AMERICAN BB:E JOURNAL, 



371 



and becomes part of the beautiful drone 

 or worker-comb, as the case may be ; if 

 the former, there are 16 cells to the 

 square inch, but if the latter, there are 

 25 to the same measurement. 



The base of the cell is trilateral, com- 

 prised of three diamonds, the center 

 protruding about ^ of an inch into the 

 sides of the bases of cells which back it, 

 gaining its depths Just where they meet, 

 and vice versa. By this system of nature 

 the capacity for brood-rearing is fully 

 utilized, so much so that the depth of 

 comb containing brood only measures % 

 of an inch ; therefore, in less than one 

 cubic inch they rear at one time 50 

 worker bees. 



Just how they form their cells of 

 either size so accurately, I am not pre- 

 pared to say. We read that with their 

 horns they feel, hear and smell, and I 

 think it not unlikely that they use them 

 also in measuring off the cells when 

 under construction ; though they smell 

 through their antenna?, yet they have 

 breathing apertures under the wings. 



We pass on now to the second detach- 

 ment, the nurses. Any intelligent reader 

 will understand that the bee, while in 

 its larval state, requires to be fed ; this 

 only lasts for six days ; but imagine the 

 queen in the busy season laying several 

 thousand eggs every day, which, in three 

 days from date of deposit, require the 

 nurse's attention. At one time there 

 will be from 12,000 to 20,000 of larva? 

 in one colony, requiring nursing, and 

 they are said to be regular gormandisers. 

 The first week of the worker-bee's life 

 after maturity, is devoted to one or both 

 of the classes above cited, since we know 

 for a fact that they do not take to field 

 labor until at least six or seven days old. 

 Let us now notice the third class, the 

 honey gatherers. If there is any one 

 class more momentous than the other, it 

 is the honey gatherers. The Creator of 

 all things made this little insect not only 

 to gather honey for its own use, but for 

 food and medicine for man as well, 

 which, while collecting, it rushes over 

 the blossoms, thrusting its proboscis 

 into every inviting tube, and while doing 

 so becomes more or less coated with 

 pollen from the stamens of the flowers 

 visited, and in doing so carries fertiliza- 

 tion to the several flower buds, otherwise 

 we would have no apples, no plums, no 

 currants, nor other small fruits, neither 

 could the farmer be assured of clover 

 seed without this kind act of the honey- 

 bee, which may be considered a fair deal, 

 seed and fruit for honey. 



I might just mention that the bee will 

 never visit the flowers of more than one 



kind of plant on the same trip. It is 

 hybridizing the clovers however. By 

 what I have told you of this class of 

 workers, you will observe that three 

 branches of work is carried on by them 

 at the same time, viz. : gathering honey, 

 collecting pollen and carrying fertiliza- 

 tion to where no other substitute can 

 be found. The fourth class are laying 

 workers. 

 . Poole, Ont. 



Bees and Bee-Keepers iuNewYort 



ARIEL WELLMAN. 



It seems to be a difficult task, at the 

 present day, to write anything that will 

 be of benefit to the average bee-keeper, 

 especially readers of the American Bee 

 Journal, although, if we are attentive 

 to our business, we may see some things 

 that every one " don't know." 



I shall waste a great deal less paper, 

 and shall try the patience of the reader 

 less to tell a few things that I know, for 

 it will not take half as much time to 

 tell what I know as it would to tell what 

 "I don't know "' about bee-keeping. 



At the time of taking my bees out of 

 the cellar last Spring, I exchanged places 

 with 2 colonies on the stands that they 

 occupied in the Fall, and when they 

 came out one colony went into the other 

 hive, on the stand that they had occu- 

 pied the Fall before. 



I soon found them queenless, with no 

 brood and no eggs — except in drone- 

 comb, which was filled with eggs. I 

 gave them eggs three times, but they 

 dug them out and destroyed them every 

 time. Just at that time I received a 

 queen by mail, and having no place for 

 the one superseded, I put her in with 

 this colony to supersede the laying 

 workers or drone-egg layers, and, con- 

 trary to all the advice that had been 

 published to consign them to the brim- 

 stone pit, I concluded to try to keep 

 them, and now they ar% a good colony, 

 and are storing honey in the sections. 



SKUNKS IN THE APIARY. 



One night during the Summer we 

 heard our dog (which we keep chained 

 near the bees) barking furiously. I 

 went out and let him loose, and he went 

 to a hive and pulled a skunk from under 

 the alighting-board, gave it a shake, 

 and it was soon dead. The next morn- 

 ing I cut its stomach open, and found it 

 full of bees. We had transferred the 

 bees from a box-hive a few days before, 

 and some of them had persisted in stay- 



