376 



"JtrnW MMERICMff MWB JO'W-MMMLr. 



half of August, and gave me about 5 

 pounds of bdx-honcy, besides enough 

 to winter on, all made from the out- 

 come of that little handful of bees, in 

 the centre of a hive, only contracted 

 to five combs at the time they were 

 the smallest, if I remember correctly. 



Any one can prove the correctness 

 of the foregoing by placing their hand 

 on the quilts over different hives on a 

 cool morning in May. Where the 

 cluster comes up so as to break the 

 crust of bees on the quilt, it will feel 

 quite warm at that point, but all 

 around this place the quilt will be cold; 

 which certainly proves that the heat is 

 not all in the top of the hive, but kept 

 by the bees in the cluster. 



If the above is cori-eet, then the only 

 contraction that amounts to anything 

 is that close contraction that forces the 

 bees to touch the hive at all points. 



Borodino, N. Y. 



DRONES. 



Objects and Work of Queens, 

 Workers and Drones. 



Written for the Ameriivtn Bee Journal 

 BY E. GEKET. 



Bees are divided into three classes. 

 Each has a special duty to perform. 

 They are created and constituted to be 

 happy, and enjoy the lobor allotted to 

 them. 



The absence of either class would 

 ruin the colony. The queen is the 

 mother, and produces the eggs from 

 which all the bees are hatched. Slie 

 is especially adapted to fill the place 

 she occupies, and is so organized that 

 she is able to produce either male or 

 female. If she tlesires to lay an egg 

 that will produce a male, she will de- 

 posit the egg in a large cell (drone- 

 cell) ; if a female, she will lay the egg 

 in a small cell (worker-cell). The sex 

 depends upon the .size of the cell in 

 which she deposits the egg, if she has 

 been pmperly matured, or has not be- 

 come barren or injured. 



There is amither class of females 

 that liave become dwarfed in size by 

 b.'ing allowed to remain in a small 

 cell insufhcicnt for the growth of a 

 perfect female, consequently the geni- 

 tive organs become contracted, and 

 the desire for copulation destroyed ; 

 hence they never mature, and are ren- 

 dered imperfect. Their nature and 

 desires are changed, tluis their duties 

 are different from a perfect female or 

 queen. This is a wise freak in the 

 development of tlie female. The larvie, 

 when not mon' tlian a day or two old, 

 is taken from the small cell and placed 

 in a largo cell made for the queen, and 

 supplied with a kind of food to produce 

 a fully <leveloped female or queen. 



while the dwarfed female or worker 

 bee is allowed to remain in the small 

 cell ; otherwise they would all be 

 queens, and deadily enemies to each 

 other, and would be destroyed ; but as 

 it is now arranged, their desire is to 

 gather stores for the support of the 

 colon}', and thej' are friends. 



The third class is the male bee (or 

 drone), from the peculiar adaptation 

 of his duty. He was created with a 

 lazy, indolent disposition, that he 

 might be contented to remain in the 

 hive, to generate the animal heat, to 

 hatch the larva', and dr}- down the 

 nectar (gathered by the workers) to 

 honej'. Had he the same industrious 

 disposition of the workes there would 

 be none to remain in the hive, and 

 the consequence would be there would 

 be no j-oung bees hatched, and the 

 nectar would sour, and the whole col- 

 ony go to ruin. Is this a good reason 

 why the drones should be left alone to 

 the entire management of the bees ? It 

 is wrong, in my opinion, to interfere 

 with the drones only for breeding pur- 

 poses. If we wish to rear queens 

 from the choicest colonies of bees, we 

 sliould remove the best queen from a 

 prosperous colony, and start another 

 colony with her, and then the bees 

 from which the queen was taken, will 

 at once rear several queen-cells ; and 

 the queens should all be properly 

 cared for. When the young queens 

 have hatched it is better to shut in all 

 the drones except those from your best 

 colon}', which would give a better 

 chance for the j-oung queeus to be 

 mated with choice select drones, and 

 after the queens are mated, let the 

 drones fly as usual. 



Where there are more drones than 

 workers, it is evident that the queen 

 has been injured, or is about to be- 

 come barren. The bees understand 

 when they have no need for the 

 drones, and will dispose of them in 

 due time. 



Lummi, Wash. Ter. 



LEARNING. 



The Experience of a Beginner 

 in Bee-Keeping. 



Read at the Rockford, Ills., Convention 



BY MR. HEHRICK. 



The experience of a beginner in bee- 

 keeping is a succession of surpsises. 

 For in this, more than in any other 

 avocation, does he find that the reality 

 ss aliuost the opposite to what he an- 

 ticipated. 



For example, he watches an exjjeri- 

 enced apiarist go into the top of a tall 

 tree, and cut off' a limb on which is 

 clustered a swarm of bees, and carry 

 it safely to the ground, and hive the 



bees. He thinks tliat it is a very sim- 

 ple and easy thing to do ; and so it is. 

 But a few days later, when he essays 

 to hive a swarm that he finds on one 

 of his apple trees, and he becomes the 

 chief actor instead of the spectator 

 standing at a safe distance, the thing 

 appears very different to him. He sees 

 from a different standpoint. On the 

 topmost round of the ladder, balancing 

 himself with his knee against a limb, 

 both arms extended, holding the limb 

 on which the bees are clustered, with 

 one hand, and sawing it off with the 

 other, his muscles quivering, the sweat 

 pouring down his face, the bees buzz- 

 ing inconveniently near his eyes, what 

 wonder if, on attempting to go down 

 the ladder, his eyes fixed on the clus- 

 ter of bees, he makes a mis-step, and, 

 " Jack -and- Jill " fashion, "tumbles 

 down and cracks his crown," and the 

 bees come buzzing after. 



Then, again, he watches an experi- 

 enced bee-keeper open up a hive, 

 take out the frames and look them 

 over, cutting out a queen-cell here and 

 a patch of drone-eomb there, and he 

 thinks the old man's slow and deliber- 

 ate movements are due to the infirmi- 

 ties of age ; and he goes home full of 

 conceit of what he can do with his 

 bees, and how much more quickly he 

 can do it. But after several attempts 

 he begins to learn that old adage, 

 " the more haste, the less speed." I 

 do not know of anything that will 

 knock the conceit out of a man quicker 

 than to find himself face to face with a 

 colony of excited bees ; compelled to 

 move very deliberately while the bees 

 are doing just the opposite, and hav- 

 ing it all their own way witli him. I 

 know how it is, for I have been there 

 myself. 



And here let me say to my young 

 bee-keeping friends, pay no attention 

 to what old bee-keepers say about 

 never using gloves or a veil when 

 manipulating bees. I do not doubt 

 their word in the least, for a good, 

 honest, old bee-keeper is like little 

 George Washington, he cannot tell a 

 lie. But all the same I know it is 

 perfectly safe to wear gloves and a 

 veil. If you are at all nervous, as 

 most joung bee-keepers will be, the.se 

 articles will reassure you ; and in any 

 case will prevent many a sting. I do 

 not, on any account, wish to intimate 

 that yon wouM care for a few stings, 

 but, you know, it kills the bee. 



But there are many experiences 

 about bee-keeping that are really 

 pleasant. It is pleasant to watch 

 them in early spring, and learn their 

 ways and methods. Later on it is 

 pleasant to supplj- them with needed 

 surplus storage. It is also pleasant, 

 during the honey flow, to note, from 

 day to day, the increase of honej' in 



