead it 

 to garner the evanescent riches,which 

 of a truth, " take to themselves wings 

 and fly away." 



From the earliest Easter flower 

 that peeps out of the snow on some 

 sunny hillside, to the last fall-flower 

 in autumn, there is a continual suc- 

 cession of honey-bearing plants,whose 

 wealth of nectar ought to be utilized 

 as one of the sure resources of this 

 grand State. 



California may have occasionally 

 astonished us by her magnificent 

 honey crop, but in Iowa, where " the 

 early and the latter rains" are not 

 only pr(3Smised, but sent, we are gen- 

 erally confident of a reasonable sur- 

 plus. The pastures and roadsides are 

 covered with white clover which 

 yields the finest honey in the world. 

 The rivers and lakes are generally 

 skirted by basswood timber, one of 

 the best honey-producing trees in 

 America, yielding largely a nectar 

 that is prized for its beautiful amber 

 color and aromatic flavor. 



Every fence corner and neglected 

 field is planted by the hand of Nature, 

 as though she were trying in some 

 way to counteract man's shiftless- 

 ness, by making the earth bring forth 

 abundantly some of the good things 

 of life. Goldenrod,artichokes,thistle3, 



