The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1890-12-12
A LIFE OF LABOR.
How tho Busy Bee Gathers Its Winter
Store of Proyendor.

store of Proyendor.
For the bees life is all labor. No
minor, no puddler, no navy, no docker
so taxes his physical powers as the bees
do thoirs. Nor did even tho slaves on
tho cotton plantations in the gathering
season ever work under the lash so
long and so unresistingly as these in
scots do under the pressure of their
communistic public opinion. Tho ear
Hest rambler on q summers morning
will find tho bees before him among
tho flowers, and after tho darkness has
closed the honeycups and driven tho
bees from tho beds of bloom the listen
err will hear that tho work of tho in
terror of the hive is still in full prog
ross.
The gathering of the honey is but
small part OF the duties upon which the
working bees are employed. The comb
has to BIO made, and this is tremendous
~ hard work. Wax is a secretion Of
the bees. They produce it slowly, and
in flakes, from underneath certain
scales that open on the abdomen, and
convey it with their feet to their
mouth to be mado moist and ductilc
Teeth and tongue together twist and
eoAh ~ lAii ~ 10 SUI illN IOtuy LOT uSc,
and then it is plastercd on the founda-
| ton and worked out by the teeth and
feet into siX-sided coils with absolute
mathematical accuracy. The secretion
of the wax evidently makes great
drafts on the vital strength Of the bees,
for it is found they consume twenty
pounds of honey for every pound of
wax that they produce.
The honey is simply tho winter storo
of provcndcr. The baby bees in their
grub state arc fed on different kind of
food which also the workers havo to
gather. This is formed out Of tho pol
len, or fcrtilizing dust Of flowers. Bees
as IS we'll known, perform an essential
office in the cross sterilization of plants
quite unwittingiy on their part, no
doubt, by carrying the pollen from ono
another to the pistil in another bloom.
In this connection the curious fact is
observed that bees do not visit OH one
and tho same journey different kinds Of
flowers. They collect pollen from all
varieties; but with whatever sort they
begin, to that sort they keep till they
have filled the little baskets that they
carry for the purpose on their hind logs
Having flown homo and stored their
load in the cells appropriated to it, they
may commence again on quito another
kind of pollen-bcari blossom. Tho
utility of this arrangement for the
flowers is obvious; but it is not so clear
how the bee comes to DO thus discrim-
mating.
Another substance collected by tho
bees is called propolis. This is kind
of gum, which they obtain from certain
rcsinous buds, or from the bark of such
tree as the willow. They can extract
it also from varnish. 1t is an old SUPER
stition that the bees in an apiary should
be informed when their master dies. as
they will wish to visit his coffin. Some
OF those rationalistic people who can
not BIO satisfied till they have reduced
every relic of moro poetic times to a
prosaic explanation have propounded a
theory that the bees are attracted to the
dead mans habitation to lick off the
varnish. In tho hive, propolis is used
to cement all crevices, and 10 join all
partitions. 1t is brought into requisi-
ton. too, when an enemy invadcs the
hive; he is if possible, stung to death,
and if he be too heavy to remove, he is
impermoably scaled up within a promo
lis tomb. National Review.