HOUSE AND GARDEN 
July, 
1912 
All stages of development may be seen in a cross-section of the brood comb — from 
the tiny egg to the bee nearly full grown 
the beeswax necessary for this construction. After 
filling their honey sacs with honey the bees hang in 
clusters from the frames and, generating a high tem¬ 
perature, produce little wax scales or discs, which 
are exuded from the six minute pockets on the under¬ 
side of the abdomen. 
These scales of wax are placed one upon the other 
and tamped down one by one until with geometrical 
precision the hexagonal cells are welded into combs 
ready to be used for storing honey, pollen and water, 
and also to form a cradle for the little eggs. 
In the gathering of pollen, which after all is the 
heaviest work a worker has to perform, the bee ful¬ 
fils unconsciously its real mission in life, the pollen- 
ization of our fruit blossoms, for without the bees' 
services there would be a scarcity of high-grade 
fruit. 
The bees are lured only to the blossom by the nec¬ 
tar secreted, and it is a remarkable fact that those 
flowers whose seeds do not require fertilizing pro¬ 
duce no nectar, and are seldom if ever visited by the 
bees. I refer particularly to such plants 
as are propagated from slips and bulbs. 
Until recently the bees ignored one of 
the most prolific sources of honey in the 
red clover blossom, as the corolla of the 
red clover was too deep for the length 
of its tongue, but by caretul breeding 
from queens whose offspring showed 
a tendency toward elongated tongues, 
we now have a strain of Italian bees, 
that gather heavy tribute from this 
abundant source, and incidentally ben¬ 
efit the seed by making it more virile. 
It is a mistake to suppose that bees are 
naturally vindictive and that their sole aim 
in life is to sting their keeper, for frankly, 
they are the most tractable of pets if we 
understand them and avoid doing those 
things that irritate them. 
There are some things, however, for which they simply will 
not stand, such as quick movements in their presence, the jarring 
of their hives, or coming among them with the odor of horses 
or other stock upon our persons, and for some unknown reason 
they detest the odor of perfume even though it is made from 
the very flowers they love. 
They also seem to have a dislike for dark colors, 
and I have saved myself many stings by simply 
donning a white duck suit when working among 
them, and I am less frequently stung than when 
I wear dark clothing among them. 
It has been said that in the dark woolen cloth¬ 
ing they scent the animal, but some years ago I 
visited a large apiary in New York State, and was 
amused to see the antics of the bees in connection 
with a large flock of chickens roaming among the 
hives. The flock was made up of white Wvan- 
dottes with the exception of a black Minorca hen, 
and the white fowls were not molested, while 
again and again the bees would drive the black 
bird from the yard. This satisfied me at least 
that the prejudice was toward the color and not 
the wool. 
Usually a bee pays the penalty of its life when 
it stings, as it generally tears out a part of its 
intestines when trying to get away after stinging, 
and certainly nothing else than a reflex machine 
would needlessly sacrifice its life especially 
when being fed by its owner. 
It is a mistake to suppose that bees know 
their keeper; the only reason their keeper 
is not stung by them as readily as a 
stranger is because their owner, know¬ 
ing their habits and prejudices, purpose¬ 
ly avoids doing the things that irritate 
them which a stranger would un¬ 
consciously do. 
The poison of the bee sting is 
in many of its constituents the 
same as that from the bite of a 
rattlesnake, and should 500 bees 
sting us simultaneously — an un¬ 
likely thing — we would have in¬ 
jected into our system the same amount of 
poison as would result from the bite of a 
rattler. This poison is a form of formic acid. 
It is a well-known fact that bee-keepers as a class 
are immune from the ravages of rheumatism, and 
medical science attributes it to the constant stinging to 
which the bee-keeper is more or less subjected. There are sev¬ 
eral remedies for rheumatism made from the stings of honey bees. 
(Continued on page 49) 
1 wenty-one days from the time the egg is laid the bee has passed through the larva and 
pupa stages tended by the workers and is ready to emerge 
