. The ABC of bee culture: a cyclopaedia of every thing pertaining to the care of the honey-bee; bees, honey, hives, implements, honey-plants, etc., facts gleaned from the experience of thousands of bee keepers all over our land, and afterward verified by practical work in our own apiary. Bee culture. B A WHY THE CELLS OF THE HONEY-COMB ARE MADE G-SIDED. At B, we see the cells are nearly as com- fortable for the young bee as a round one would be—of course, I mean from our point of view, for it is quite likely that the bees know just what they need a great deal bet- ter than we do—and, at the sa
. The ABC of bee culture: a cyclopaedia of every thing pertaining to the care of the honey-bee; bees, honey, hives, implements, honey-plants, etc., facts gleaned from the experience of thousands of bee keepers all over our land, and afterward verified by practical work in our own apiary. Bee culture. B A WHY THE CELLS OF THE HONEY-COMB ARE MADE G-SIDED. At B, we see the cells are nearly as com- fortable for the young bee as a round one would be—of course, I mean from our point of view, for it is quite likely that the bees know just what they need a great deal bet- ter than we do—and, at the same time, they come together in such a way that no space is left to be filled up at all. The bees, therefore, can make the walls of their cells so thin that they are little more than a silky covering, as it were, that separates each one from its neighbor. It must also be remem- bered that a bee, when in his cell, is squeezed up, if we may so term it, so as to occupy much less space than he otherwise would; and this is why the combined animal heat of the cluster is so much better economized in winter, when the bees have a small circle of empty cells to cluster in, with sealed stores all around them. But, my friends, this is not half of the in- genuity displayed about the cell of the bee. These hexagonal cells must have some kind of a wall or partition between the inmates of one series of cells, and those in the cells on the opposite side. If we had a plain partition running across the cells at right angles with the sides, the cells would have flat bottoms which would not fit the rounded body of the bee, besides leaving useless corners, just as there would have been, if the cells had been made round or square. "Well, this problem was solved in much the same way, by making the bottom of the cell of three little lozenge - shaped plates. In the figure below we give one of these little plates, and also show the manner in which three of them are put together to form the bottom
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectbeecult, bookyear1884
