32S 



GLEANINGS IX BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 



cliff erani shadings, as well as the bands of 

 down ; but they are always found there, so 

 far as my experience goes, if examined with 

 sufficient cai'e. 



We have he*rd about bees having a fourth 

 yellow band; this would have to come on L 

 G ; but, although we have made a great many 

 examinations, we have never been able to 

 find more than very bright yellow down, and 

 no trace of the yellow in the horny scale, as 

 we find it in A *B and C. 



When we come to hybrids, we shall find a 

 greater diversity, for while the bees from 

 one queen are all pretty uniformly marked 

 with two bands, another's will be of all sorts; 

 some beautifully marked Italians, some pure 

 black, others one or two banded. Some 

 will sting with great venom, while oihers 

 with only one or two bands, will be as peace- 

 able as your best Italians. Without a 

 doubt, many queens have been sent out as 

 pure, that produced only hybrids; but since 

 my recent studies in the matter, I am pretty 

 well satiSiied that I have sold several queens 

 as hybrids, that were really full bloods. A 

 very slight admixture of black blood, will 

 cause the band C, to disappear on some of 

 the bees, but we should be very careful in 

 such matters to be sure that the bees in 

 question were really hatched in the hive ; 

 for bees of adioining hives, often mix to a 

 considerable extent. If you examine a col- 

 ony of blacks and one of hybrids that stand 



Fig. 1 



side by side, you will find many Italiansi 

 among the blacks, and many blacks among 

 the Italians. Take yoiing bees that you are 

 sure have hatched in the liive, and you will 

 be pretty safe, but you cannot readily distin- 

 guish the third band, until they are several 

 days old. 



P3'i^lS3fl'. You have all, doubtless, 

 heard bees humming about Hollyhock blos- 

 soms, but perhaps most of you have passed 

 on, thinking that it was nothing strange, 

 for bees are always humming about flow- 

 ers. Suppose we stap just a minute, and 

 look into the matter a little. The bee, al- 

 though on the wing, is almost motionless as 

 he hovers about the dust in the centre of 

 the flowers, and by careful watching, we 

 may see that his tongue is extended to a con- 

 siderable length. This tongue looks much 

 like a delicate pencil brush as he sweeps it 

 about among the grains of pollen, and as the 

 pollen adheres to it and is from time to time 

 put away somehow, we are led to infer that 

 there must be something adhesive on it. I 

 believe the bee when he starts out to gather 

 pollen, does carry along a store of honey for 

 this very purpose. Well we will suppose he 

 has moistened his long flexible brush-like 

 tongue with honey, has spread it out and 

 brushed it among the pollen grains and then 

 — I rather think I shall have to give you 

 some pictures before I can well explain to 

 you what happens next. Here they are : 



Fig. 3 



Fig. 3 



HOW THE BEE GETS THE POLLEN FROM THE FLOWERS. 



Fig. 1, is a collection of pollen grains high- time, but if you should put the handle of the 

 ly magnified, and A, is exactly the kind the duster in your mouth, you might with the 



bee finds in the Hollyhock. Fig. 2, is the "^ " ' ' ^ - ■ 



tongue of the bee, and Fig. 3, is one of his 

 fore feet, just to show you what a funny ma- 

 chine he is provided with, for getting the pol- 

 len off his tongue. There is a little blade as 

 it were, at B, that opens and shuts, and the 

 bee, when his tongue is well loaded, just 

 claps it into the grooved or fluted cavity C, 

 then shuts down B, and gives his tongue a 

 "wipe," so quickly tliat he leaves sleight of 

 hand performers all far in tlie shade. I be- 

 lieve lie generally wipes his tongue with 

 both fore feet at once, and wlien he does 

 this, his appearance viewed tln-ough a glass, 

 is comical in the extreme. Suppose you 

 were to take a featlier duster, dip it in lioney, 

 and then roll it in currants. It would be a 

 big job to pick these currants off, one at a 



thumb and forefinger of eacli hand strii> 

 them all off clean at one "lick," and then 

 your duster would be ready for another 

 " dip." This is just the way the bee does it, 

 but he has rather the advantage, for his 

 thumb and finger are fluted or grooved, in 

 the way I have explained, that he may be 

 able to sweep off his tongue " slick and 

 clean " without hindrance. Now it is anoth- 

 er " knack " he has, of getting it into his 

 pollen baskets, after he gets it oft" his ton- 

 gue, but as I am at the end of my page, I 

 tliink we shall have to continue our story 

 next year, as they say in romances. If I have 

 in the least made you feel that the book of 

 nature is more wonderful and more satisfy- 

 ing than any work of fiction, I shall be very 

 glad indeed. 



