The apiary; or, bees, bee-hives, and bee culture [1865]: Being a familiar account of the habits of bees, and the most improved methods of management, with full directions, adapted for the cottager, farmer, or scientific apiarianNeighbor, Alfred
Science
The apiary; or, bees, bee-hives, and bee culture [1865]: Being a familiar account of the habits of bees, and the most improved methods of management, with full directions, adapted for the cottager, farmer, or scientific apiarian
In gathering pollen from flowers, bees are doing more than merely
providing for their own community. Whilst humming through our gardens
they are assisting to propagate our flowers, and their merry buzz in
our orchards indicates that the blossoms of spring will in autumn
fulfil their promise by abundance of fruit. In Mr. Darwin's remarkable
work, "The Fertilization of Orchids," the mystery of the fructification
of flowers is scientifically explained; but before the subject was
so fully understood, it was quite believed that bees in passing from
flower to flower performed some important service. Owners of fruit
trees have noticed, in a season generally unfavourable for the orchard,
that if during only one fine forenoon the bees had spread freely
amongst the blossoms of a particular tree, that it would prove more
fruitful than its fellows. On this account the orchard is a good place
for an apiary, for it seems--more abundant the honey, more plentiful
will be the fruit. Bees bear the fructifying matter from one sex of
flowers to the other, but they confine their attention to one kind of
flower during each excursion: and the careful observer may see how the
colour of the pollen on the bodies of the bees will vary from yellow to
red and brown, according to the kind of flowers from which it has been
gathered. The gathering of pollen, its use by the nursing bees, and the
storing of it in the cells, afford to the bee-keeper opportunity for
observations of exceeding interest.
PROPOLIS; OR, BEES' CEMENT.
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