lost—now this way and now that she goes in a great hurry, then turns around and around. But she has not lost anything, and sh© has not gone crazy; she is merely collecting pollen as fast as she can, and if you have sharp eyes you will see her rub, rub, rubbing it with her legs back into her baskets. It is astonishing how much she can carry. When her baskets are full, she goes about with a basket of pollen attached to each of her hind legs." (Morley).
The "busy bees" not only are carriers and honey-makers, but they sometimes stop to feed from their store a hungry relative. First the two cross antennse by way of greeting, then the hungry one puts out its long tongue and proceeds to draw honey from the mouth of the other. <-...-
The senses of bees are very highly developed. The sense of vision is remarkable. The bee in proportion to its size has more eye-space than the owl, two great compound eyes and on top of its head three small eyes. No wonder it can make a bee-line for a desired goal. The antennae or feeters are of the greatest importance; without them the bee is lost. They serve as nose and ears as well as feelers, Bees take the best of care of these sensitive things, cleaning them carefully and frequently.
The bee is very clean, as neat as can be; is always cleaning itself, making use of its legs, which answer well as comb and brush. The'hive likewise is kept scrupulously clean. Fresh air is let into the crowded hive by an ingenious method; some bees standing outside fanning air into the holes in the bottom of the hive, others just inside doing their share of fanning, and good circulation is thus provided.
The bee has various enemies, and keeps sentinels on the lookout for intruders. There are robber bees to be combated; the bee moth to keep from gaining entrance and laying eggs that produce larvae destructive to both comb and honey. Then there are birds that eat bees, and bears, notorious honey thieves, will eat both honey and honey-bee.
Bees are torpid during cold weather. The queen bee may deposit as many as 3,000 eggs a day. She sometimes lives four, sometimes five, years. The workers live but a few months at the most, sometimes only a few weeks. A hive has been known to yield 1,000 pounds of honey in a single season. As a rule, bees do most of their collecting within two miles of the hive. The common black or brown honey makers are German bees. The Italian bees, large bees with yellow markings on the abdomen, are in much favor in this country. The Carnio-lans, from Austria, have a good standing. The Syrians have the highest honey record. As is well known, white clover makes delicious honey; the flowers of the basswood are favored of bees; in the south, orange- blossoms are used and yield a clear, delicate strain. Buckwheat flowers give very dark honey. Bees sometimes gather flowers from poisonous plants, but that happens very seldom in this country. The wild bees store honey that both man and beast search for, the store being usually found in trees.
Before the world had sugar, honey was of great importance as an article of food. While not so highly valued to-day it is nevertheless much relished. Bees are of utmost importance in the cross-fertilization of plants; it is their habit to visit bloom after bloom of the same kind. Howard says: " Without their aid the health of the plant world would suffer and its infinite variety would hardly have been achieved." Attempts to raise fruit on a large scale with no bees in the locality have proved failures; abundant crops following the introduction of bees.
There are many kinds of bumblebees. They are large and furry. A familiar one wears a splendid coat of black and yellow. They are of much value in the fertilization of flowers, especially red clover. They generally nest in a hollow in the ground, under a tuft of grass, close to the surface. In the winter the queen lives quite alone, sleeping through the cold. When the flowers bloom again, she works very busily, gathering pollen to place in her nest and lay her eggs therein, where the young larva may help itself. After a time the larva spins a cocoon about itself, from which it comes forth a bee and, if a worker, ready to help carry pollen. As with the honey bee there are the three classes, workers, drones and queen; when cold weather comes, the workers and drones die.
See The Honey Bee, Frank Benton, Bulletin No. f, United States Department of Agriculture; Hodge: Nature Study and Life; Morley: The Bee People; Howard: The Insect Book.
Beech, a genus of trees technically known as Fagus, represented by about five species in the cooler regions of the northern hemisphere. The species of the southern hemisphere formerly included under Fagus are now regarded as forming another genus. The beech is prized for its beauty, largely cultivated as a shade and ornamental tree, and valued for its timber and nuts. Both in Europe and the eastern United States the beech forms extensive forests, and it is the common hardwood tree of central Europe. It is a familiar and well-beloved tree of Europe; the beeches of England are famous and whole forests of beech are common in Denmark and Germany. In the olden days great herds of swine were fed on the beech-forests of England. The ancients highly prized beech-nuts for food, used the oil therefrom for lamps, kept their records on beechen "boards-—the word book being derived from the Anglo-Saxon word for this tree, bece.
