The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1885-01-24

and some other moist and sticky ma
terial.
Looking into the entrance hole. all
we could discover was the little white
fuzzy head of one of these insects peer
ing out at US in a cautious, half cow
ardly manner. The last of these for
ayers were just returning, and it was
amusing to see how swiftly, vet surely,
they would always dart from the air
directly into the little entrance hole,
without even once missing or having TO
crawl in, like our ordinary bees.
In all their movements they are as
swift as lightning, and we had great
difficulty in catching one and more in
keeping him after being caught.
The other end of this log hive was
filled with plug, which, being with
drawn, the lady of the house took a
sharp-pointed stick, and, reaching into
the center of the hive, perforated sew
eral of the larger bags; then holding a
glass tumbler under and slightly eleyat-
| ing the other end of the hive, the honey
ran in a stream and soon nearly filled
the tumbler with very delicious but
rather thin honey.
This honey is supposed by the natives
| to possess medicinal virtues and is sold
at high price, something like the
"bumble-bee honey in the city, with
real honey, produced by the stingless
bees, while the latter, so far as the
| bumble-bee is concerned IN its produc-
Ion, is myth; but so far as either
party possessing any medicinal superb
GRITTY over ordinary honey, it must re-
side entirely with the faith of the pa
| tent
We at once purchased this hive and
took it on our shoulder. remounted the
horse and carried it safely back to the
Casanova apiary.
Here we fitted up nice little bamboo
log for hive and commenced the work
of drumming out the little pets, but to
our establishment they would not s.drum
out worth cent" We then tried
smoke with no better success. Finally
We procured r,p-saw, and by being
very cautious we succeeded in splitting
the log from end to end. We then
took out the nest, pollen, honey, bees
and all, and fitted it into our pretty
bamboo, left it for three weeks until the
bees mad it all fastened and fixed in,
then brought it home to New York safe
and sound; but alas forgetting to wrap
up the hive one cold night, the little IN
mates chilled and died
Many have been the speculations in
dulged in by the would-be wise in re-
gard to these bees, nearly all of which
are mistaken notions. The idea that
there is any danger in handling them
| bare-faced and bare-handed is untrue.
They will not mix with any varieties
of our true honey bees, and they are
Improbable except as objects of curl
osity.
A fair-sized fcolony,, is composed of
about from one thousand to fifteen hum
dred bees occupying round space of
perhaps eighteen inches long and four
inches in diameter. About five inches
from the entrance are the brood combs,
which are suspended from the upper
part of the roof of the hollow space in
parallel rows and about four combs
The combs are nearly round, not quite
so thick as ordinary brood comb and
not more than three inches in diameter.
The sacks containing honey and pollen
look very much alike and do not resem-
BILE cells in any sense; they are some
what irregular in shape, being an inch
long and three -fourths of an inch in di-
ameter, holding about two tablespoon
fuls of honey each. They are of dark
color and lie on top, bottom and sides.
packed like so many bags OF grain,
three-fourths of them filed with pollen
and the balance with honey.
In shape these bees are much like the
bee and in color like the yellow jacket,
but they are not more than one-ffth the
size of the bumble-bee and perhaps the
body is longer in proportion than his
big cousin. The queen is really beauti-
full and differs in shape from the work
ers in the same way ordinary qgeens
differ from the workers, but these bees
are much more vigorous and can cling
to objects with greater tenacity than
any insect we have ever seen.-Cor.
Beekeeper's Magaztne.