The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1879-09-12
BEE CULTURE.


The production of the several kinds
of bees in a hive is of the greatest i'm
portance. The workers are produced
at all seasons, when there is any honey
and pollen or bee bread at all in the
hive, and when the honey is being
gathered produced in great numbers.
The queens but rarely, and the drones
only, when the hive is at the highth
of its prosperity.
The length of their lives are respec-
lively different; the worker bee when
wintering will live from three to five
months; the drone, three to six weeks,
but of these it is much moro difficult
to ascertain, as the workers always
make them leave the hive if anything
happens to cut off the honey crop; a
queen will live as long as five years.
During the working season the worker
bees wear themselves out they wear
off their wings, the sides of their pollen
baskets, and become decrepit and old
from hard work. They are busy every
moment of their lives, night is no ex-
ception, and although the old rhyme
goes
elbow doth the little busy bee
Improve each shining hour''-
liz IlOuiS Vi q udy anu
the dark hours of gloomy night, are
spent by these little Wide-a-wakes in
toll. There may be ugentlemen of
leisure" in the commonwealth of bees,
but there are no ladies, whether of
high or low degree-as even the queen
in her royalty has duties and respon-
sibilities.
The life of the worker bee is divided
into three periods, as are their exist
ence from the moment the egg is laid.
The first seven days it is an egg the
next seven it is the larva, and the next
seven it gradually takes the shape of
the bee and is called the nymph; then
it cuts through its cell by the aid of
the other bees, and its duties begin.
The first nine days it nurses and
kneads up the jelly on which the
brood is fed; the next nine they stand
guard and do porter's work, and the
remainder is spent in outdoor labor.
Huber, Maraldi, and other apiarians
of early times, divided the workers in
classes, saying that duties We're allotted
to them from the first. One set are
called "finished architects" who plan
and build the edifice, who at the same
time nurse the young. HOthers are
mere brick-layers and plasterers, who
only bring the raw material, but do
nJ~give it shape" But this theory
has proSesedlx erroneous, and that at some
time of its life he worker bee has
filed each station of Tie hive; has
nursed, made comb, brought honey
and pollen too, and taken turn at
standing guard. L have sometimes
seen them doing double duty-that of
getting pollen and honey at the same
time. Flying from flower to flower
she found but little pollen and some
honey; gathering first one, then the
other, she started home with honey in
her pouch and pollen in her basket.
OF the three kinds of bees, only two
have stings. The queen Though it is
said she will only use it on a royal
personage) has sting the same as
worker, which upon being examined
by a microscope is found to be "of in
tricate mechanism" 1t moves at the
will of the bee, by muscles though in
visible to the eye, are yet of such
strength as to force itself through the
thick skin of a mans hand to the depth
of one. twelfth of an inch. AT its root
there is sac of venemous liquid which
is injected in the flesh it causes much
pain. The point being barbed, it is
rarely that the bee is able to free itself