Keeping Bees Is A Fascinating And Desirable Pursuit

Steeped in ageless time, it has survived since the early recordings of the Vedas in India, to be heralded as well in the Koran of Mohammed and the Holy Bible of Christianity. Equally it attracted the attention of Greek mythology, of Pliny and Aristotle and on down to the more modern investigations of Huber and Fabre.

The fascination of keeping bees lies in the fact that even the man of rudimentary training can get a liberal education in the objectives and accomplishments of this co-operatively organized group in the beehive called the colony; while the specialist in practical beekeeping or the scientist never will succeed in learning all there is to be learned about this little sacrificial trudging honey gatherer.

Here is a co-ordinating group of three types of bees acting in unison for the perpetuation of the bee colony, wearing themselves out in the summer rush for the harvest of pollen and honey. Apparently dormant though continually active during the winter season, the colony maintains a compact winter cluster by food and energy in order that the mother queen and her retinue of workers may survive again to build for another season. Thus the race is perpetuated, for generation after generation, for century after century.

Within the confines of the hive the eggs are laid, and develop into drones, queens, or workers. The worker bees pursue in their turn their housekeeping duties, their work in the field, or their efforts in defense of their home in case of attack.

Apparently without reasoning power and largely through instinct they communicate to each other when there is nectar in the field, in what direction it is and how far afield. Von Frisch, of Austria, has lately analyzed that peculiar tail-wagging, circular running activity of the worker bee within the hive as a definite communication of the fact that the time for action has come-nectar is available.

All of these and many more equally as interesting phenomena of the honey bee colony are available to the merest beginner. He need only secure a hive of bees and handle them properly to be highly repaid for his investment and time, in enjoyment of the unfolding of one of those mysteries of life which go to make up our universe.

Bee stings may be a deterrent to many, but to those familiar with the bee and her habits, they are only a minor consideration. Proper care in approaching the hive, gentle and proper opening and handling of the bee colony will be rewarded by minimum danger from stings.

Desirable Pursuit

Beekeeping is a desirable pursuit as well as fascinating. If offers mild exercise or hard work according to its extent. It offers the reaction of the open air in the happy days from spring's opening to leaf fall of autumn, while it requires a minimum of attention and effort during the rainy days or the rigorous season of winter.

But there are other rewards of the products of the honey bee, the one, cross-pollination of fruits, legumes, and vegetables is intangible; the others, honey and beeswax, directly and profitably apparent.

Honey and beeswax we all know about; the former was our earliest sweet, used universally until Alexander the Great, returning from an Asiatic exploration, brought with him the first sugar cane. The latter, beeswax, equally as ancient, was used then as now as a medium of light; then, by necessity, now decoratively or in religious custom. Strangely, equally as prominent as the religious use of sacred candles, comes the use of beeswax for milady's complexion, for the face cream of today has as its base the nectar of the flowers transformed by the bees themselves into the beeswax of commerce and the substance of which their own combs-their own abodes-are built.

Yet, sweet as is the honey of the hive, smooth and refreshing as is the beeswax of the cold cream, neither of these exemplifies the honey bee's greatest contribution. For as the bee hurries from flower to flower, sipping the nectar from the clover or the apple, the cucumber or the vetch, she simultaneously gathers on the hairs of her body and legs a bit of dust from the flowers called pollen. True, much of this pollen is brought into the hive to be mixed with nectar to form the food of the baby bees. But not all of it. As the bee trips from one flower to the other, leaving a bit of pollen as she drifts, she aids in the perpetuation of those trees, shrubs, and plants, through cross-pollination.

Some of our plants are self-pollinating, others are wind pollinated, but some fifty or more of our vegetables, fruits, and legumes must have insect carried cross-pollination to assure not only a sufficient quantity of fruit or seed but also a satisfactory quality.

Time was, probably, when our native beneficial insects could do the job of plant, shrub, and tree perpetuation. But all of our best authorities now recognize that the combination of intense cultivation, of large scale single crop acreages, added to the immense destruction of our beneficial insects along with the destructive ones through sprays and poisons has left the honey bee our sole hope for the future if we are to have adequate cross-pollination to secure good crops, ample and plump seed and fruit, and a perpetuation as well as improvement in our agricultural picture. Recent awakening of our agriculturists to the need of soil conservation for the proper retention of soil content means more legumes, more seed for seeding those legumes, and more bees to do the job of carrying those necessary pollen grains from one blossom to the other.

So, while it is undoubtedly true that the honey bee has been worth ten times as much in aid to pollination as for her products of honey and beeswax, equally is it true that our agriculture of the present and future requires the aid of our honey bees many times more than it did a hundred years ago.