1875 



GLEANnSfGS IN BEE COLTOKE. 



■275 



BdIovv in as witli the portico hiv<?, dtad l>ees 

 .tiud ru-bbi^h tusivble out, of thwnseh'es almost, 

 .and auy araofiuitof cutraoco oi' ventilation caa 

 ibe readily givt?u without -auyMiiug loose to 

 tumble ivDuud. Our iiivcs that w^re filled 

 •clear up to the fourth story this season, were 

 •of this description. Perhaps it may be well to 

 ;add here, that although bet« %vHl carry honey 

 lup to this h-eight — they worked in ■section 

 'boxes on the top of tiie thiixl storj' — yet Me do 

 Giot fiml it very ■goctl economy, for th'ey did 

 anuch tetter Mhen wo took out th« second and 

 the third sto5-ie^, aixl placed the sections di- 

 ffecily over the brood. 



jiEE eota:n¥ and entomology. 



A liEAF FKOM: the BOOK OF NATURE. 



"W'T was the flrst day of our county fair, 

 ^about 10 o'clock iu the Riorniug, of a most 

 ^jeautiful 4Sept-ember day, I was balloonist, and 

 had just set atoat a sufficient number of the 

 colored tissue paper globes to set all the 

 ijuveuiles wild with delight, and to induce as 

 well, a crowd of older children to turn their 

 spectacled gaze aloft, while the balloons grace- 

 fully soared heavenward. I too admired them, 

 but soon my attention was taken with some- 

 thing, to me far more entrancing. It seemed 

 at first to be a dense cloud of musquitoe*:, but 

 as I came nearer, they had more the move- 

 snents, and appearance, of bees at swarming 

 time. I forgot the swarms of humanity about 

 Ene and drew near tiie insects, v/oudering if it 

 were not possible a Kind Father would unfold 

 to one of his children, something of the bidden 

 sind mysterious laws that governs this phase 

 of insect life. By ascending a little eminence 

 I was enabled to get much nearer the phenom- 

 ena, and finally a light breeze, wafted the 

 swarm so that it completely enveloped me. 

 ."My thought was, "why do these insects sport 

 thus, and for what puriwse do they thus con- 

 j^regate and dance iu tlie sunshine?" After 

 a few minutes of close attention, I discovered 

 audividuals dropping straight downward, and 

 when the eye had been trained to take note of 

 these, the falling became so plain that they 

 resembled drops of rain. I looked at my feet, 

 and in one minute more, I knelt iu the grass, 

 and with uncovered head, thanked the great 

 Author of the universe for guiding ray stumb- 

 ling footstejis, where I might behold the open 

 pages of tills great Ijook of nature. The 

 insects — small black Ijees they seemed — were 

 drones and queens, and although I might 

 never witness the actual meeting of the sexes 

 of the honey bees, here the phenomena was 

 spread out before me in countless thousands ; 

 could I help thinking there might at least be 

 an analogy? Did it ever occur to you my 

 friends that it i.s singular how queens and 

 drones could meet when they both seemed to 

 f<oar at random high up iu the air V A queen 

 conies home fertilised many times after the 

 lapse of not more than 15 minutes, and yet 

 there may not be more than a few hundred 

 drones in the apiai'y ; how does she find them ? 

 If all the drones for several miles around were 

 wont to congregate in droves or swarms at 

 certain hours of the day, and sport in the sun- 



shine, it \fould be a comparatively easy mat- 

 ter fur fl queen to make her way to them at- 

 tracteK.1 by their hum, and she would also be 

 -quite sure of sjjeedy fertilization, as I had it 

 here demonstrated before my very eyes. 

 Again if they do tlius congregate, from far 

 and near, she w<iuld almost iuvariabl^^ meet 

 drones from some other apiar}^ or hive, at the 

 very farthest, and have we not all had exper- 

 ience with queens meeting black drones when 

 our apiaries only contained Italians V Has 

 not nature ordained that the malts of insects 

 shall thus congregate in vast swarms for the 

 exprtss purpose of preventing queens from 

 meeting with the males of their own families, 

 and at the same time insure safe and speedy 

 fertilization i' Some one of our readers has. if 

 we mistake not, reported seeing drones thus 

 congregated in large numbers ; will that 

 friend please give us a full report of the mat- 

 ter? My first impression was that the drones 

 expired as with bees, for they seemed instant- 

 ly paralylized. If separated forcibly, the 

 female presented precisely the appearance of a 

 queen bee, returning from a successful flight, 

 but if let alone, the drone revived iu about 

 five minutes, and Ixjth flew away apparently 

 unharmed. After reading the reply of Prof. 

 Cook, given below, we hope our readers may 

 make similar observations, and perhaps give 

 us some new facts. We are strongly inclined 

 to tiiink the playing of gnats and musquitoes 

 in the sunshine, a phenamena of similar sig- 

 nificance, but as yet observation has failed to 

 corroborate it. 



Deae Friend Root : The insects you sent were 

 veritable ants — five males and as many females— and 

 no wonder that you were surprised, lor tliere is some- 

 thin?: very stirring in tlic event of celeljra'.ing their 

 nuptials by a colonj- of ants. The Liatural economy 

 among ants much resembles the same among bees. 

 In every colony there is the queen, often several, the 

 drones— both of these classes posess wings— the vving- 

 less workers, and in addition the soldiers, whose name 

 no Jess than their terrible head and enormous jaws, 

 indicate their office in the colonj'. 



In the spring the queen or queens are busy, and the 

 advent of workers and soldiers is astonishing. Tow- 

 ards the close of summer, large numbers of true males 

 and females are developed ; these, like bees, always 

 pair on the wing, and as they come forth often cloud 

 the very heavens with their exceeding numbers. In 

 pairing they fall to the eartli, and, as witli bees, the 

 male seems wholly overcome, and soon dies. Not so 

 the queens. Observed by some worl^ers, which ai'* 

 obviously on the lookout for a new sovereign, perhaps 

 1 had belter say slave, for they not only seize her, as 

 tiie Sabine maidens were seized in the olden lime, but 

 they actually eat off her wings, that escape shall be 

 impossible. What would friend Adair say to that 

 were he still in the saying mood ? He would reason 

 to loss of vigor, from loss of trachea;, and to deform- 

 ity, as the result of natural eelection. Yet neither re- 

 sults, nor shoiTld we expect it. These new, soon tobe, 

 mothers of populous ant-kingdoms are taken to their 

 new homes, and, like t!ic Sabine captives already re- 

 ferred to, soon become the satisfied and happy ma- 

 trons of a prosperous and joyous family. These ants 

 are so ditterent iu structure Irom bees— belonging to a 

 different family; Formk-UlfP, instead of Aj.idaunnA so 

 different in habits, though possessing— as do the bees 

 — Hiarvelous instincts, that it woukl not be safe or 

 even reasonable to reason from the habits of one to 

 those of the oilier. Each must be detei-aiined by ac- 

 tual observation. And in view of the pk asure of such 

 researches, are we not glad that It is so. "Oh, God, 

 how manifold are all thy works, in wisdom hast thou 

 made Ihcm all." A. J. Cook. 



