Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1871-01-06
Communicated ]
Something About Bees.

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fact Bees have been kept by men. for
their honey and wax from time im-s
memorial, and yet until comparatively
recent date, nothing was known of their
nature, wants, instincts, &c., further than
the most casual observation might have
taught the first Bee-keeper.
From time t. time false notions and the
cries have been Started by speculative or
imaginative persons, most OF which, the
the facility for observation afforded by the
movable frame hive in its many forms, has
exploded. There are, however, some OF
these false notions that still obtain cre-
denee among persons otherwise posted ON
bees. Among such notions are the follow
ing: That the bee knows its owner, and
if treated kindly by him, will permit him
to handle them and will work for those
thew like better than others; that certain
persons possess the natural ability to han
die bees without getting stung, in great
er degree than others; that the moth mil
Ter deposits her eggs in the cracks and
crevices of the hive where they hatch, and
from whence they make lncurSlons
through the comos retiring to their silk
citadels safe from the reach of the bee !;
that the drones are the females and lay
the egg that the colony is governed by
an absolute monarch or king bee who di-
reefs all of the operations within the hive,
and without whose presence the swarm
will cease work entirely; that the loss OF
the sting to the bee is always fatal to it,
and followed by the immediate death OF
the bee that natural swarming is best,
for the reason that it is the natural way ];
that the most profitable way to get surplus
honey is in boxes, either on the top or
sides of the hive; that bees live to a
great age, often as long as twelve years ;
that wax is gathered in the fields and car
ried on the legs of the bee to the hive and
there constructed into combs; that pollen
or bee bread is necessary portion of the
food of the mature bee that bees will not
work unless the hive is perfectly dark.
Many other theories might be mentioned
in some of which, fact and fiction are min
gled.
Now the fact is, that bees in greater
degree probably than any other of the do
mesticated portion of CREATION, arc cre2-
lures of instinct, and are governed by
that, and tina: alone. They rarely, if ever,
can be made to adapt themselves 70 Cir
cumstances around them, as other animals
| do. Instances have been related of the
sagacty of certain swarm of bees, but
an examination has proved that they did
what any others would have done under
the same circumstances, led by instinct
and that alone.
The most successful bee keeper has
never been able to teach even his most val
ued italians single thing beyond what
the first swarm ever created knew, and all
so-caled feats performed with bees are
| like the wonderful feat Of Columbus max
ing the egg stand on end, easy enough for
any one to do when once he knows how. ?
That the bee knows his owner and will
submit to HIM any more good naturally,
| do rot believe, and | stand ready to han
die any hive Of bees in the county as fear
lessy and with as little danger as my own
most often visited hive; and can prove
from bee trees that ices will work without
any owner as readily and as well as for
the most aftectionate master. That one
person can handle bees naturally more
safely than others, is also all bosh, any
further than that some persons naturally
acquire the knowledge necessary to sue
cessful handling of bees as some persons
do the knowledg of the different mechan-
ical arts, sooner than others; and also,
some persons have breath that is often
sive to the bee as we'll as to anything else
that smells it. Bees are handled on the
principles, 1st. That bees when filled with
liquid sweets, or in the act of filling them
selves, will not sting unless crushed. I'd.
That If liquid sweets are offered to bees
| they will never refuse to accept. Sd. That
| bees when alarmed by smoke or by closing
the hive and rapping upon the sides, will
commence filling themselves from their
stores and are harmless. In no other way
known to apiarians are bees handled, and
any one can see at glance that no person
can be naturally possessed Of these primer
Piles.
Moth miller eggs are hatched in the
same way and by the same element, viz :
animal heat, that the bees eggs are, re-
quiring the same degree of heat and are
Matched in the same place, viz: among the
combs. Mature worms only are found in
the cracks of the hive and on the bottom
and who having now done their portion of
damage to the combs, are engaged in spin
ming or have spun their cocoons, from
which to emerge a miller, if female, to
lay eggs that may hatch among the comb.
How the eggs get among the combs of a
populous stock is a disputed question
among bee keepers, and still one of the un-
decided ones. That they are there any
one can prove by taking the frames of
combs from a populous stock, placing
them in an empty hive, closing so that no
miller can get to them, placing in warm
room, open in eight or ten days and see if
heat and the absence of bees do not deve-
op thousands Of worms that would proba-
bly, have never come to any size if the
bees, a strong colony, had remained.
The miller, rarely if ever, visits the
combs of strong colony, and most bee
keepers agree that the bees carry the eggs
into the hive involuntarily, the miller lay
ing them about the entrance or extruding
them upon the bees when clustered out
side
That the drones are the females is no
longer believed by any one who places any
reliance upon what he reads, or has ever
used any kind of movable frame hive
The queen is the only perfect female in
the hive, and each hive contains but one.
She lays all of the eggs and has been
known to lay them at the rate of three
thousand per day for ten days in success
sion. She directs the operations no bee
besides herself, (the bees, as said before,
ho;Dr pui1a6 NV instinct She is cared