808 



THE' n^iawmionw wmw jQ^mmm%r. 



and the queens may be allowed to run 

 in, and all will be right. 



The bees may also be united with 



perfect satisfaction, and without loss. 

 No consumption of houej' is needed, 

 no sweet solution is wanted, and the 

 perfumes of cremated wood is uncalled 

 for. The time is fast approaching 

 when the old -IS-hour-method will be- 

 come obsolete. 



South Newbury, Ohio. 



HONEY-BEES. 



Apieultiiral Literature and 

 Facts About Bec§. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



BY HENRY K. ST.\LEY. 



Among the bees still holds good that 

 law of the stronger preying upon the 

 weaker. The thought rendered in 

 poetry is as follows : 



Big fleas have little fleas to bite 'em. 



And little fleas have lesser fleas, ad inftnitum. 



So, when we look into the animal 

 kingdom on this nether world, we find 

 the lion preying upon the jackal, the 

 wolf upon the lamb, etc. ; but, of 

 course, there are e.xceptions to the 

 general rule. 



Tlie Robbers Among tlie Bees. 



The bee in its formation, life and 

 idiosyncrasies is a good deal like man," 

 as I mentioned on page 792. That is, 

 in a case of continuous drouth, and 

 when honej' -bearing plants cease to 

 pour forth their nectar, the bee, like 

 man when he is out of employment 

 and becomes down-hearted, will often 

 resort to robbing. But this robbing 

 may be easily remedied, by so chang- 

 ing the hives, that, the robbers instead 

 of bringing honey to their own hive, 

 will be taking it from their own alveary 

 to the other. This will often neutra- 

 lize the aS'air, but sometimes it will 

 not. Then you had better try the 

 odor plan (i.e.) putting one kind of 

 odor (as peppermint) in one hive, and 

 another kind (as musk) in the other ; 

 and, then, the bees of the various hives 

 being able to distinguish themselves 

 from one another, you will soon see 

 the truth in that old saying, " Uber 

 clem Sturriic iH liuhe^'' — After the tem- 

 pest is sunshine. 



No one who has not seen this whole- 

 sale robljiug among bees, cau hardly 

 comprehenil how the little scalawags 

 dart through the air from .one hive to 

 the other, the robbers bearing liome 

 their little load of pilfered sweets, 

 shaking themselves at the entrance of 

 their own hive to inform their co- 

 lal)orers, when the air is soon tilled 

 with a maddened, angry swarm of 

 bees, ready to sting the first person 



that comes in sight, on the least provo- 

 catian, while over the alighting-board 

 of the robber hive may be seen the 

 pilferers falling tliick and fast. 



Virgil's description of a imgna be- 

 tween two colonies of bees, applies 

 xevy well to this robbing incident. It 

 is as follows : 



"As soon, therefore, as they find the 

 spring serene, and the fields of air 

 open, fortli thej' rush from their gates; 

 thej' join battle : buzzing sounds arise 

 in the sky aloft : mingled they cluster 

 in a mighty round, and fall headlong : 

 hail rains not thicker from the air, nor 

 such quantities of acorns from tlie 

 shaken oak. The kings themselves 

 admit the hosts, distinguished by their 

 wings, exert miglity souls in little 

 bodies, obstinately determined not to 

 j'ield till the dread victor has com- 

 pelled either these or tliose to turn 

 their backs in flight. These commo- 

 tions of their minds, and this so mighty 

 fray, checked by the throw of a little 

 dust will cease." 



The above, of course, is the embel- 

 lished language of the poet, and 

 adorned by his imagination to look 

 plausible to the illiterate ; but in practi- 

 cable experience he will find the diffi- 

 culties are greater than he expected. 

 We may exclaim with Bobbie Burns, 

 when bees are on the pilfering ram- 

 page, and 



Bizz out wi 'angry fyke, (bustle) 



When plundering herds assail their byke (hive), 



that for the nonce, it is enough for a 

 literate apiarist to manage them, let 

 alone an illiterate one. 



For 21 daj-s of its life (the worker- 

 bee) — 16 days for the queen, and 24 

 for the drone — it lives what may be 

 termed an aquatic life ; and from the 

 hatching of the egg it passes through 

 great changes, until it finally emerges 

 from the cell a perfect bee, when its 

 life may be said to be that of the 

 aerial tj'pe ; for then, it soon acquires 

 tlie power to use its wings, feet and 

 other organs. 



It devotes about the first ten daj^s of 

 its aerial life to cleaning cells — pre- 

 paratory to receive the eggs or honey 

 — or taking care of bees just emerging, 

 etc., like chiUlren learn to perform the 

 work in a cuisine and household duties. 



At 12 or 14 days of age the bee 

 commences to labor in the fields, and 

 passes its prime at about six weeks in 

 the working season, when mild — or it 

 may be onl^- 30 days, during a strong 

 honey-flow — wlien it steadily begins to 

 go into decline. So, like u,s, it is only 

 a few short days from tlie time they 

 had their first after-birth frolic, when 



Sporting witll quick glance, 

 Show to the sun their waved coals dropt with gold, 



to the time when, with torn wings and 

 haggard limbs, they wearil}' draw 



themselves away from the busy swarm 

 of population, to some remote place to 

 die in. Hence when the peculiarities 

 of the bee are brought vis-a-vis with 

 the peculiarities of the human race, 

 does it not seem that we are very 

 closelj- allied to the faiuilj- of the Apis 

 Mellijica ? 



Atax}', when the hive is in a healthy 

 condition, finds no place among the 

 bees. Everything must be in apple- 

 pie (^rder. If there are some that get 

 mad, and trow they will do what they 

 please sans souci, they are soon ousted 

 out or treated to a reprimand. One 

 thing very queer about them is, the 

 the utter nonchalance the}' have for in- 

 firm members of their familj'. 



It is a well known fact, that some 

 people who are too lazy to work in the 

 winter-time, through their influence 

 with the trustee in their township, get 

 a permit to enter the county infirmarj" 

 palming ofl" valetudinarianism on liim 

 Of course, with this permit, they gain 

 an entrance into the infirmary, and 

 feast there, through the winter at the 

 expense of the county, leaving again 



When that Aprille with his schowers swoote 

 The drought of Marche has perced to the roote, 



to seek employment. We find no such 

 thing in the bee-hive, because thej' be- 

 lieve in the adage that says, he who 

 does not labor shall not eat. 



Those bees that are sick, bruised, or 

 in some waj' rendered infirm, are 

 hustled out and thrown overboard. 

 This resembles the way Sparta did 

 with her infirm children. Every newlj- 

 born babe was taken, according to the 

 Law of L)curgus, before a committee 

 of aged men, who gave, the decision 

 upon his riglit to live. If puny or 

 sickly, into a ravine they slung him to 

 die ; but, if he seemed likelj- to be 

 strong, lie was accepted as one of the 

 sons of Sparta, and had one nine-thou- 

 sandth part of the public lands given 

 to him. 



So also with the bees, they allow no 

 cripples among them, and will even 

 tear down an inchoate queen if one of 

 her limbs is in some w.ay injured. 

 They have no time to" bother witli the 

 infirm ; life is too short, and thc'honey- 

 flow too uncertain and pusiUanimous 

 to be bothered with tliem. Like the 

 Spartans of old at the pass of Ther- 

 mopyUw they have a mighty work to 

 accompish with small numbers, and in 

 a short time ; and, therefore, they have 

 no time to bother with the infirm when 

 the hone3--flow is thundering rapidly 

 pass their threshold. 



The type of a man's life for nine 

 months is aquatic, and during that in- 

 terval of time he assumes many difl'er- 

 ent but correlated forms ; and is it not 

 so with the bee ? The egg hatches, 

 and the larva grows, in what may be 

 termed a parvum /return (little sea) of 



i 



