BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. Auckland, May 11.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 368, 15 May 1889, Page 4

BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. Auckland, May 11.

Tub Rev. J. P. Madan delivered a lecture in Si. James's Hall last evening to a somewhat small audience. He took for his subiect "Bees and Bee-keeping." The proceeds aye t 0 b e devoted towards the funds of the Society o f St. Vincent de Paul. Mr Hiscocks 1 otchesu.) band was in attend anee, and furnished selecting o f mus i c a t intervals during the evening. t:v.^ i ftC turer had numerous large coloured diagram, wherowith to illustrate his remarks. These showed much magnified specimens of various kinds of bees ; also the formation of the honeycomb, extractor, bee-hive, and other articles requisite for successful management of bees. Mr E. Mahony presided, and in a few •veil-chosen introduced the lecturer. He also mentioned that- the St. Vincent de Paul Society, Auckland branch, had now been established in Auckland for four years. During that time about £400 had been given away in charity and assisted to educate three boys at the Marist Brothers' school. They would be happy to receive donations of either money or. clothing, as they were now low in funds. One of their rules wa3 that in no case did they give money in relief. He would, theretoie, appeal to them to bear in mind the objects ot the Society. Fathei Madan was received with applause. He mentioned that in bees they had as near as cou'd be represented a convent of nuns, They were under the three vows of poverty, obedience and chastity. The lecturer next explained how the queen bee deposited the egcrs in a cell. When the larva hatched ib increased in size so rapidly that in five days it became 1,400 times as big as ib was when hatched. In thirteen days the bee became perfect, and then ate it* way out of the cell. The drone cell contained the grub which turned into the male bee. By means of a change of food the young working bee was transformed into a queen bee. When flying the wings of the bee flapped four hundred times in a second, and to provide sufficient oxygen to support its extraordinary activity, the bee was provided with 14 mouths to take in the air. The eye of the bee was next described, and illustiated by diagrams. The drone bee had 36,000 little eyes about the thousandth part of an inch big, and the queen 8,000. The drone was provided with 26,000 noses and 36,000 eyes, so that he might find the queen bee when she was out on what might be called her wedding tour. The queen bee was only allowed one outing in her life-time. When the queen was laying she would lay about 3,000 eggs per day. She requited much nutriment, as she would lay twice her own weight in eggs in one day. Father Madan next pointed out on the diagram the honey sack in which the working bee stored the honey as it went from flower to flower. He pointed out that the bee had the power of flying backwards or io. wards with equal facility. The bee's legs were provided with no less than 30 tools. Amongst theso were twelve hooks for climbing steep places, six sticky pads for going along smooth places, various bru&hes for cleaning itselt, two stomach scrapers, and two combs for cleaning the stomach scrapers. There were also hairs on the legs to collect pollen, and thus flowers were fertilised. There were also po.len baskets on the legs ; in fact, the bee had everything on its legs that it could potfeibly want. The foot of the bee was also described and illustrated. The bee bit I to eat from 12 to 20 pounds of honey to make one pound of wax. At the rate that bees used wax, two pounds of wax would store nine gallons of honey. The sting of the bee was also illustrated with diagrams and described at some length. It might be some pleasure to those who had been .^tung that the oftener they were stung the less effect the poifcon had upon them. A queen bee would live four or five ycais, and as soon as she began to give up laying eggs she was neglected and allowed to starve. The drones might, be termed the mashers of the hive. They did no work and were provided with amounts of brushes to keep themselves clean. When the winter came on, the working bees ruthlessly massacred the drones. An interval hero took place, during which the orchestra played a selection of music. Fathei Madan next dealt with the keeping of bees. He showed samples of variousshaped modern hhes, given by Mr Hopkins. Honey extractors were exhibited and described, and the whole arrangement of bees on the modern system was fully gone into. At the conclusion of the lecture, a hearty vote of thanks was accorded Father Madan on the proposition of Mr Mahony.