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The Busy Bee

A series of 15 Pictures showing every phase of Bee Culture.

This is the most perfect and complete series of pictures, showing srery phase of Bee Life and Bee Culture that has ever been produced. These remarkable pictures, 15 in number, show how the bee farmer tends his hires, and how the busy bee builds its comb, stores its honey and feeds the young. They were procured through the courtesy of Mr. C. T. Overton, Bee Expert, Crawley.

PICTURES.
a. CAPTURING A SWARM OF BEES
A large swarm of bees numbering several thousands has settled on a branch, from which they hang down in a solid mass. The bee farmer places a basket under the swarm, and by jarring the boughs knocks the bees into the basket.
b. THE OLD-FASHIONED STRAW SKEP
With the bees flying in front, busy collecting honey and pollen.
c. THE PLATFORM IN FRONT OF THE HIVE AFTER A SPELL OF WET WEATHER
The bees come out of the hive delighted at the prospect of once more visiting the flowers. The kindly bee farmer has placed some honey on the platform, and this the bees greedily suck up before starting off to work.
d. BEES CARRYING AWAY FLOWERS WHICH HAVE DROPPED IN FRONT OF HIYE
The bees will not permit any foreign body to remain near the entrance of the hive. A flower falling at the entrance, the bees rush out, wrestle and hustle with it and finally drag it off.
e. SKEP SHOWING COME AND BEES
The skep turned upside down gives a full view of the combs filled with honey. The bees rush up in countless numbers to see why their palace has been inverted.

An inverted skep of Bees
F. SMOKING OUT THE BEES FROM SKEP INTO BASKET
The bee-keeper smokes the bees to sooth them. He then attaches to the skep a basket into which he drives the bees.
g. INSIDE VIEW OF BASKET CONTAINING BEES
The bees, numbering many thousands, have been successfully driven from the skep into the basket, and are now ready for transference to the modern frame hive.
h. PLACING BEES IN FRONT OF HIVE
The bee farmer shakes the contents of the basket on to the platform of the hive and scoops up the bees with his hands to show them the way into the hive. Directly the bees see the way there is a general rush for the new home.
i. GENERAL VIEW OF A MODERN BEE FARM
The bee fanners are at work amongst the hives. Even the bee fanner is not insecure from stings, and we see one of the farmers hastily replacing the lid of the hive and picking a sting off his nose.
j. BEE FARMER EXAMINING HIVE
The bee farmer is going through a hive examining each section in turn to see how the bees are doing their work.
k. FOUNDATION READY TO BE PLACED INTO HIVE
This shows the frame of foundatien ready to be placed in the hive for the bees to work up into combs.
l. FOUNDATION WORKED BY BEES
Here the foundation has been worked up into comb by the bees.
m. BROOD COMB WITH QUEEN AND WORKERS
The Queen, in the midst of a great mass of worker bees is dropping her eggs into the cells, while the attendants who crowd round her, feed her with dainties to keep up her strength. She needs constant feeding, for she lays from 1,000 to 2,000 eggs per day.
n. COMB WITH CELLS CAPPED
Most of the baby bees, or larvæ, have hatched out and been fed, and are now sleeping at the bottom of their cells as pupæ. That their rest shall not be disturbed, little waxen doors have been fastened on their bed chambers, or, as the bee farmer says, "the cells have been capped."

Section of Honeycomb with working Bees
o. MAGNIFIED VIEW OF COMB
The eggs are seen at the bottom of the cells, and the larvæ or young, which look like tat little maggots. The worker bees rush hither and thither poking their heads in at the nursery cells and finding the young. Some of the bees are seen with half their bodies down the cells in the act of disgorging the honey on which the young larvæ are fed.

Supplied only in its complete length of 450 feet.

URB 1903-11

The Life of the Busy Bee

URB 1905-02