Show US if NJ BEE ego X A kp I 1 1 oo 00 ml how an expert handles bees ared by the national geographic society washington D a 0 service HERE are some bees in cabout the united states producing about tons of marketable honey annually and yet the bee Is not a native there were no bees in north america when the spanish explorers arrived settlers coming in later expeditions brought them and at first the indians called them the milte mans fly since then they have followed man in his migration and settlement of every part of the united states and canada until recently these insects chief usefulness to man was their production of honey and beeswax no mean service since tor for centuries honey was VI virtually r the only available sweet but now as pollinating pollina ting agents they perform a far more important duty in the pioneer stages of american agriculture bumblebees and other native tive pollinating pollina ting insects t that hat fed upon nectar and pollen were plentiful everywhere but the planting of vast areas which once were forests prairies and swamps with fields of grain orchards and gardens upset the Uell delicate cate pal balance of nature widespread cultivation of single plants in huge brought about an abnormal condition of insect population injurious species afforded an enormous food supply prospered and multiplied until now serious insect pests menace almost every important crop insecticides must be used to protect farm crops particularly fruits unfortunately tuna tely these materials kill not only harmful but beneficial insects the toll includes honeybees and other wild bees as well as the efficient bumblebees all the insects that carry pollen from one blossom to another plants need pollination even yet we scarcely realize the dependence of many plants upon insects to effect pollination the cutting of wood lots and the clean cultivation of our fields have added to the difficulty of survival of our useful insects with the result that more and more dependence has to be placed upon the honeybee the only pollinating pollina ting insect that can be propagated and controlled some plants bear only male flowers which produce pollen but no fruit and female flowers in the same species occur on a separate plant to set fruit pollen from the male plant must be carried to the female flower some plants simultaneously bear both male and female flowers but still require cross pollination to set fruit then there Is a third class in which both sexes occur in the same blossom some of these plants can set fruit with fill their own pollen but in many plants pollen from another Is necessary to set a full crop of fruit or seed although the honeybee Is by no means domesticated it Is easily controlled troll ed consequently millions already are being moved from one section of the country to another and placed in 10 orchards and on farms bee men in the south even offer tor for sale a pollination package a wire cage filled with bees the grower distributes the requisite number throughout his orchards opens the cages and leaves the rest to the bees hundreds of full colonies are rented to during the peak of 0 the blooming period tile the bee has also largely replaced the camels hair brush in pollinating pollina ting cucumbers under glass were lt it not for the work of the hon bybee most of our apple pear plum and cherry orchards would bear poor crops the growing groning of certain forage crops would be unprofitable and the variety and quantity of our vegetables would be materially reduced found in nearly all countries honey and beeswax are produced over a wider geographical range than any other agricultural crop there Is scarcely a country in which honeybees are not kept they inhabit the tropic and temperate zones they are found in the deserts on the mountains in the plains and in swamps and as far north as alaska scattered over the world are several distinct races such as the italian caucasian and cyprian all AH races everywhere react in almost the same bame manner A skillful beekeeper can succeed in australia its as well as in ohio provided aided he be keeps an eye to the weather eather and studies the local flora it if honeybees hone bees are properly handled were mere Is no more danger in caring tor for them than la in raising chickens however the belief that bees learn to know their master and will not sting him Is foundation during the active season the aver ge cu life of ff a lieu bee Is six weeks the first two weeks are lived almost exclusively within the hive but th thereafter ere after the bees pass most of the daylight hours in the fields when the weather Is good in search of pollen and nectar since the beekeeper rarely opens the hive more than once a week there Is little opportunity for the bees to become acquainted with their owner some persons are so constituted that one sting may prove highly dangerous to them and require immediate medical attention but these cases are rare during the active season a normal colony contains one queen a fully developed female thousands of duct lve worker bees which are females only partly developed and several sete r al hundred drones or male bees the queen is en endowed doved with great powers of reproduction since she can even produce male progeny without mating but she cannot produce female bees bee workers or queens without going through the marriage ceremony thus the maligned drone Is indispensable to the completion of the immortal cycle of the honeybee queens wedding flight upon the wedding flight of the queen depends the subsequent development of the colony on a bright spring day d the virgin queen er emerges nerges from the blay hive e and soars away to seek a mate from among the hundreds of drones cruising about in the warm sunshine blissfully perhaps the drone Is seeking an encounter that will cost him his life but insure the perpetuation of his race A moment after mating the drone dies and the newly mated queen at once becomes a widow but this one mating enables the queen tor for the rest of her life three or four years to perform her maternal duties A few days after returning to the hive she begins egg laying slowly at first but at the height of her career she may lay as many as 1500 eggs a day and maintain this rate for days at a time she lays two kinds of 0 eggs one kind Is unfertilized and hatches into a drone or male bee mating has no influence upon this part ot of her family her sansare son sare not the sons of her mate or husband and are are consequently fatherless th erless but they can claim a grandfather the other type of egg Is fertilized by the queen with a male cell of which she retains an almost unlimited number in a special organ of her body the fertilized egg hatches batches into a female bee usually a worker thus both workers or neuter bees and queens come from the same kind of eggs egg yet the two show marked differences feren ces the queen has the function of reproduction the worker bee has not the queen bee possesses teeth on tier iier mandibles or jaws the worker bee has smooth jaws the worker bee has its pollen baskets the queen lacks them the worker bee lias has a straight barbed still sting the queen his has a curved smooth sting the worker bee loses its life after stinging but the queen does not A worker bee takes 21 days to develop from the egg to the ad adult u I 1 while w a queen who Is much larger requires only 15 or ag days the colony colony itself itsek has the power of determining whether a fertilized egg shall develop into a queen or a wo worker aker bee raising a new queen during its normal existence only one queen Is necessary to maintain dainta I 1 kie n the population of a colony unil unlike the worker bee who lives but six weeks the queen way may live lire two three or more years but eventually she also becomes old and decrepit then a new queen must be raised to carry on the life of the colony the raising of a new queen la Is entrusted to the worker bees an egg or a newly hatched larva less than three days old Is selected the cell in which the larva Is deposited Is broken down and enlarged and the heiress apparent Is given special care and attention from this time on for the first three days worker and drone larvae are fed royal jelly a milky white secretion from the glands in the heads of worker bees after the third day a coarser food such as nectar and pollen to la given them the queen larvae however are fed royal jelly exclusively throughout the larval stage which lasts last a five and a half days the difference in diet during the two and a half days therefore determines whether the larva will develop into a bee that cannot reproduce but possesses all other maternal instincts or one that has the function of reproduction but lacks all maternal instincts for the queen becomes virtually an egg machine |