NEWS ABOUT BEES.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VIII, Issue 436, 20 February 1875, Page 3

NEWS ABOUT BEES.

Mr. Pettigrew, one of the most successful of English bee-keepers, has made public results of recent observations, some of which are new to us, and tend, if possible to increase our respect for these wonderful little insects. The king, or queen, or mother, as he, she, or it, is variously called, is hatched from the egg in fourteen days, whereas it takes twentyone days to hatch a '"worker," and twenty-four to hatch a drone. Moreover, the queen lives four years, while the worker's maximum lease of life is only nine months. The bees have the power, or knack, of selecting their queens before they are born. That is to say, they will select an egg from the common stock, that has no " ear mark " perceptible to human eyes. This they place in a royal cell, and feed the grub with a milky gelatinous substance, known as l( royal jelly." The result is that a queen is developed. A healthy queen will often lay two thousand eggs a day during the heat of summer, and may, in the course of her life, deposit as many as eight hundred thousand eggs. It has been ascertained, by observation, that the fructifying of many flowers is due to the constant passing and repassing,of bees, whereby, the pollen is mingled. And many careful gardeners have found it impossible to keep distinct the different I varieties of a species, owing to the " crossing " effected by these industrious messengers.

As an instance of "the style in which. it's done," we commend the following to our readers : — Gratitude being rather a rare quality in human nature, the French Assembly will doubtless fully appreciate the handsome manner in which a very clever thief has thanked that body for permitting him to " take them in." By forging the signature of one of the deputies of the Assembly, and drawing his salary for a month, at the rate of 25f per day, he obtained the handsome sum of 745f. He tells the deputy that he committed the crime to avoid " certain dishonour," and ad- 1 -», "If lam not found out I hope to mane amends for it. Perhaps I shall not want all the money I received from you, and if so will return you the balance." If all thieves were as courteous and candid in explaining their motives as this polite Diddler, his profession might be considerably improved,