The morning news., 1888-11-22
THE STORY OF THE BEE.
A Peporter Listens to 1t in the Midst
of @ Euzzing Swarm.
From the Washington Star.


From, the Washington Star.
hoe is all business. That is a brief
s,,nmary of the remarks made to a reporter
bv ]. P. Millar, a representative of
the bee-keepers union. According to
Mr. Miller, this is a land flowing
xcith adulterated milk and bogus honey.
His union desires to get law enacted re-
o,,iring men who make honey without the
belD Of bees to stamp their wares, so that
t41e bees will not have to suffer in reputa-
ZION for any shortcomings in their honey.
Mr. Miller brought swarm of bees with
In, and they have been buzzing around
ll,,hiic men in the interest of reform ard
Pura honey. Mr. Miller when he made the
rren,arks to reporter was standing in re-
+;rad corner in the Smithsonian grounds.
He had rectangular box IN his hand look
inc, like drummer's sample case, 1t con-
+oined samples of bees-thousands of them.
He had taken the reporter to this secluded
rIane to show him the queen bee. The case
rrarried by Mr. Miller is an ingenious con-
0 trivance of his own containing several
Sides to which honeycombs are attached
and glass windows so arranged that one can
look at the bees and the bees cannot come
ont and sting him.
FREEING THE BEES.
When Mr. Miller took out one of the
glass fronts, and then took up in his hand a
Side literally swarming with bees, the re-
norter felt that it was an imprudence, and
Several small boys who had followed Mr.
Miller concurred in this opinion and began
N veil, rs boys will, Look out fer the
bee;ln Many of the bees rose in the air and
buzzed about
"Why don't they sting us:" said the re-
porter.
for some time, and they are overjoved at
getting out and spreading their wings"
Said Mr.. Miller, "That is all they care
This slide with much ease. If let 1t fall,
or was rough with it, the bees would be-
come angry and would attack me-"
Mr. Miller soon pointed out the queen
bee. busily going about in the throng that
covered the face OF the slide. They were
the ordinary Italian honey bees, brownish
looking and much smaller than the big
black humble bees that sometimes make
life uncomfortable for the city man who
sits down in country field to sip the nee
far of a bucolic existence. The queen had
little longer and more graceful body, aud
her wings were comparatively short, hardly
reaching below her slender waist and look
ing much like the spectacular gauze wings
worn by stage fairies, intended more for
show than for use. Her subjects moved all
around her and tumbled over one another
and occasionally over the queen herself,
without ceremony or apology. Then Mr..
Miller put the slide back and adjusted the
glass cover SO as to leave only a narrow
opening for the bees to go and come through.
The bees kept leaving the case or hive in
SQUADS. After buzzing about awhile they
would return and another detachment
would go out. While the bees were thus
enioying themselves, Mr.. Miller told the
reporter their life story.
THE BEES STORY.
A beehive, he said, offered an example of
well organized, well-governed community.
1t is sort of petticoat government. The
working bees, or these that form the vast
majority, are imperfectly developed fe-
males. They are, SO to speak, the voters.
They have everything in their own hands.
When they lose their queen they can make
new one. They can and do also limit the
number of male bees or drones. The active
life of a working bee is about twelve weeks.
1t attains its majority when it is twenty -one.
That is, twenty-nne days after the egg is
deposited the bee cuts its way out of the
cell and begins its work. The embryo bee
lives in the egg three days, then it becomes a
little white grub and in this larva shape it
exists eight days. Then it passes into the
chrysaliS or pupa stage. Some member of
the colony seals up the cell, and there the
bee undergoes during its eleven days con-
finement the transformation from grub to
a winged bee. When it is fully matured it
cuts its own way out through the cap of the
cell and begins its attacks on the stores of
the colony. Ordinarily it eats voraciously
for several days. The other colonists encour-
ageit i'll gluttony. Its gets fat with layers
Of a sort of bee fat or tallow under its sleek
coat This tallow is the beeswax. The
bees take it and make the comb Of it. If a
bee happens to cut its way out, however, at
time when there is glut of beeSwax, and
no demand for more comb, it is rigidly
limited in his diet, and it has to go abroad
to collect honey or pollen, or stay at home
TO attend to domestic duties. There is a
just and wise division of labor. The queen
bee, or mother bee, as she is known in some
parts of the world, has nothing to do but
attend to the duties of maternity. She goes
about depositing an egg here and there in
little cells prepared for their reception.
Some of the working bees act as nurses and
bring pollen and water, with which they
feed the larvae. The bees go on continually
storing honey, so long as the harvest lasts.
They have in view, apparently, the possibil-
ltv that season may come when the yield OF
honey will be too small to last over winter.
When the cold weather comes the bees be-
come torpid, and hibernate. This period of
hlbernation lasting until the blooms ap-
pear again, does not seem to count in a
working bees life One Matched early in
the summer will spend all its little life
forces in twelve weeks and die before the
flowers are gone. One Matched six weeks be-
fore the bees go into winter quarters will
awake from its long sleep the next spring
and have its last inning then, living the six
weeks of active life still due it in this new
summer.
THE QUEEN BEE.
attalns an age almost patriarchal compared
with that of its humble sister. The queen
Will live from two and one-half TO three
Years. Each swarm has its queen, ana she
VIII brook no rival. When a swarm be-
comes over-populous it divides itself equally
and one-half goes off with the old queen to
seek new hive. OF course provision has
70 be made for a new queen. The working
bees can so influence an egg as to make a
queen of it. They build about it queen
cell, or royal cradle. Food of richer quality
and greater variety is crammed into this
cell. The royal larva passes then into the
pupa state, and seven days later the new
queen bursts forth in all her splendor. Be-
Iore this occurs, however, it is supposed
That the old queen with half the swarm has
Withdrawn, leaving the new beauty clear
held 1t happens sometimes that lowering
OF Dad weather prevents the exodus, and
the Old queen has not got away when the
new one comes forth. In such cases there
Is a dreadful combat between the two queens
winch does not end till one is stretched out
IN death. The queen has a sting but uses it
only against presumptuous rival. The
queen. soon after har appaaranca following