204 
THE IIIVIC AND HONEY-BEE. 
If, when two colonics are put together, the bees in the 
one on the old stand are not gorged with honey, they will 
often attack the others, which are loaded, and speedily sting 
them to death, in spite of all their attempts to purchase 
immunity, hy offering their honey. Mr. Win. W. Cary, 
of Coleraine, Massachusetts, who has long hoen an accurate 
observer of the habits of bees, unites colonies very suc¬ 
cessfully, hy alarming those that are on the old stand ; as 
soon as they show, hy their notes, that they are subdued, 
he gives them the new comers. The alarm which causes 
them to gorge themselves with honey (p. 27), puts them, 
doubtless, upon their good behavior, long enough to give 
the others a fan - chance. 
It has been stated already, that a queen-bee cannot be 
induced to sting, by any kind of treatment, however 
severe. The reason of this strange unwillingness will be 
obvious, when we consider that the preservation of her 
life is indispensable to the existence of the colony, and 
that, although the loss of her sting would be fatal to her¬ 
self, it could avail no more for their defense, in case of an 
attack, than the single sword of a Washington or a Wel¬ 
lington could decide a great battle. While the common 
bees are ready to sally forth and sacrifice their lives on 
the slightest provocation, a queen-bee only buries herself 
Of all the old writers, Wildtnan appears to havo made the nearest approaches to 
the modern mothods of taming and handling bees. Twenty-flvo years before 
Ilnber’s investigations on the origin of wax, this acute observor had noticed the 
scales of wax on the abdomen of the workers ; and he was so thoroughly convinced 
that wax was secreted from honey, that he recommended feeding now swarms, 
when the weather is stormy, that they may sooner build comb for tho eggs of the 
queen. 
Mr. Wagner refers me to “Orkrbeck’s Glossarium Melliturgium"— Bremen, 
1765, p. 89—in which tho origin of wax is claimed, more then 20 years before the 
date of that work—say 1745—for a Hanoverian Pastor, named Herman C. Horn- 
bostel. He gavo his discoveries to tho world in tho so-called “Hamburgh 
Library,” vol. 2, p. 45; and they are so particularly described as to leave no doub* 
of their correctness. 
