WHERE THE BEE SUCKS 229 



to be due as much to foreign matter as to its 

 natural evil character. There is a peculiar growth 

 on the bark of many trees where aphides congre- 

 gate, which is known as soot-fungus. This and 

 the honeydew get mingled together in a cimmerian 

 slime, and, no doubt, the merest trace of it would 

 serve to darken and spoil the purest honey. There 

 seems to be no way for bee-keepers but to watch 

 for the first chilly nights, as the honey-season 

 draws towards its close ; and then to be up early 

 and get the surplus honey-chambers off the hives, 

 before the bees have had a chance to spoil them. 

 But the bee is no desperately early riser, for all 

 her lofty place in the moral-maxim books. She 

 generally waits until the morning sun has drunk 

 up the night dews, and warmed the flower-calyces, 

 before getting down to her work in earnest. The 

 very early bees that may sometimes be seen wing- 

 ing out into the first light of a summer's morning, 

 are probably only water-carriers. The water- 

 supply is the day's first and ''last care with each 

 hive in the breeding season. Every bee-garden 

 seems to have its regular watering-place, gener- 

 ally on the oozy margin of some neighbouring 

 pond ; and here, in the early morning, and again 

 towards late afternoon, the bees may be seen 

 drinking in whole battalions, while the meridian 

 hours of the day will find it all but deserted. 

 Curiously, these water-fetching times coincide with 

 the times when the nectar is least get-atable, or 



