EMIGRANT BEES.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume X, Issue 327, 8 December 1875, Page 4

EMIGRANT BEES.

. Captain Balls, of the City of Auckland, says a Northern contemporary, has in his ship a curioaity in the shape of a portion of honeycomb which was manufactured on board during the vessel's last voyage home. Bees nre Bofc in the habit of selecting a ship as the site of their iridustry, and the circumstance is therefore worth recording. The swarm settled 01 the boat skids a few days before the ship left here last Christmas. Then they transferred themselves to the interior of the. lifeboat, where they speedily made themselves at home, and commenced building a comb. The ship sailed, but the bees stuck to their curiously selected abiding place. They displayed S'ery few symptoms of sea-sickness, and proved Useful at times in rousing sleepy Bailors by stinging them in the bsck of the neck when they were prostrate on deck. The swarm got along first rate till they neared the Horn, and the cold began to be felt. Then they stopped work and huddled together for warmth, aud the sailors quite miasad their playful pots. An effort was made to feed them, but it turned out unsuccessful. They ;pined for tbe flowers of the field and the genial sunshine, and would not be comforted. One. by one they droop*ed on deck , lifeless, till at length the whole swarm had disappeared. It would have been an extraordinary event in natural history had Captain Baits succeeded in getting them home safely. As it is their existence on board so long' is worthy of remark.