161 
•February 21,1887. ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND' COTTAGE GARDENER. 
air—especially if we believe that the queen and drones 
have, and exercise a choice—it will appear at once the 
only plan by which fertilisation may, with some degree of 
certainty, be assured. At the end of the season every 
drone is slain; a sad ending to a happy life ! The small¬ 
est inhabitant of the hive is the worker. From the de¬ 
posit of the egg to the issue of the perfect insect twenty- 
one days elapse. In its childhood days—for the first 
fourteen days of existence as a perfect bee—the worker 
acts as a nurse to the brood, hut from the fourteenth day 
a life of endless toil and labour begins, only to cease at 
death or when the approach of winter forbids more labour. 
The workers collect all the honey and the pollen; they 
build the cells and form the perfect comb; they fight the 
robber and clean the hive; the whole internal arrange¬ 
ment of the hive is under their care. They live in the 
height of the season at most eight weeks, but when the 
weather forbids outside labour they exist for as many 
months or even more. The worker is an imperfect female. 
One curious fact may be noticed in passing on, and that 
is this :—The most perfect bee is produced in the shortest 
time ; the one bee most necessary to the well being of the 
stock is reared most quickly, a special provision against 
destruction. Common comb is ordinarily composed of 
drone and worker cells ; queen cells are not always pre¬ 
sent. although remains of them may generally be found; 
the smallest cell is the worker, the largest the queen, the 
drone cell being between these two in size. Worker and 
drone cells are six-sided. Five worker cells may, speak¬ 
ing broadly, be said to measure 1 inch, four drone cells 
measuring the same. Wax is produced by secretion in 
the form of minute scales forming in the wax pockets of 
the workers. Very false ideas are, I believe, prevalent 
as to the weight of honey necessary to produce a pound 
of wax; it need only be said at present that 20 lbs. of 
honey is certainly not necessary to produce one-twentieth 
of its weight in wax. 
Pollen and propolis have only now to be considered, 
and a very brief notice will be necessary. Pollen is 
mixed with honey and fed to the brood, and is also pre¬ 
sent in all comb. It is gathered from various flowers and 
blossoms, and is carried in pockets on the hind legs of 
the bees after being rolled into pellets. In America very 
eminent writers contend that pollen is a very serious evil 
in a hive during winter, causing disease and sickness and 
consequent destruction to the bees. But as pollen is pre¬ 
sent I believe, to some extent at least, in honey, it seems 
difficult to know how, unless syrup alone is given for 
winter food, it can be ejected from the hive. 
Propolis is collected from various trees. It is a gluti¬ 
nous substance, and is used for stopping all the crevices 
in the hive, for varnishing the comb, and so hardening 
the cells that they may be tbe better able to withstand 
the wear and tear to which they are constantly subjected. 
If any desire to study more deeply the life history of bees 
a delightful opportunity lies before them, and if after 
reading “ Bees and Bee-keeping,” by Mr. F. Cheshire, 
they are unable to accept all that the author lays down 
they will at least have learned much that was un¬ 
known, and experienced a great and lasting pleasure. 
With such a work opened before the reader it is un¬ 
necessary for me to enter more deeply into a subject 
which has already been treated by a “master hand.” 
For those who do not care to read so great a work, for 
those who have no opportunity to peruse these volumes, 
the above brief account is Written in the belief that it will 
convey sufficient knowledge to enable the practical bee¬ 
keeper to manage his bees with profit.— Felix. 
FOREIGN RA.CES OF BEES. 
“Notts Bee-keeper” wishes “to get some honey facts.” 
These I have repeatedly given, and in every instance the foreign 
races excelled the blacks. If he has not read the articles referred 
to or disbelieves them I will produce further proof in support of 
my statements. To enter into any discussion on the merits of the 
different races, without being in possession of all facts connected 
with their management, would be a waste of time. He accuses me 
of giving no evidence, which is quite contrary to the facts, and if 
your correspondent turns to the numbers containing the report of 
my bees at the Heather last autumn he will find an accurate account 
of as fair a trial of bees as ever took place, where everything was 
against the foreigners, but which gathered the most honey, proving 
their superiority over the native blacks. I am sceptical about bee¬ 
keepers maintaining they have the pure race of black bees while 
they are keeping one or more varieties. May “ N. B. K.’s” black 
bees not be simply crosses ? or if not how does he manage to keep 
them pure ? Five miles distant from each other will not do it. At all 
events, those who cannot see the difference between the prolificness 
of the Ligurian and the black bee must be blind indeed The 
former on an average will breed a third more bees in the season 
than the latter, while both the Cyprian and Syrians seem to excel 
the Ligurian. How often has it been repealed that comparisons 
cannot be made with bees standing at distances far apart from each 
other ? They must stand together, and be in every respect equally 
managed. For example, if I have 10 or 20 lbs. of honey from each 
stock, I have learned that those in more favourable localities have 
from 20 to 60 lbs. from each hive. A few years since an area of 
about five miles long by two miles broad was almost wholly under 
cultivation, and my bees stood in the centre of that vast field of 
grain ; but things are much better again, thanks to the agricultural 
depression ! but even with more pasture my district is far from 
being a good one for bees, being surrounded with public walks and 
coal pits, is at all times very smoky and otherwise disagreeable. 
Being as it were below the snow line, owing to the radiation from 
Glasgow and other towns with which we are nearly in a level, we 
are not troubled with the same amount of snow during winter, but 
that advantage does not compensate for the loss otherwise during 
summer. 
“ What was the most he took from a foreign stock last 
season ?” is a question I readily answer. Exactly 110 lbs., and it 
was far from being a good season either ; but the bees were crossed 
Cyprians. Another stock of Syrians gave me 60 lbs. surplus and 
increased to six stocks. Another crossed Cyprian gave me 
100 lbs., but I took all it had. Now, this was being obtained 
when other bees in the neighbourhood believed to be blacks gave 
nothing. 
The next question is, “ What is the most he has ever taken 
from a foreign stock ?” Well, if he turns to the Journal for 1884 
he wdl find an account of a Cyprian stock that had swarmed 
during summer twice. I exhibited it at Edinburgh at the Cale¬ 
donian Apiarian Society’s Show. It weighed then 100 lbs., having 
risen in weight at the Show at least 10 lbs., and had then about 
20 lbs. of super comb, which was all removed before it was sent to 
the moors, where, from Wednesday afternoon 4 p.m. till the next 
Monday at 9 A.M., it had completely filled and sealed nine supers 
weighing 4 lbs. each, 36 lbs. of honeycomb altogether. The first 
swarm from it did equally well, and I gave away the second 
swarm’s queen to a neighbour, whose bees have done extra well 
ever since. 
The most I ever took from a single stock of bees at one lift was 
from a hive of Ligurians in 1876, which amounted in all to 160 lbs., 
leaving the stock hive nearly 100 lbs. I did not move this hive to 
the Heather or it might have given me a good deal more. In 1875, 
from the Clover harvest, the gatherings of six stocks of Ligurian 
bees amounted in all to 6 cwt., and a year later six stocks gathered 
at the Heather nearly 100 lbs. each. One I weighed on the fifth 
day after it was set down had risen in weight 50 lbs. Only 
10 yards from these stood a Ligurian hive, the property of some 
other bee-keeper, did not make 1 lb. Why was this ? it required 
to be “ stimulated.” The bees had not room to work, the hive 
being by far too small. More room would have freed it from idle¬ 
ness, but it would not have gathered honey. Before these foreign 
bees care about setting about that in earnest they must be in full 
strength, whether they be stocks or swarms ; although two years 
ago four Syrians occupying four frames each filled a large portion of 
these with honey, when a lot of blacks close to them in full 
strength did no more. 
“ A Renfrewshire Bee-keeper ” recorded in a back number of 
this Journal the gathering of a crossed Ligurian, which amounted 
to 200 lbs., which did not include the season’s late gathering either. 
I saw in the north of Scotland a cross that 250 lbs. had been taken 
from. I trust these remarks will satisfy “ N. B. K.” as to the 
