Beeswaxcandle

“ Beeswax is a unique product; the little socialists of the hive have formed a trust for its manufacture, which for many and good reasons has never been infringed upon. The special value of beeswax is that it retains its cohesiveness and ductibility, under both higher and lower temperatures, than do other kinds of wax. ”

“ Their velvety clothing and bright colours make them the favourites of most people. They are most industrious and may be seen on the wing from early morning often till quite late on summer evenings, whereas the solitary bees do not, as a rule, commence work till nine or ten in the morning, except in very hot weather, and generally retire about four or five p.m. There is an idea prevalent that humble bees do not sting, but this is fallacious. They can sting pretty severely, but I do not think they are so ready to use their defensive weapon as a wasp or hive bee is. ”

“ The sting-bearing hymenoptera undoubtedly constitute the favourite food of these resplendent birds, and to obtain them, not only are the hives of the honey-bee put under requisition, but the nests of wasps, hornets, and humble-bees are ruthlessly robbed of their inhabitants; indeed, it has been frequently observed that when the Bee-eaters have been fortunate enough to find a wasp's nest, they establish their head-quarters in its immediate neighbourhood, and, during a few hours' sojourn, generally contrive to snap up its numerous occupants one after another until none are left. ”

“ A strange bee is never allowed to cross the threshold unless it is perhaps in the busy season, when the bees are “working overtime” as we might say, straining every nerve and muscle to gather in as much honey as they can before the summer goes and the flowers die. Then if a stranger comes to the hive, with her honey-sac full of the precious fluid, she may be allowed to pass in. Wasps often try to gain an entrance, as also do many other insects of one sort or another. ”

“ I have more than once seen the combs of a newly-hived swarm so heated by a July sun as to fall from the top of the hive, and the honey to run in a stream from its entrance, consequently the stocks were ruined.
Wasps.—I am quite sure that it is needful for us all to use every means in our power for the destruction of these sad enemies to our Bees. As "prevention is always better than cure," that object is attained by capturing the queen wasps at this time; and, indeed, as long as they can be seen. Some persons recommend shooting them. ”

“ Wasps, particularly those of the hornet species, are most destructive to bees. We have often observed one of these marauders enter a hive with fearless intrepidity, and, watching its motions through the glazed frame, have been astonished by its feats of strength and agility. In ascending the combs it is, of course, instantly attacked by the rightful inhabitants; if one only venture to assail it, the unfortunate bee has no chance of victory, and but little of escaping with life ”

“ We may be the more excused for this preference when we weigh the interest of the genus Apis to man. The wasp boots us nothing, but is the pilferer of our fruits, and a marauder upon the hive, whose inhabitants it destroys and consumes their produce, it being indifferent to them which they obtain—the bee or the honey,—either furnishing them with sustenance. ”

“ But the sudden clash of arms in the quiet of the hive has an extraordinary effect on the sluggish colony. The alarm spreads on every side. Wherever the wasp runs now she is met with snapping jaws and detaining embraces. As she rushes madly down the comb, she is continually pulled up in full flight by bees hanging on to her legs, her wings, her black waving antenna. A dozen times she shakes them all off, and speeds on, the spot of light and safety in the distance ever growing brighter and larger. But she seldom escapes with her life if affairs have reached this pass. ”

“ Again, in the case of red coloration, the red generally occurs on the discs of the segments, the apices and sides often being dark, and in cases where in one species both black and banded forms occur, with intermediate varieties, the last remnant of red colour is generally situated in the centre of the segment. By far the gayest effect is displayed by our humble bees, and, but for them and a few of the species of Andrena and the wasp-coloured species, our aculeates would be a very sombre lot. ”

“ One may be watching a sallow bush and see dozens of insects flying about. A cloud shadows it, and almost immediately they disappear, to appear again as suddenly with the return of the sun's rays. It is interesting to watch bees at work collecting pollen, etc., but if any one wishes to study them at home, their nesting haunts must, of course, be visited. These are so various that it is impossible to point them all out, but the best locality to select is a sandy bank facing south. In June or July such a bank is often alive with bees, sand-wasps, etc. ”

“ Wasps do not store honey in their nest; the papery nature of their cells would make such storage impossible. I dare say some of my readers will have noticed wasps sitting in the sun on a wooden paling busily engaged apparently eating something—they are really pulling off little fibres of wood which they chew up into a substance fitted for the walls of their cells; they will also chew paper, and the experiment has been tried of giving them coloured papers, which resulted in stripes of colour appearing in their nests. The different species vary somewhat in the architecture of their nests ”

“ Even a queen wasp is not so large as a small worker hornet. The hornet nests in hollow trees, our three commoner wasps nest, as a rule, in the ground, but occasionally in outhouses, under roofs, etc. One of the others as a rule makes its nest in shrubs, but occasionally in the ground, another always nests in a bush or shrub, preferring a gooseberry or currant bush, and the only remaining one is a cuckoo of one of the ground species. The gooseberry-bush {36}wasp is not a common species in the south, but in the midlands and north it is abundant. ”

“ What is a Cottage in the country, unless "your banks are all furnished with bees, whose murmurs invite one to sleep?" There the hives stand, like four-and-twenty fiddlers all in a row. Not a more harmless insect in all this world than a bee. Wasps are devils incarnate, but bees are fleshly sprites, as amiable as industrious. You are strolling along in delightful mental vacuity, looking at a poem of Barry Cornwall's, when smack comes an infuriated honey-maker against your eyelid, and plunges into you the fortieth part of an inch of sting saturated in venom. ”

“ Of course, the carrying in pollen was soon discontinued, as there was no brood to feed; the material, weighing sixteen pounds, being all honey and wax. I also saw them active in defence of their homes against the wasps; and although some wasps contrived to enter, I have seen the bees bring out their corpses now and then since, showing that they appear right.
To-day, the sun shining very bright and the temperature being warm, I am flabbergasted by seeing crowds of drones going in and out, and no slaughtering of these now unnecessary mouths. I say, can all be right? Is the queen still alive? ”

“ The humble bees again differ from either in their nesting habits: the female in the spring seeks out a mouse's nest or other suitable foundation of moss, etc., in or on the surface of the ground, according to the species. This she lines with wax, deposits a heap of pollen, and lays her eggs in it. She also makes waxen cells for honey, but these are not hexagonal and symmetrical as are those of the hive bee, but are more like little pots, and are known as "honey pots". ”

“ It leads out into the park—no formal gravel drive, simply a footpath on the sward between the flowering trees: a path that becomes less and less marked as I advance, and finally fades away, where the limes cease, in the broad level of the opening ‘greeny field.’ These{64} honey-bees seem to fly higher and to exhibit much more activity than the great humble-bee: here in the limes they must be thirty feet above the ground. Wasps also frequently wing their way at a considerable elevation, and thus it is that the hive-bee and the wasp so commonly enter the upper windows of houses. ”

“ Another method of storing scions, after they have been dipped in beeswax, is to place them on the earth of a cellar floor and cover them with a few burlap sacks. They should never be allowed to become wet or they will start to mold. If they are to be stored in this way, a watch must be kept for mice which will molest them and destroy them if they have an opportunity. ”

“ They are professional thieves. Like the bees of a correspondent of yours, they have no respect for tuum, and having no meum, they care nothing. Living at the expense of others, without consulting the convenience or goodwill of anybody, they richly deserve what their extermination will pay for—sulphur, gunpowder, and boiling water. Let every bee-master give sixpence to every boy who destroys a wasps'-nest.
The wasp builds its nest generally underground. Their cells are hexagonal. The house is built of paper, fabricated by this insect long before its manufacture was discovered by man. ”

“ When once wasps in any number have gained an entrance into a hive, the bees can seldom eject them, and the invaders generally remain until they have freely regaled themselves from the luscious store. They not only consume the honey, but cause a good deal of worry to the legitimate inhabitants of the hive, as well as killing the foremost defenders of it. Wasps being much superior in strength, it requires at least three bees to master one of them. ”

“ Honey-Bee's home, and feast from her well-filled honeycombs. But the babies all eat insects which their mothers put in the little rooms beside the eggs.
"Mrs. Polistes is a cousin of Mrs. Vespa. She is long and slender, while Mrs. Vespa is rather broad. Her house is a much simpler affair. It has just one layer of rooms suspended by a stem from the under side of a porch, or maybe the eaves, of a house."
"Are there solitary wasps," asked Jimmie, "just as there are solitary bees?"
"Many wasps prefer to live alone rather than in a big house with hundreds of others. ”

“ History of Bees, p. 352.
The destruction of queen wasps and queen hornets in the spring, and of wasps’ and hornets’ nests in the summer, will prove the best security against those formidable enemies. None but queen wasps and queen hornets appear in the spring. Everyone which is then annihilated would probably have been the founder of a kindred colony, and every colony of wasps at a moderate computation may be calculated to produce at least 30,000 in a season. These destroyers may often be watched to their homes and - 207 - exterminated in the night, by brimstone, gunpowder, or boiling water. ”

“ I would suggest this, that if you are planting on southern slopes and happen to be in localities where there are very high temperatures, you use 1-3 beeswax and 2-3 paraffin. Beeswax has been proven to be quite safe over wounds and trees in general. This treatment has been used over a very wide area, in 18 states and 5 Canadian Provinces. We have information at hand on 130,000 roses, 15,000 pecans, 2,000 apples. ”

“ Yet a moment before they contained the latent power of great harm to the future growth of the weed—four lusty caterpillars would work from leaf to leaf with a rapidity and destructiveness which might, even at the last, have sapped the maturing seeds. Now, on a smaller scale, but still within the realm of insect life, all was changed—the plant was safe once more and no caterpillars would emerge. For the wasp went from sphere to sphere and inoculated every one with the promise of its kind. The plant bent slightly in a breath of wind, and knew nothing ”

“ Their cries, while they skim through the air on rapid wing, are constant. The name of Bee-eaters they receive from their principal food, which consists of large bees and wasps. They seize their prey either on the wing, like the Swallows, or secrete themselves at the entrance to a hive, and catch the inmates that enter or depart, whose stings they are skilful in avoiding. Living together in numerous flocks, they rapidly clear a district of wasps and bees. ”

“ This unique specimen was shot by the describer from a tall tree in the forest, where it was accompanied by one other of its kind. The sexual organs were somewhat enlarged; the stomach filled with beeswax, mixed with small pieces of insects. Apparently this species is not in the habit of leading men to beehives. ”

“ A great bright drop of honey flies off: in her extremity the wasp has disgorged her spoils. Perhaps for an instant the warriors may get wedged up in a corner, and then you may see that they are not lunging at random with their stilettos, but each is trying for a side-thrust on the body; these mail-clad creatures are vulnerable to each other only at one point—the spiracles, or breathing-holes. Often the wasp deals the first fatal blow, and the bee drops off mortally hurt. ”

“ In the social species there are two forms of the females—the queens and the workers; these latter have the ovaries imperfectly developed, and in the humble bees and wasps they only differ outwardly from the fully developed females or queens by being smaller. In the ants, however, the workers are wingless, and of a very different form from that of the queen. The rôle of these workers seems to be to do the general work of the nest; they have been known to lay fertile eggs, but the resulting offspring has always been male. ”