Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1891-03-18
BEES AND HONEY.
The Life of the Honey Bee Explained by
DIR. Lyon.
10 the Tobacco Leaf-Chroniclo.I

TO the Tobacco Leaf-Chron1cle.l
In our last two papers We looked
at the bees during The winter, and
again in early spring, when they arr
raising "brood;" let us now take 4
look at them at the "swarming sen
SON." This is usually in our locality
about the middle of May, but some
thing earlier or later according tC
circumstances. Bees generally be
gin swarming when honey begins tC
be abundant, as when poplar and
clover are in bloom. A little before
this time let us open and look into
the hive. If the bees are prosperous
we will find the number of workers
vastly greater than it was a month
carrier. We will also find number,
of "drones" newly hatch Il and
Matching. If we have not guarded
4gainst il we may find entirely toe
many drones. For the instinct oil
the bees, at this season, tells them tC
raise drones, and if they have any
vacant space in the hive they are
very apt to build entirely too much
'drOne comb" This matter will re-
quire some further explanation. Al
most all people have seen honey.
comb and noticed its wonderful
structure, consisting of hexagonal
cells, built of wax, fitted together
with mathematical precision. But
perhaps most people do not know
that bees build comb of two, and only
two sizes. The most of the comb is
built five cells to the inch, that is
each cell is one fifth of an inch in
diameter. Comb of this size is called
"worker comb" The second kind
is called "dOne comb and ia this the
cells measures one fourth inch in
diameter. 1t appears therefore that
each square inch of surface of the
worker comb contains five times five
twenty-five cells, and the same sur.
face contains but four times four-siX
teen cells of drone size. Now we
find that the queen can lay two
kinds of eggs, one kind will produce
workers or queens according to
circumstances and the other kind
always produces "drones' only. We
also find that the queen never lays
one kind of egg in the other kind Of
cell.
Now bees will not tear down comb
already built, so if we have our hives
filled with combs containing but few
of the drone cells, there will be but
few drones raised, but if we have
vacant spaces in the hive as the
swarming season approaches, the in
stinct of the bees leads them to build
superabundance of ''drone comb
The queen naturally fills this with
drone eggs and we get great sur
plus o! drones, to the serious damage
of the colony.
After this explanation we proceed
to the further examination Of our
colony. If we find abundance of
bees, and drones, and plenty of un
hatched "brOOdn and if we notice
new honey coming in and the vacant
parts of the comb filling up with ii,
we may soon expect that our hive
will swarm unless we take measures
to prevent it. We will not now
speak of these preventive measures,
but suppose we are willing they
should swarm. The next thing our
bees do will be to start n number Of
"green cells" These green cells are
entirely different from the heXagonal
cells in which workers or drones are
raised. They are stuck about over
the central combs, usually on the
edge, and at first look almost exactly
like acorn cups. Eggs are deposited
in there by the queen, or they may
be brought by the worker bees from
one of the worker cells. (Any
"Worker egg" will answer, but a
drone egg will not answerD When
their eggs hatch, the nurse bees feed
the young grub with great album
dance of creamy substance which
we call "Royal Jelly" This food is
what causes the larvae to develop
into queen instead of an ordinary
worker. Another very wonderful
thing is that the queen will come
to maturity in about five days less
time than Il common bee, although
she is larger and more highly
As the grub grows, the
nurse bees increase the depth of the
queen cell and finally draw it to Il
point and seal it up, making it very
like long, slender acorn in shape.
In the meantime while these prep
arations for new queens are going on
the old queen, who cannot endure a