mon house-fly, and are blue-black in 
color, with the exception of the an- 
terior third of the abdomen, which is 
bright orange. 
The giant East Indian honey-bee, | 
which is probably identical with the 
giant of the Philippines, is the largest 
known species of the genus. 
about one-third larger than our com- 
mon bee and build huge combs of very | 
pure wax which are attached to over- 
hanging ledges of rock or to the limbs 
of large trees. 
five or six feet in length, three or four 
feet in width and from one and one-half 
to six inches in thickness. The amount 
of honey that they gather in the course 
of a season is enormous and it has been 
suggested that if introduced into this 
country they might be of immense 
value as they would doubtless visit 
mainly the plants which our honey- 
bees could not well gather from, such 
as red-clover, and thus increase the | 
amount of clover seed as well as the 
quantity of honey already produced. 
Up to date, however, it is not proven 
that they will live in hives or that they 
can live at all in this climate; the latter 
being regarded as extremely doubtful 
by some of our best informed bee-men. 
Not the least interesting thing in an 
apiary is the honey extractor, consist- 
ing of a large can inside of which a 
light metal basket is made to revolve 
by means of a simple gearing. The 
frames containing the full comb are 
placed in this basket, the caps being 
shaved off. After several rapid revo- 
lutions the comb is found to be empty 
and is then returned to the hives to be 
refilled by the bees. 
The queen bee is about one-third 
larger than the worker and is the mother 
and monarch of the hive. Queens are 
sometimes raised by bee-keepers for 
sale, especially by those who have 
an improved strain of a certain species, 
or a new and desirable species of bee. 
When the bee-keeper gets a mail order 
for a queen he procures a mailing-cage, 
which is a small box-like cage covered 
with wire screen and cloth, in one end 
of which he places a supply of food, the 
other end being occupied by a ventila- 
tor. The queen and from eight to 
twelve workers, as royal attendants, are 
They are | 
These combs are often | 
19 
then placed in the cage, the wire-screen 
and cloth covers carefully wrapped 
around them, the address written, a one 
cent stamp affixed and her royal 
highness is ready for her trip across a 
continent, or, with additional postage, 
around the world. 
When, from any cause, the bee-pas- 
tures become unproductive bees from 
different hives often declare war on 
their neighbors, the strong colonies 
singling out as enemies those that are 
weak or disorganized by the loss of a 
queen. The war is always pursued 
without quarter and thousands on each 
side perish in the fray, the victors 
always carrying off every drop of honey 
in the hive of the vanquished, leaving 
the unfortunate survivors of the de- 
feated hive to perish by starvation. 
In many parts of England when a 
member of the family dies someone 
must tell the bees; this is done by tak- 
ing the house door-key and rapping 
thrice on each hive, repeating at the 
same time the name of the deceased and 
his station in the family. If this cere- 
mony is omitted the bees will surely 
die. In some places the hives are 
draped with a strip of black cloth when 
a death occurs in the family and with 
white cloth in case of a wedding. If 
these ceremonies are omitted the bees 
are insulted and will leave. Singing a 
psalm in front of a hive that is not do- 
ing well will also set all things right, in 
some parts of England. I will not 
attempt to explain how the American 
bee-keeper rears bees without these 
ceremonies, but refer the reader to the 
various hand-books on _ bee-keeping 
which will doubtless explain it. : 
The bees occupy a position in the 
economy of nature far higher than that 
of mere honey-gatherers. The service 
they render in pollenizing the flowers 
is worth far more to the world than 
endless stores of honey. There are a 
number of flowers that are so adjusted 
that their pollen cannot of itself reach 
the stigma but is so disposed that it is 
certain to be carried away by any bee 
or moth that chances to visit it, while 
the stigma is so placed that an incoming 
bee is certain to reach it on first alight- 
ing on the flower and dust it with the 
pollen which has accumulated on the 
