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get near enough to touch the hem of the garment of the industry of honey-bees. It is beyond our comprehension or description. Fancy a large and prosperous hive, full of combs, bees, and brood; fancy 20,000 little grubs in this hive requiring constant attention and proper food, and all receiving them in due season; fancy the care and diligence of the bees in mixing and kneading this food before they give it to their young; fancy 2000 of these grubs daily requiring and receiving beautiful lids on their cells to cover them up while they pass into the insect form and chrysalis state; fancy 800 or 1000 square inches of this brood being built up every three weeks. Try these combs in the scales against a twenty-eight-pound weight and see which conquers. Stand and look at that bee-hive, and remember that all therein goes on with unerring exactness and without light: then think of the untiring energy and perseverance of the bees outside the hive— ranging fields and woods from morn till dewy night, gathering up the sweets and pollen of flowers, storing the one in sacks, the other in baskets, returning to their home laden as donkeys with panniers, increasing their honey stores in weight from 2 lb. to 6 lb. per day, securely locked up after it has been twice swallowed and disgorged, and thus made into honey proper. Yes; think of all these things being done, together with nameless and countless offices performed every hour, and methinks you will be dumb with amazement at the industry of these wonderful bees!! What a world of wonders is in a beehive! Bonny wee bees! your own fanning wings will drive from your hives scores of tons of the sweat of your labours ere the imagination of the poet or the pen of the historian can compass your industry!

Without any pretension to accuracy, and anxious to be

within the facts, we may say that the daily consumption and waste of a large and prosperous hive of bees in the summer-time is more than 2 lb. To repair this waste, upwards of 2 lb. of materials have to be collected every day. Beyond this there is often accumulated honey to the amount of 4 lb. and 6 lb. daily in favourable weather. Once but only once - have we known 20 lb. weight gained by one hive in two days.

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THE INGENUITY OF BEES.

This subject also defies description. To mention half the instances of ingenuity seen in a large apiary would fill a book. In the building of combs and formation of cells, design is strikingly evident. Honey-cells are made to dip to the bottom. If a piece of guide-comb is put in wrong side up, the bees adopt it as a commencement, but reverse the dip of the cells, so as to make them better shaped for holding honey. The stays and props so frequently given to weak places and loose combs display great ingenuity.

When a swarm is put into an empty hive which it can only half fill, the bees, on commencing work, find that the way to the door by the sides of the hive is round about, and to shorten the way to the door they let down two or three beautiful bee-ropes, on which to descend and ascend. These ropes are made by one bee suspending itself to another, each bee coming lower down till the board is reached.

In large hives, three of these ladders are let down and used; and in small hives, only one. It is exceedingly interesting to watch the bees which form and compose these ladders. They remain motionless, allowing those

going out and in to ascend and descend with sure and speedy steps.

In the spring months bees are anxious to hatch as many young bees as possible, and therefore spread themselves out as widely as they can. In this way they cover more eggs. Sometimes the weather suddenly becomes cold, causing the bees to have some fears about the brood being chilled. How do the bees then act to protect the brood-or, in other words, to keep up the warmth of the hive? In the most orderly manner they gather themselves into a cluster at the door of the hive, and thus prevent the cold from going in; or, as our more accurate scientific friends would say, keep the heat in. The wisdom of closing their doors in cold weather during the breeding season, and the manner in which the bees do it, ever command the admiration of the thoughtful observant bee - master. Often is the door so closely wedged up-so nicely corked-by these clusters, that there is just room left for one bee to go out and in. the return of warm weather these protecting "sandbags" are removed.

On

The story of the dead snail in a bee-hive is worth mentioning. Snails are very fond of honey, and often take lodgings for months, in the winter, inside a bee-hive. They eat both honey and wax. Bees attack and drive out of their hives every enemy but snails and worms. These they will not touch. It happened that a snail died in one. It was more unpleasant to the bees after death than before, but they could not cast it out. Their ingenuity was set to work, resulting in a coffin of wax being built around the snail. If my memory serves me well, an instance of this happened in one of my father's hives when I was young-some fifty years ago.

Once we put a queen nearly dead on the flight-board of

a queenless hive. As soon as she was discovered, the bees came out in a continual stream for some time, heaping themselves upon her to keep her warm and restore animation. This they accomplished in a short time, and safely guided her into the hive.

The ingenuity of bees is strikingly evident when they are at work on a windy day. In calm weather they fly straight on their journeys to and from the fields; but when the wind is high, they seek the shelter of houses, banks, and fences. Often have we seen them flying at great speed along open drains and ditches, and in this way escaping the violence of the wind. And when it becomes necessary for them to leave their sheltered course, they rise like a rocket, and dive again into the most sheltered way. Last August, I placed twenty-five hives near a cutting on one of our lines of railway. On a windy day the bees used this sheltered part pretty freely-indeed so freely that one of the guards told the station-master that he had just passed a swarm of bees going down the line.

THE COURAGE OF BEES.

Cowardice is not an element of their nature; they fear no foe and shrink from no danger. Being furnished with weapons of defence, they know how to use them. I say defence, for that is the proper word. When bees attack anybody or anything, it is owing to some molestation received in act or appearance. The bees of hives placed near a peopled thoroughfare, or in a garden in which men, women, and children are often moving about, become as quiet and peaceable as cocks and hens. They are really domesticated, and will not annoy us if we do not annoy

them. Human breath and sweat are very offensive to bees, and hence it is not wise to move much amongst them while in a state of perspiration.

But what about vicious bees and their courageous attacks? All bees born away from the haunts of human beings, are apt to attack people going near their hives. Away from their own hives they do not attack anybody or anything; but on seeing strangers approach their hives, they anticipate molestation, and are not slow to use their weapons of defence. Again and again have we proven that bees once domesticated never become vicious. Bees that are quiet and peaceable in autumn, are quiet and peaceable in spring, though they may not have seen anybody near their hives all winter. But bees that are born and fly about in lonely places will fearlessly attack either men or beasts that go too near their hives.

HOW TO TAME AND DOMESTICATE VICIOUS BEES.

This is done by making them accustomed to the sight and form of human beings. A scarecrow or two (what the Scotch folk call potato bogies or bogles), placed in front of their hives, soon makes them all right. The scarecrows can be shifted from one position to another a few times. Some years ago I bought a hive in the country and placed it amongst some others at home. The bees would not let me go near their hive. A bogle was placed in front of it, and to me it was interesting to watch the attack: one or two of the savage creatures were seen eyeing the face, and looking for a tender spot on which to dart. In a few days they became as quiet

as the rest.

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