. American bee journal. Bee culture; Bees. 56 AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL February About the Bee's Honey By Dr. Brunnich THE reader who, with his bread, is eating honey, scarcely imagines how much is required before the sweet ambrosia comes into his dish. That in the future he may have a double enjoyment in eating honey, I wish to tell something about the manner of its origin. Every man knows, with the excep- tion of some barbarians, like that peasant near Zoug, who bitterly ac- cused my bees of devouring the blos- soms of his cherry trees, I say, every man knows that the flowers secrete nectar, as a
. American bee journal. Bee culture; Bees. 56 AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL February About the Bee's Honey By Dr. Brunnich THE reader who, with his bread, is eating honey, scarcely imagines how much is required before the sweet ambrosia comes into his dish. That in the future he may have a double enjoyment in eating honey, I wish to tell something about the manner of its origin. Every man knows, with the excep- tion of some barbarians, like that peasant near Zoug, who bitterly ac- cused my bees of devouring the blos- soms of his cherry trees, I say, every man knows that the flowers secrete nectar, as a compensation to the in- sects for their services as love-mes- sengers in carrying the pollen from one plant to another. By far the most important of those "postilions d'amour" are the bees, because they appear early in spring and in great numbers. The heart of the bee beats in the abdomen and nearby the Creator has given to the little insect a most com- fortable valise, the honey-sac. This is formed of a very thin elastic mem- brane, around which 2 layers of mus- cles are acting; by the contraction of the latter the honey-sac shrivels to a tiny knob, while the membrane is folded to thousands of little plies. When quite filled, the little bladder may contain about one decigram of water, that is about as much as the whole bee weighs. A wonderful valve leads into the stomach and at discre- tion the bee can shut the honey-sac or it can let run some microscopic drops into the stomach, if it needs new strength. When the bee is flying out for honey it takes drop after drop of the nectar, till the honey-sac feels full enough to go home. _ The nectar of the flowers is very-. CD: thin and often contains • but about 20 per cent of cane sugar and 80 per cent of water. Why bring so much useless water into the hive? At least half of the water passes through the fine membrane of the honey-sac into the surrounding blood, while the bee is flying home. By this water the whole blood
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Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1860, booksubjectbees, bookyear1861
