BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
The _Drones_ are larger than the others ; their heads are round, eyes full, and their tongues short ; they are also much darker, and differ in the form of the belly ; they have no tsing, and they make a greater noise in flying than the common Bees. Generally speaking, they are found in lives from the beginning of May to the middle or latter end of July : sometimes they may be seen earlier, especially in good stocks ; and sometimes their destruction does not take place till the middle of August, or even later." They neither collect honey
* My friend the Rev. T. Clark informs me that he had two fine stocks of Bees in the year 1836, that killed and cast out a great quantity of Drones early in May ; that they both were afterwards prosperous ; and that they again killed drones in August, just as if they had destroyed none before. The _cause_ of this curious fact is a problem for the naturalist to solve. Mr. H. Taylor, in page 4th of his " Bee-keeper's Manual," modestly observes--that he thinks he has given the true explanation of the above problem, which is -- that " where swarming has become unnecessary as in ventilating hives with abundant space, the young Queens are cast out voluntarily by the Rees. Then commences an early expulsion of the drones : they are rendered useless ; not one surviving, not even those in embryo."nor wax. It has been supposed that their office is to impregnate the eggs of the Queen _after_ they are deposited in the cells ; but according to Mr. Bonner this _supposition_ is a mistake. In this I agree with him, and beg to remark--that in no case is a supposition a proof. Bonner says that the Queen lays eggs which produce young Bees without any communication with the drones. He supports this position by the statement of several very exact experiments. In this opinion he is supported by the respectable evidence of Schirach. On the mysterious subject of the Queen's impregnation I am inclined to coincide in opinion with Huber, whose multiplied observations, and various and curious experiments, do render it highly probable that the Queen is impregnated by the drone, not whilst in the hive, but whilst flying in the air : but of this debatable subject more by and by.
The QUEEN BEE is easily distinguished from other Bees by the form, size, and colour of her body. She is larger, longer at least, and her wings are shorter in proportion to her size than those of other Bees. The wings of drones and of common working Bees cover their bodies, but those of the Queen scarcely reach beyond the middle. Her hinder part tapers more than the corresponding part of other Bees, and is admirably adapted for the purpose of being introduced into the cells to deposit her eggs, which she does without being incomonded by her wings, as she no doubt would be, were they long in proportion to the length of her body. Considering then the office she has to perform, the shortness of her wings and the length and tapering of her body are alike conveniences to her; her belly and legs are yellower, and her upper parts darker than those of other Bees. Though furnished with a sting, she very rarely uses it,* and will bear being handled without being provoked. A young Queen is smaller than a full grown one. When three or four days old she is quick in her motions ; but when impregnated she becomes heavy. The common or working Bees have the faculty or instinctive power of raising a Queen-Bee, when they are in want of one, from an egg in a common cell. To do this, they choose a common cell in which is an egg, and inject a thick, white, liquid matter from their proboscis ; they then build on the edges of that particular cell and enlarge it. On the fifth day the royal maggot appears in the form of a semicircle, in which form it swims in the midst of the matter in the cell ; and on the seventh day it is sealed up. During which period the embryo Queen undergoes various metamorphoses. On the fourteenth or fifteenth day afterwards it comes forth a perfect Queen-Bee. Schirach discovered a method of multiplying Queen-Bees to almost any extent, and consequently of making artificial stocks. This can be successfully accomplished only when there are in a hive eggs, nymphs, and maggots ; that is, when there is in a hive young brood in these several stages of existence, or in some one of them. When a Queen dics and the Bees are left without the means of raising another, that is--when there are no eggs nor young brood of a proper age in the hive, the Bces cease working, consume the honey, fly about at random as it were, and as if without any object, and if not supplied with another Queen, soon dwindle away; but if supplied with a new Queen, they revive, and exercise their labour with new and increased activity. The Queen is, as it were, the very soul of the hive. It has been computed that the ovary of the Queen contains above 5000 eggs at once, and that in the space of two months she may produce 10 or 12,000 Bees. I am inclined to think that this computation is too limited: from what I have witnessed in my observatory-hive this summer (1882), I am led to conclude that a fertile Queen is capable of laying far more than the beforementioned number of eggs in the space of two months.
The _working Bees_ are considerably smaller than either the Drones or the Queen. They, like the others, have four wings, which enable them to fly with heavy loads. They have six legs, of which the two foremost are the shortest, and with these they discharge themselves of their loads. The two last or hind most are the largest, and on the outside of the middle joint of these is a cavity in which the Bces collect the materials for was, which materials they carry home to their hives; this hollow is peculiar to the working Bec. Each foot terminates in two hooks. The honey-bladder is of the size of a small pea, and very transparent. The sting is horny and hollow, through which the poison is ejected. The wound inflicted by it is mortal to many insects; and instances are not wanting of horses and cows having been stung to death by Bces. When the sting is left in the wound, and being barbed it commonly is left there, the Bee that loses it dies in consequence.
With regard to the age of Bees, the drones have a short life, being destroyed periodically by the working Bees. In good stocks and in early seasons they generally make their appearance in April, but are seldom seen in any considerable numbers until about the middle of May : in the course of August, sometimes earlier, they are all indiscriminately destroyed by the workers, who have recourse to various surprising stratagens to effect their purpose. Drone-bees, therefore, are not allowed to live longer than about three months, and may be said to be cut off prematurely by a violent death before they have attained the natural period of their existence. From their un-tinely fate therefore nothing can be determined respecting the natural term of the life of Bees : nor is it easy to be determined how long drones might live were they exempted from the exterminating process they annually suffer. The length of the life of the working Bee has not been, perhaps it is not possible to be ascertained, with any degree of certainty. Apiarians and entomologists differ widely in opinion respecting it ; as indeed is frequently the case in doubtful matters incapable of being decided by satisfactory proof. Huish (page 246) says--"the life of a Bee has been generally estimated at one year or two at the farthest,"--and that "M. Reaunur was of this opinion." Dr. Butler limited the life of workers to one year,--Thorley to two sunners, and Lord Bacon speaks of an instance of a Bee living seven years." Dr. Bevan has exerted his ingenuity and laboured hard to convince his readers that "the average life of the working Bee is extended to about six years."nondths;" and says" that, "from the particulars he has detailed, _he thinks_ it will appear pretty evident that such is the fact." Notwithstanding these several conjectures and several similar ones that might be mentioned, I see no reason for departing from the opinion that those working Bees that escape a premature death live, if I mistake not, three or four years, or even longer. +
* Dr. Bevan, page 351.
+ The humblest Bee-keeper knows how the drones are disposed of when they are no longer wanted, and that the destruction of them occasions the first great diminution of the population of a live; he knows too that, between the conclusion of that warfare in autumn and the production of young Bees the ensuing spring, the number of Bees in all stocks however good is greatly, because very perceptibly diminished; but in what way, or by what means, he has yet to learn. All the above-quoted authors in their reasonings on the subject, have assumed that working Bees live;out the natural term of life, i.e. that they die a natural death, and consequently have hazarded very different opinions as to the precise extent of that life. Now, from what _is known_ of the habits and economy of Bees, it may fairly be questioned whether the working Bees, any more than the drones, are ever permitted to die of old age? and whether, no matter of what age, they are not, when from any cause whatever they become useless, unprofitable, and unnecessary, got rid of by being killed and cleared out of the hive by the strongest? From the great number of dead Bees, young ones as well as old ones, which I have, from time to time at all seasonsI once clipped one of the wings of a Queen so that I could identify her, in case I should ever meet with her again : I then returned her to her hive, and had the good fortune to see her several times afterwards during three successive years. Of course she lived more than three years. What became of her at last I do not know ; nor whether she may not still survive 1 do not know. If, however, working Bces be as long-lived as Queen-Bees, and I think it will be difficult to assign a good reason why they should not, they may live to be three or four years of age, and perhaps more than that. The ample provision they make for life seems to me to be a _natural_ indication that of the year, found in the drawers under the middle boxes of my collateral hives, those drawers having been empty and without a single Bee in them twenty-four hours previously, I have been led to surmise that there are frequent clearances of the Rees whose services are not wanted,--and that on those occasions the powerful Bees prevail against and destroy the weaker ones,--that those once powerful in their turn become subjected to a similar fate ;--in short--that however long the working Bee might live, if permitted, _it is not permitted to live longer than it is wanted._ This is in exact accordance with their treatment of the drones, and probably is a part of their nature : and, if so, any further disquisition about the length of the life of the Bee would be, as it hitherto has been, conjectural, unsatisfactory, useless.--Eb.
they expect at least to live to have occasion for it. Sometimes fierce, destructive battles take place between the Bees of different hives in an apiary, and when the Queen of one live is killed, the war ceases, and the surviving Bees of the two hives unite and become one peaceable stock.
Some apiarians have obtained an extraordinary command over Bees, particularly Mr. Wildman, who could entice a whole swarm to settle just where he pleased--on his chin, on his head, on his hand, or on any particular branch of a tree ; but these feats, so surprising to the beholders, he effected, as any other dexterous person may, by getting possession of the Queen-Bee, and placing her where he intended the Bees should settle ; for it is a well-ascertained fact, that such is the attachment of Bees to their Queen, that they will congregate around her, and, as far as they can, protect her in whatever situation they find her. Were the attachment and _allegiance_ of all subjects to their legitimate sovereigns thus true and powerful, it would, as Sterne says, be something!
In working the Bees are said by some, whose sayings are perhaps more fanciful than
The following account of a working Bee appeared in the Farmers' Journal some time ago, I subjoin it, because, in some respects, it is more particular than that just given; but in one thing it is deficient--it makes no mention of the eyes--the two luminaries or lights of the body. The eyes of Bees are of an oblong figure, black like jet, transparent and innnoveable.
BEE, says the Farmers' Journal, a small and well known insect, famous for its industry. This useful and laborious insect is divided by two ligaments into three parts or portions,--the head, the breast, and the belly. The head is armed with two jaws and a trunk, the former of which play like two jaws, opening and shutting to the right and left; the trunk is long and tapering, and at the same time extremely pliant and flexible, being destined by nature for the insect to probe to the bottom of the flowers, through all the impediments of their chives and foliage, and drain them of their sweet treasures: but were this trunk to be always extended, it would prove incomno
bag of honey,--the bag of poison,--and the s
well-rubbed with one of those slices, that would perhaps have a soothing effect. The juice of the plantain is also said to be a specific ; olive oil is another; so is common salt; so is laudanum; so is spirits ofhartshorn; so is a solution of sal ammoniac; and so is chalk or whitening.
The Doctor (and who so likely to prescribe properly for the case as the Doctor!) says * "common whitening proves an effectual remedy against the effects of the sting of a Bee or wasp. The whitening is to be moistened with cold water, and immediately applied. It may be washed off in a few minutes, when neither pain nor swelling will ensue."
In **"** The Apiarian's Guide by J. H. Payne," published since the first edition of this work, I find the following novel mode of treatment recommended as " almost a perfect cure," and which is said to be **"** as immediate as it is effectual." "'The method I (J. H. Payne, Esq.) have of late adopted, by which the pain is instantly removed, and both the swelling and inflammation prevented, is to pull out the sting as soon as possible, and take a piece of iron and heat it in the fire, or for want of that, take a live coal, (if of wood the better, because it lasts longer) and hold it as near to the place as I can possibly endure it, for five minutes; if from this application a sensation of heart (quere heat) should be occasioned, a little oil of turpentine or gulard cerate must be applied.
I have found the quicker the application, the more effectual the cure."
This last mode of treatment--i. e. pressure with a small key or pencil-case--the smaller the better--is the simplest, and, if _immediately_ adopted, is I believe the very best : but its efficacy depends upon the instant application of the key or pencil-case to the part stung, by which the poisonous matter is not only prevented from beingabsorbedinto the system, wasp, which stung him in the throat, which closed up the passage of the breath, and so stified him :" in that case then " great harm" did ensue. Having _stifled_ his unfortunate, and made a most unbecoming remark upon the sufferer, he relates the following occurrence, which is here quoted as one of many specimens of _the ridiculous_ to be met with in _the elegant volume_. " I, myself, (Cotton, page 3.2), was once blowing into a glass, to drive the Bees out, when in drawing in my breath sharply I swallowed a Bee. I prepared myself for a run to the Doctor's, had I felt its sting in my throat, or lower down in my inside pocket; but the Bee passed so rapidly down, that he had not time to sting; when he got to his journey's end, no doubt not a little surprised at the path he had travelled, he resigned himself to his fate, like a good Bee, and did not revenge himself by stinging me." How, poor fellow, could _he_ sting? _He Bees have no stings_ : and from the _hes_ in the tale it is evident that he (Cotton) swallowed a drone Bee. I was expecting, observed a person in whose hearing this passage was lately read, the conclusion would have been, that _he_ passed so rapidly on as soon to make his exit through Cotton's postern, and that "_he then flee away like a good Bee."_but the puncture is laid open, and the virus thereby expressed and entirely got rid of more readily than by any other means.
Accidents may sometimes happen, and the most cautious and humane apiarian may occasionally receive a sting; but gentle treatment does not irritate Bees; and when not irritated they have no disposition to use their stings.
_Note._ While the foregoing note was passing through the press, the following paragraph appeared in the _Lincolnshire Chronicle_ of August 1st, and is here inserted as a confirmation of the fact that animals are sometimes stung to death by Bees, --and also a confutation of Sydserfl's outrageous recommendation already stated.
"A dog belonging to Mr. Thompson, Back Sandholes, Paisley, which had been chained in the garden for the purpose of watching it and some Bee-hives, had snapped at a few of the Bees that were humming about him, and killed some of them. As is the usual practice with these busy insects, the whole swarm turned out to revenge the death of their fellows. The dog was accordingly attacked by the humming tribe in hundreds, and so unmercifully punished for his temerity that he died in the course of the afternoon. On examining the dog after death, it was found that _sirty-nine_ of his tormentors had fixed their stings in one ear." If the sting of one Bee mollifies the sting of another Bee, and in effect cures it, how happened it that with sixty-nine stings in one ear only the poor dog died?-Eb.
impregnation of the queen-bee.
heat which the drones in the hive has accelerated the production of the young Bees, and added thousands of them to the mother hive.
It is not possible that the drones can impregnate the Queen's eggs, particularly those eggs which are produced after the total dendrones are necessary in a hive, has displayed itself too much. Were those writers, and amongst them he in the Quarterly," fairly entitled to a pair of the "_feather-breeches"_ he has introduced from Russia, which said feather-breeches would _fit him nicely_, and it is to be hoped, would make him quite comfortable ; were those writers who glibly term the drones a _lazy race_, _&c_. able to make good their too hasty assertions, this plea for the vilified drones would not be here set forth : or, were the particular office of drone-Bees in a hive the only mystery in the world that needed a solution, then it would be another thing. But the animal and vegetable and insect world abounds with mysteries : we live surrounded by mysteries as inexplicable as this. Why, for instance, does the scarlet-runner kidney-bean invariably climb round the stick set for its support, in a direction contrary to the course of the sun? and why do the hop-plant and the common bind-veed twist themselves in that direction too? Formy part I love to see the drones,--I hail their first appearance; because I then calculate upon the prosperity of the stock in which I know they are ; and I always deplore their destruction, as well on account of their apparently cruel fate, as because the accumulation of honey is over for that season,--Eo.
* Quarterly Review, No. 141, page 6.
## Chapter 3 Summary
In the last chapter we were at sea without a compass by which to steer our course aright,--with two pilots on board,'tis true ; one of them a foreigner, _experienced_ beyond most other men, though aged, and infirm, and defective in his eyesight, but willing, nevertheless, may, anxious to conduct us to our wished-for haven ; the other, though not inexperienced, less practised, it is thought, in voyages of discovery, and more venturesome than his senior in the office, contending that the respectable, old gentleman had put us on a wrong tack,--that we were in a wrong latitude, --that our reckoning was incorrect, and even making merry with the old man's infirmities. Perplexed, and doubting in whom it is most reasonable and safest to confide, we seizethe helm ourselves, and make to the nearest shore, and luckily land on terra firma--terra cognita, and are now approaching a field with every corner of which we are thoroughly acquainted. But, metaphor apart, lest we should not properly sustain it.
There is but one reigning Queen in a colony of Bees at one time : but previously to swarming, royal cells are constructed, and provision made, for ensuring a successor to the Queen that leads the swarm and emigrates, when the too-crowded population, and over-heated temperature of the hive, render such enigration necessary. That it is the old Queen that leaves the hive with a swarm, I am well convinced, notwithstanding what some apiarians assert to the contrary.* To satisfy myself on this point, I have sometimes in the evening of the day on which a hive has swarmed, at other times on the second, and at others on the third day after that event, put the parent-stock under, or rather, I may say--_over_ fumigation, dissected and examined the combs and Quencells minutely, and the Bees also, and whenever I did find a Quenc, she was invariably a young one ; but, instead of a Quenc, I have more frequently found a royal cell just ready to give birth, as it were, to a successor to that which had left the hive ; and in general there are several of these royal cells containing embryo Queens, in different states of forwardness : so that it seems, Bees have an instinctive foresight which leads then to provide against casualties, for they are generally provided with the means of bringing forth _supernumerary Queens,_ that in case the first that comes forth should prove steril, should be defective, or in any way unfortunate, or unfitted to assume the sovereignty of the hive, there may be others ready to burst into being, and remedy the misfortune that would ensue, were there but one chance of a successor, and were that one chance to prove abortive. But no sooner is a young Queen enthroned, as it were, and established in the government of the hive, than the supernumerary ones, in whatever stage of existence, are all discarded, and cast out of the colony. Mr. Porter, of Cowbit, has this year (1832) picked up eight of those discarded, virgin Queens, together with the old Queen, which lastwas sorely mutilated,_but not killed_--she alone was cast out alive, the others had been killed; these nine supernumerary Queenswere all cast out of one fine colony of Bees in the course of two successive days. That colony is a remarkably prosperous one, _and has not sacarmed._ I myself have observed no fewer than twenty-four supernumerary, virgin Queens that were cast out of one of my stocks; and that stock is flourishing, _and has not swarmed:_ and my respected friend, Mr. Salmon, lately of Stokeferrry, informed me that he once collected upwards of thirty of these young Queens; whether his stock swarmed or not I am unable to state positively, but presume it did not; for, generally speaking, when supernumerary, virgin Queens are cast out of a colony, it may be considered as an indication that that colony is not only prosperous, but that swarming is not contemplated--in fact, is abandoned for that season. The question then is--how are Bees to be managed, in order that they may be induced to rid themselves of these supernumeraries? The relation of the following practical lesson will both answer the question, and exemplify and confirm the foregoing remarks.
It has already been related (in pages 72--76) that in 1826 1 forced a colony of Bees to swarm,--that I returned that swarm to its parent-stock, and managed so as to prevent its swarming in future,--and that two royal nymphs were cast out on that occasion. To prove whether I could not accomplish the same object, and prevent swarming altogether, I had recourse to the following experiment.