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Singular Secretion

Categories: BEE PASTURAGE.
Bee Keeping: Mysteries Of Bee-keeping Explained

I once discovered bees collecting a secretion unconnected with flowers;

but was not honey-dew, as it has been described. I was passing a bush

of Witch-hazel, (_Hamamelis Virginiana_,) and was arrested by an

unusual humming of bees. At first I supposed that a swarm was about me,

yet it was late in the season, (it being about the 25th July.) On close

inspection, I found the bush contained numerous warty excrescences, the

size and shape of a hickory-nut. These proved to be only a shell--the

inside lined with thousands of minute insects, a species of aphis.

These appeared to be engaged sucking the juices, and discharging a

clear, transparent fluid. Near the stem was an orifice about an eighth

of an inch in diameter, out of which this liquid would gradually exude.

So eager were the bees for this secretion, that several would crowd

around one orifice at a time, each endeavoring to thrust the other

away. This occurred several years ago, and I never have been able to

find anything like it since; neither have I learned whether it is

common in other sections.



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