“novice’s” gleanings in bee culture. 
43 
AGASSIZ’S “I.IFK IN THE BEE 
HIVE.” 
W 1' would seem that, in this age of bee jour- 
nals and in consideration of the fact that 
under the present system of managing bees 
whereby the bee-keeper becomes as famil- 
iar with all operations of the interior of 
the hive, almost, as of the transactions of 
his own domicile; our people’s teach- 
ers might at least keep pace with our late 
discoveries, and drop errors of the past, 
since even “Novices” now recognize them 
as such. 
The lecture of Prof. Agassiz, aswehave 
it in the Tribune of May 10th, given at 
Cambridge, Mass., must have been the 
work of some one not conversant, person- 
ally, with boos, and not familiar with mod- 
ern bee-keeping. 
Passing over the remarks in regard to I 
swarming, for the error in regard to the 
cause of swarming may have been only 
the effect of so brief a notice, we read : 
“The swarm having alighted near a fa- 
vorable spot, a single working bee — one 
out of twenty thousand, perhaps— starts 
from the crowd and lays, not the first 
stone, but the first piece of wax which is 
to be the foundation of a new comb.” 
And again : 
“The first bee having made the first 
cell, a second bee comes and stands oppo- 
site her, head to head ; then another at 
her side, so that the two stand side by 
side, and the rest follow in definite posi- 
tion, each building a cell around itself, 
until gradually a good-sized comb is built.” 
Now actual observation shows (and the 
matter can be tested in a few minutes in 
hundreds of apiaries where the bees are 
accustomed to being handled) that a 
"single bee” never makes a cell at all, 
and bees never, under any circumstances, 
“build the cells around themselves,” but | 
that in comb building the bees all change 
about so rapidly that it is seldom that any 
bee builds comb more than five minutes 
at a time, and even then the work is 
a series of skippings about from one place 
to another, always standing cn the outside 
ol the cells; and the surprising part is 
that the work of each one so nicely agrees 
with that of the rest, as if each one was 
only a part of the same insect or organi- 
zation, for whether they build worker, 
drone or queen cells, they agree in work- 
ing toward one common end. 
The cells are seldom or never built full 
length at once, but are sometimes used by 
the queen when scarcely more than the 
foundations are completed, and are also 
used for honey and pollen when built half 
length or less, and arc afterward length- 
ened out as needed. Finished comb is 
also “cut down" and “lengthened out” as 
circumstances may require for brood- 
rearing or honey -storing, as the case 
may be, so frequently that our combs are 
constantly undergoing change; and all this 
work is done by no single bee, but by 
the community, seemingly guided by one 
intelligence. 
Although considerable variation can be 
seen in some combs, maDy of them, when 
conditions are favorable, are more uniform 
and correct than most works of art, or na- 
ture, either, and we believe we are justi- 
fied in saying that irregular comb is the 
fault of external conditions, temperature, 
ventilation, etc., and not the fault of the 
bees. 
Again we read : 
“Two or three such cells will usually be 
formed in one comb. In old colonies it 
often happens that no provision is made 
for the advent of a new queen, anti in 
that ease no royal cells are built; but in 
a new community several such cells may 
be seen upon one comb.” 
The above leaves the impression that 
queen cells, as well as drone cells, are an 
original and permanent part of the comb, 
which is by no means the case, for they 
are constructed only temporarily and over 
any cell upon any part of the comb; are 
removed immediately as soon as they have 
been either used cr abandoned, and are 
never seen upon the comb only at such 
seasons of the year as they may have oc- 
casion to rear queens, unless it be an ex- 
ceptional instance, where a comb has by 
some means got outside of the cluster be- 
fore the cell was removed, and then we 
have only the rudiments of what may 
have been or was intended for a queen 
cell. Queen cells are rarely, if ever, used 
twice for the same purpose, and we should 
at once consider that something was wrong 
with the queen of a “new community” 
should they construct queen cells on their 
combs. 
Since queen-rearing has become an im- 
portant industry, points that were but lit- 
tle understood a few years ago are now 
quite familiar matters, and our queen- 
rearers have, with much care and skill, 
carefully noted all the requisite condi- 
tions lor rearing perfect queens, and, 
what is still more commendable, have 
compared notes through the medium of 
our bee journals, each one giving gener- 
ously the full result of his or her investiga- 
tions, and, as a consequence, error has 
given way and much truth has been 
brought to light. When scientists can be 
brought to work side by side with our 
'practical workers, we may hope for bel- 
ter things; and the fact that the latter 
class are mainly actuated by dollars and 
cents will not, we hope, be found to make 
their deductions any the less valuable. 
Out apiary now numbers only fifty- 
seven hives that have bees in, and of this 
number ten are queenless, besides a 
dozen more that contain queens of the 
"four cent" valuation ; for they scarcely 
excel "Old Grimes’ hen,” that 
“Laid two eggs on every dav 
And Sunday she laid three. 
