The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1886-03-06
THE BUSY BEE.


the wonderful Foresight and Intelli-
gence It Exhibits.
Truly this little creature is wonder
fully made" Take, for instance, the
feet of the working bee. At one and
the same time they exhibit brush,
basket and pair of pincers. One of
the articles is brush of extreme fine
ness, the hairs being arranged in SYM
metrical rows, which are only to be
seen with the microscope. With this
brush of almost fairy delicacy the bee
continually brushes its brown velvet
robe to remove the pollen dust with
which it becomes loaded while rifiing
the flowers of their nectar.
Another of the articles that the bee
carries about is followed like spoon
and receives all the gleanings which
the insect carries to the hive. 1t is
really sort of panier for provisions;
and then by opening them, one. upon
another, by means of a hinge, these
two pieces. become pair of pincers,
which render important service in the
construction of the comb, and it is with
them that the bee lays hold of the semi
circle of wax below her abdomen and
carries them to her mouth, mOistening
it first with the tongue into kind of
paste, and drawing it out like ribbon,
which she then uses to plaster the top
of the hive. She has eight of these little
wax pockets, and yet she uses them all.
Another bee will take her place and
90 through with the same service, when
she is done, until large wall of wax
has been built up, but as yet the cells
are not in.
You could not guess how the cells
are made, and do not believe that you
or would have thought of so ingeni-
Gus continuance. The nursing bees
prepare them, and in this way one be-
gins by forcing the head into the wax,
biting it with the jaw-like pincers, and
moving the head to and fro rapidly.
Very soon the beginning of a round
hollow is made, and then passing on,
another and another is commenced,
while the second bee takes the place of
the first and enlarges upon the work.
As many as twenty bees, one after the
other, work upon each cell before it is
large enough to use. Another set of
bees are working upon the other side
of these cells, back to back, at the same
time, all over the comb, and soon q
number of six-sided tubes, half an inch
deep, stand along either side Of the
comb, ready to receive honey or bee
eggs; and how closely they fit! the
clever little bees filling every atom of
space, using the least possible quantity
Of wax and making the cells lie so
closely that the whole comb. is kept
warm when the young bees are in it.
And when you think of these 'bee
cities" having a population of from fif-
teen to twenty thousand inhabitants,
and that each house has to be made
for its particular owner, evenly and
regularly built as they are. isn't itwon-
derful?
One Queen reigns over the whole of
this numerous population, and is the
mother of the hive; and you might
think, perhaps, with SO many subjects
she would be very idle. But no! She
has her own especial duties to perform,
and works as hard as any of the rest in
performing them. When the cells are
ready she goes from one to another
without rest, depositing her eggs, lay
ing about two hundred daily The f1rst
iald are those OF the workers. and In
the meannme the larger drone cells are
Deing made the proportion OF the lat
Ter Deing about one In thirty. II any
accident carries on the Queen they in
stinctively know enough of the springs
OF iife TO create themselves new Queen
IN TINS wise: AZ the edge OF one OF the
COMBS You wiii see them heap up am
PIE materlais ana construct a vast roy
a. cell forty or nity times as large ana
weignty as the others. After that they
pear away . common workwoman from
ner narrow cell ana place her IN tins
palace just as soon as sne Is installed