The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1854-12-27
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The Secretary of the New York Far
mer's Club at a late meeting of that
body, Hon. FL. MEIGs, read, as usual,
a budget of interesting and entertaining
papers on different subjects, among
which was one s f sfs=a5 -
ABOUT BEES,
collated from one of the number ofYal-
liable works presented to the Institute
tTby NJ. Yattemare. Bees accumulate
provisions in their hives, Of various quail
tiles, for Winter, for they are wide-awake
all that season, and the larvae form the
eggs continually laid by the queen, in
great numbers, are to be fed. Authors
have distinguished four kinds of bees but
only two kinds are well known. The
first Of these two, is of blackish COLOR
of extra size, laborieus, easily managed,
but inferior to the second species, konwn
BY the name of The little Ouch Lady,
which is smaller, of reddish. brown col.
for, lively, ardent, active in work, and
good humored. The two species are
sometimes found in the same hive, bVt
there are whole districts and countries
where only one sort of them appears
Each swarm has queen, and males and
workman of the same nature as the queen,
but sterile on account of the education
they receive. The queen alone has
charge of laying the eggs for several
consecutive years )-enough to sustain
the number of the swarm, and supply the
losses of life of the field workers The
queen was, in ancient times, called the
king bee, her sex then being un-
known. Her development from the egg
to her birth is thus The egg, which Is
to produce her, is deposited in a cell of
peculiar form, aud entirely different from
those of the common bees. Three days
after the egg is deposited small worm
con2cs out of it, called larva. tits seen
upon awhitish kind of pulp, very abund-
ant at the bottom of the cell. The worm
appears to eat this, and grows little by
little for fye days, and then assumes the
form of diminutiEe crescent, Three
days afterwards this crescent shuts up
prising that it does not falll The nour-
ishment it receives is very abundant, SO
that there always remains some after
birth Of the queen. On the eight day
the bees close completely the cell with
the worm in it. The worm then begins
to spin shell to cover its head and cors-
let when it is Matched out and becomes
a bee, her belly remaining naked in the
wax. On the eleventh day the larTa as-
sumes the form of nymph or pulps, hav-
ing now all the parts of the queen, and of
remarkable whiteness. In few days
these parts harden, begin to have color,
and after seventeen days and halt, she
breaks the covering. The young queen
now out of her cradle, does not exhibit
any of the characteristics which she SUBJ
sequently assumes, and which she pre-
serves until her fifth year. She becomes
brown, short abdomen, more stocky than
the Borkmen, her head is longer than
theirs and her feet are large and yel-
low. After some weeks, however, heF
figure becomes slender, her abdomen
pretty and well deEeloped, and is not
covered by the wings nnta towards the
third year. Her head, too, appears
smaller, feet visibly longer and are SO
impregnated with gold as to seem trans
parent. The gold color extends over
her whole abdomen also. Her sting COW
cred by her last ring, is not prependicu-
lar to her body, but bends below in an
angle At certain age she loses these
fine eolors, and the large form of her be-
ly. In her fifth year her legs are still
yellow, her body little longer, but very
black, and her wings dry and fringed.--
Indeed her gaudy appearances so changes
that she is sometimes mistaken for one
of the lower order, or wax makers
The belly of the queen diminishes mech
in size after laying small eggs, or when
her laying is lessened by any cause what
ever,
Her moral character is excellent
She is called queen on account of her
great influence over her children. When
she goes out they all follow; if they
want to emigrate and she will not leave
her lodgings, they all come back to hers.
She commands the mason to go where
she pIeases. IF she cannot take wing,
but is tormented with the uecessaity OF
new colony, she walkn along
the ground to some place and the bees
al follow submissiyely after.
She Marries. In one day after her
birth the young queen leaves the hive
in search ofa husband. She glance IN.
to the air, and after brief filtration
couples with male, aud in tEenty.fYa
Or thirty minutes returns to the hira fe.
cundiated for life. Forty.six hoursaf.
ter her marriage che begins to Icy.
countless progeny. During the first ele'
ven months she lays none but working
men eggs, about 90, 600 a yearl Az :
the end of the eleven months she begins