In a small treatise like the present one, the object of which is to give in plain language the information needed by one who engages in bee keeping primarily for profit, it is not possible to do more than present a mere outline of classification and a few general facts regarding structure. The reader who finds them interesting and valuable in his work is reminded that the treatment of these matters in more extended volumes, such as Langstroth's, Cheshire's, etc., will be found far more so.
Singling out from the order Hymenoptera, or membranous-winged insects, the family Apidæ, or bee family, several marked types called genera are seen to compose it, such as Apis (the hive bee), Bombus (the bumble bee), Xylocopa (the carpenter bee), Megachile (the leaf-cutter), Melipona (the stingless honey bee of the American tropics), etc. All of these are very interesting to study, and each fulfills a purpose in the economy of nature; but the plan of these pages can only be to consider the first genus, Apis, or the hive bee. Incidentally it may be mentioned that the plan of introducing the stingless bees (Melipona) from tropical America has frequently been brought up with the expectation of realizing important practical results from it. These bees might possibly be kept in the warmer portions of our country, but their honey yield is small, not well ripened, and not easily harvested in good shape, since the honey cells are of dark wax, like that made by our bumble bees, and they are not arranged in regular order, but in irregular clumps like those of bumble bees. The writer had a colony under observation last year, and experiments have been made with them in their native lands as well as in European countries. Of the genus Apis the only representative in this country is mellifera, although several others are natives of Asia and Africa.
THE COMMON EAST INDIAN HONEY BEE.
(Apis indica Fab.)
The common bee of southern Asia is kept in very limited numbers and with a small degree of profit in earthen jars and sections of hollow trees in portions of the British and Dutch East Indies. They are also found wild, and build when in this state in hollow trees and in rock clefts. Their combs, composed of hexagonal wax cells, are ranged parallel to each other like those of A. mellifera, but the worker brood cells are smaller than those of our ordinary bees, showing 36 to the square inch of surface instead of 29, while the comb where worker brood is reared, instead of having, like that of A. mellifera, a thickness of seven-eighths inch, is but five-eighths inch thick. (Fig. 1.)
Fig. 1.—Worker cells of common East Indian honey bee (Apis indica); natural size. (Original.)
The workers.—The bodies of these, three-eighths inch long when empty, measure about one-half inch when dilated with honey. The thorax is covered with brownish hair and the shield or crescent between the wings is large and yellow. The abdomen is yellow underneath. Above it presents a ringed appearance, the anterior part of each segment being orange yellow, while the posterior part shows bands of brown of greater or less width and covered with whitish-brown hairs; tip black. They are nimble on foot and on the wing, and active gatherers.
The queens.—The queens are large in proportion to their workers and are quite prolific; color, leather or dark coppery.
The drones.—These are only slightly larger than the workers; color, jet-like blue black, with no yellow, their strong wings showing changing hues like those of wasps.