•HONEY. 



91 



circumstance I do not remember to have seen 

 mentioned, and that is, bee-bread is generally packed 

 exclusively in worker cells ; I would say always, but 

 I find my bees doing things so differently from some 

 others." 



But I find an older claim made to this discovery 

 by Bevan, who says (page 126) : " The bees store 

 pollen in worker cells only. I am not aware of this 

 fact ever having been publicly stated before ; I am 

 indebted for a knowledge of it to the attentive obser- 

 vation of Mr. Humphrey. This discrimination of 

 the bee may arise from an instinctive knowledge that 

 pollen may be best preserved when stored in small 

 quantities." This peculiarity has been observed by 

 many apiarians ; I noticed it before reading either i\f 

 the above works. 



CHAPTER V. 



HONEY. 



Honey is a well known production of flowers, gen- 

 erated in the great laboratory of nature. A sweet 

 that has been renowned from the earliest period of 

 history, it has been used as a figure emblematic of a 

 fertile and fruitful land, "aland flowing with milk and 

 honey." What a beautiful figure ! how appropriate ! 



Pollen, or bee-bread, is used only by the bee, but 

 is of no value to the bee-keeper for any other pur- 

 pose; whilst honey is desirable food for both man 

 and bee, a great luxury to the former and an indis- 

 pensable article to the latter. 



