The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-12-29
THE BEE AS A HELPER OF
THE HORTICULTURAL MEN

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zeal conditions favoring the formation
OF one are curiously similar to those
aiding in the production of the other.
We put our poultry up to fat in con-
finement, with part light; to secure
bodily inactivity we keep warm and
feed highly. Our bees, under nature Is
teaching, put themselves up to yield
wax under conditions so parallel that
the suitability of the fattening coop is
vindieated.
cheshire, in his investigations, says
that on the inner side of the eight
plates lining the lower side of the alb
domen are about 100000 glands, from
which the wax is seereted as white
liquid, which hardens on exposure to
the air.
1t is evident from the best authori-
ties that the form and method of wax
secretion were known as early as 1851,
and possibly at even an earlier date.
The extraordinary economy of the use
of wax is shown by the fact that the
hive of eight to ten gallons capacity
will yield but about two pounds of wax
when melted. According to DR.. Donhoff
the thickness of the sides of cell in
new comb is only the 1-1s0th part of
an inch. Cheshire states that he found
some that measured only 1-400th part
of an inch.
Notwithstanding the fragile nature
of the honeycomb, it is still sufficiently
strong to carry the relatively immense
load of sweets stored in. its cells. The
perfection of insect labor is shown by
the fact that human ingenuity has
never been able to make artificial
honeycomb. The tales concerning man
ufactured comb honey are Pigments of
the imagination. Consider that any ma
chinery devised for manufacturing
honeycomb would make all parts alike |
in similar sections. Examine carefully |
two or more one-pound boxes of honey |
at your groeer's, and you will note diff
ferenees in the finish of the cappings
and building the comb fast to the wood
en- castings, which will at once convince
you of the genuineness of the article.
"Not only does the bee excel as an
artisan, but also as chemist. It's
honey stomach is the most delicate
chemical laboratory in the world Here
the nectar of the flowers is transform
ed from a highly diluted sweet, suscep-
tible of speedy fermentation, into the
most perfect food product known. This
chemical change, inverting the sugar,
according to the chemists phrase, is
accomplished in the labor
atory of the bee during it's short flight
from the field to the hive. This chem
zeal reaction is so delicate that no
laboratory aside from that of the bee
can successfully accomplish it.
"Consider the queen bee, the sole and
1ndisputed monarch of her empire. En-
lowed with powers superhuman, she
governs without exercising visible au-
5hority, rules without coercion. Her
subjects go about their tasks with that
cheerful zeal which can only accompany
.oil fully recompensed, and offer to
men, torn into factions of contendingl
opinion, an ideal social state, where
every member of the community is a
,oiler and all are prosperous, peaceful
ind content.
'EThe queen bee is sole mother of the
ace. All life from the egg that
great biological axiom, is exempliied
n the hive. The queen mother passing
apidly from comb to comb, places a
ingle egg in each selected cell, laying
he inconceivable number of 5000 to
900 in twenty-four hours. This labor
epresents in q single day the expendi-
ure of physical substance equal to two
,ody Consequently she does not even
eed herself, being always accompanied
" devoted group of maids of honor,
yorker bees, whose Office it is to bring
n profusion the choicest predigested
God to their ruler Not the least of the
wonderful powers of the queen is that
# predetermining the sex of the off
pring which shall result from eggs pre-
isely alike under the microscope, but
which, in turn, may eventuate in
yorker, drone or queen, as their mother
nay eIect.'
Al