BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
These nurse-bees are all-important to the bee-keeper. When bees refuse to cluster on the brood comb, or to accept a new queen, or even to rear one, it is because some of the natural conditions of the hive are absent. \(\Lambda\) want of a sufficient number of nurse-bees is a serious drawback to the prosperity of a colony. In artificial swarming "'forced colonisation,' if on the brood comb introduced there be not sufficient adhering bees or nurses to feed the larvae the foragers become dissatisfied at the deserted appearance of the comb, and, refusing to stay, they swarm out or rectum from whence they came. A constant, regular, and good supply of nurse-bees is the important factor in queen raising. If increase of colonies is the thing sought always note that the combs introduced contain brood in all stages of development, from egg to chrysalis, as well as a good supply of stores,--honey and pollen -- this last is indispensable.
**FERTILE WORKERS.**
It is not an uncommon thing, from some as vet unknown cause, for a working bee to become procreative. They are usually termed fertile workers. These fertile workers assume all the functions of queens. The workers treat them as such, but I think always with a certain amount of misgiving. They lay eggs, but from these eggs drones are always evolved. Is this power of laying the result of the copulation of the previous generation, or is it a case of parthenogenesis? If parthenogenesis, how is it that it so rarely shows itself? If a virgin queen, through some accident to her wings or any other cause, looses the power of flight, thus preventing her consorting with a mate, she becomes, in bee-keepers' phraseology, a drone-layer. In this respect she stands exactly on the same plane with fertile workers. All unmated queens are always drone-layers; but drone-laying workers (fertile workers) are of rare occurrence. In the case of drone-laying queens, through the loss of the power of flight, she ceases to be procreativcly receptive. A fertile worker has, and has always had, the power of flight, but, procreatively, she was never receptive. Yet a drone-laying queen and fertile worker stand exactly upon the same footing.
_The mysteries of the bee-live,_ what an interesting subject? The reason of this is full of wisdom! In this it is seen no working bee has a brother of full blood. It may appear to be paradoxical. It may even appear to be absurd, seeing that the same mother produced both the males and females of the family; yet, as absurd as it may appear, it is true in fact. It may be asked what relationship exists between the mother bee and the drone she produces, seeing that the father of her own son was the consort of her own mother--a relationship that is not catalogued in the tables of consanguinity?
Thus, if the influence of the drone, both in traits of temperature and working energy (although the drone works not, the energy for such is transmitted by means of the life-germ), is it not of paramount importance that as much, if not more, care should be taken to produce drones of high physique and energeticwill, as is now being done in relation to queen-breeding! If the sire in the higher type of animals is of such vital importance, how is it that the drone bee is not viewed in the same light with bee-keepers! A difficulty stands in the way : We have not the selecting and mating powers in relation with bees that we have over other animals. Nevertheless, we can do much towards the selection of sires among bees. With bee-keepers it is well known that the queen's powers in the reproduction of working bees gradually subsides with age ; and as her powers of worker production diminish her powers of producing drones increase until, finally, she ceases to be sufficiently profitable or even capable of continuing her female species. It is usual with bee-keepers to supersede all queens after two seasons' laying. It is also known that the progeny of some queens are 50 per cent, more energetic than that of others. If one or more of these known energetic queens, after they cease to be profitable, owing to the non-production of working bees in sufficient quantities to keep up the numerical strength of the colony, are kept for stud purposes to breed drones, one of the difficulties of selecting is overcome. Further, if the keeping of the drone-laying queen be followed by systematically cutting out or otherwise destroying all young drones in other hives before they emerge from the cells, we shall go a long way in the controlling the selecting powers of mating our bees.
**Queen Rearing.**
## Chapter XII Selection for Stock Producing.
From the foregoing it is evident that the object of bee-culture or bee-farming is not for an improvement or an alteration in the physical contour of the insect. Neither can it be for the production of ornamental or fancy varieties as it is with poultry-farming or pigeon-fancying, but to produce a bee that shall excel the wild types in gentleness and in labour.
Elsewhere I have said that I think it possible to produce a type of bee that shall be purely Australian in traits of character, that is, as regards docility and gentleness, activity, and foraging; also in health and in prolification. To obtain these ends there must be the selection of the fittest. The traits of disposition, etc., cannot be traced as coming in any way from the sire's side, for we seldom, may never know him. This resultant characteristics can only be seen in the progeny, and these traits that enanate from the masculine side cannot be perpetuated for the reasons given in the earlier part of this subject, and that on ''From Maturity to Maternity.'' In breeding other domestic animals, and, indeed,flower culture and other members of the vegetable kingdom, an ideal can be reached with a greater certainty than is the case with bee culture, because the ''fittest'' can be selected from both genders. The selection of a typical sir in bee culture is a barrier that seems impossible to surmount.
Thus, then, we must confine our whole attention to the dam, the mother bee, so as to secure those traits of docility, activity, and prolificness so essential in the manipulating of bees, and secure ing greatest amount of profit. It is said that females supply the elements of matter, and males those of disposition, activity, etc. Although the queen bee appears to select her consort at random, as a rule it is really the selection of the fittest, for the coveted prize is won by the swiftest of the queen's male attendants. Nevertheless we cannot select the fittest male element of the hive with any degree of certainty; we have the female element almost under positive control. Then how are we to select our queen so as to secure the characteristic traits here enumerated? "By their fruits ye shall know them.'' Every bee-keeper, practical, amateur, or the most careless amongst them, knows that he has certain colonies that he can walk around about, handle, or move with almost an absolute amount of security from an attack, whilst there are other colonies that he dare not go within coo-ee distance of without having to pay the penalty due to the bees' aggressive temper. Again, in an apiary, no matter whether it be of large or small extent, there are certain colonies that seem to do all the work. Every bee-keeper when he is taking you around amongst his pets will be sure to take you to one particular hive, and inform you ''this is the best, or one of the best, lot of workers I have in the place.''
## Chapter XIII
### Teaching Bees to Write
Again, go into a large apiary at early dawn, and you will see bees swarming into certain hives almost before sunrise heavily laden with pollen and other stores, whilst in other hives the bees are scarcely on the move. Yes, there are sluggards amongst bees as well as amongst men.
Every bee-keeper in a large way--and, indeed amateurs if they are men of observation--will tell you they have seen, more or less frequently, strong colonies of bees that throw off weak swarms. Some bees, whilst being handled and the comb examined, are as restless as a flock of wild sparrows, others, again, appear to take little or no notice of your interrupting their order of work. I have lifted a comb of brood into the light and seen the queen go on with her egg-laying duties as undisturbed as if the frame had not been touched, and the workers at the same time attending to their occupations.
Now, why all this? Because I want you to see the difference there is in the working abilities and mental powers (may 1 use such a term? I don't see why!) of bees. What caused the difference in the work accomplished by the bees with the ornamental designs referred to? A difference in physical energy. For energetic workers bred from queens whose progeny exhibit the greatest amount of endurance and working powers. For foraging also these will be on the alert in the early dawn. You can only ascertain the health, the energy, the docility, etc., of a queen by observing these things in the workers of that queen. Then breed from such queens whose progeny give the greatest number of advantageous points. As yet, we have no means of choosing bces furnishing the superior nasculine traits of character; but by constantly selecting queens for stock purposes, possessing the greatest number of desirable peculiarities, a strain of workers will be the result, valuable for all the good qualities required in a domesticated bee. Always select the fittest, and the fittest must survive. Not otherwise.
### Why do Bees Swarm?
' Why do Bees Swarm?' The answer, stuffed into the proverbial nutshell, resolved itself into this : "It is one out of the many methods Nature has of distributing and perpetuating her species." True, there is a vast difference between Nature's method of distributing bees into new localities and that of other animals whose offspring leave the dam singly, or, seeking a mate, strike off to find pastures now. The offspring of bees leave accompanied by their dam, if it be the first spring swarm, provisioned for the journey, and ready to construct some of the furniture necessary for making a start in house-keeping on their own account. What is the cause of this extraordinary exodus is an effect that is followed from a cause. What is that cause, and how is it brought about? These are two out of many questions that I propose to deal with here --both more or less useful to the inexperienced bee-keeper. For want of such information many a valuable swarm of bees has been lost, whereas, had the sign been properly interpreted, many of them would have been saved.
It is admitted by all, both scientific and practical, bee-keepers that Francois Huber, who who use his researches on this subject more than 100 years ago, was the greatest inquirer into bee life that ever lived. He is always looked upon as the Solomon of bee-keepers, yet on p. 220 he says : "Therefore, to preserve their race, it is necessary that the old queen conduct the first swarm. But what is the secret means employed by Nature to induce her departure? I am ignorant of it." On p. 240 he again says, "It has been demonstrated that the principal motive of the young females departing when hives swarm is their insuperable antipathy to each other. All the young queens are successively treated alike in hives that are to swarm. But the conduct of the bees towards an old queen destined to conduct the first swarm is very different. Always accustomed to respect fertile queens, they (the workers) do not forget what they owe to her; they allow her the most uncontrolled liberty. She is permitted to approach the royal cells, and if she even attempts to destroy them no opposition is presented by the bees. Thus her inclinations are not
with do bees swarm! 79
tion to these there will be a large number of nurse bees, young downy ones, eagerly engaged in supplying the infantile wants of the younger brood. These are among the first internal indications of swarming. If the bees be a well established colony, and the queen is about completing her first year, there will be indications of the approach of drone laying. In the early part of her life a fecundated queen never lays what are termed drone eggs. When about entering the second year of her existence her drone-laying powers are first developed. The maturing of drones within the cells is the second stage in the order towards swarming. There are no drones wintered with the bees. Of course, it can be done artifically, and perhaps under required conditions it is done when bees are in a state of-nature.
As spring advances and bee food becomes more plentiful, the bees seem to realise the conditions necessary for swarming. As queens do not leave the hive, after their return from their marital flight, till they go forth with the first spring swarms, the swarming conditions must be arrived at by the queen observing the abundance of the food supplies brought in by the bees, and the genial warmth of spring. In the first place these auxiliaries conduce to the rapid increase in worker brood, followed, as before stated, by drone production. Drones as their strength and power of flight increase do not remain in the hive like young workers, but are eager to get on the wing. During the warmest parts of spring days their deep hum can be heard mid-air, and if we place ourselves near the hives we shall see them busy at the entrance thereto. This will be a sure indication that queen cells are in progress and young queens are developing. When looking through the hives, these cells are easily distinguishable from the worker or drone cells both by their form and their positions. They are constructed, as a rule, on the edges of the combs. There is no rule as to the number; neither do the number of cells give any indication of the number of swarms that will be cast off during the season from any particular colony. If there are a dozen or more queen cells containing maturing queens, it is seldom that two or more of these are of the same age, that is, it is not probable that any two of them will emerge from the cell at one and the same time, for reasons to be explained further on. The perfecting of these developing queens is another advancing stage in the swarming symptoms. The aversion that queen bees have the one to the other is well known, and also the jealous guard placed over the cells by the workers ; yet a fertile queen, one destined to accompany the first swarm of the season from the live, is allowed all sorts of latitude. How different is the action of bees towards a laying queen to that of the virgins! Is it caused by filial affection? As soon as all the swarming indications succeed one and the other, that is, the rapid increase of workers, and of worker brood, the advent of drones, and the perfecting of young queens within the cells, if the weather be favourable, the first swarm may be expected on any day, and almost at any hour, generally from 10 to noon. I have known bees to swarm as early as 6.30 a.m., and as late as 5 p.m., but such times are exceptional. No queen, under normal conditions, will go forth with a swarm before depositing eggs in queen cells ; but she will leave before the first young queen emerges from her cradle.
There is one symptom of swarming that is infallible, a peculiar sound they emit, and known by most bee-keepers, termed piping. But singularly enough, piping emitted by the bees does not take place prior to the issuing forth of the first swarm, but prior to that of the second. Therefore, it is sometimes contended that the sound is only produced by virgin queens. Be that as it may, it is an unmistakable sound, differing from every other note produced in bee music. It is a high-set, rasping note, likened to ''peer, peep, peep,' and hence the word 'piping' has been applied ; but 'teet' and 'zeet' have seemed to some to better mimic the _vox regulis'_' These sounds can easily be distinguished above the ordinary hum of the bees. By placing the ear to the side of the live after the bees have ceased from outdoor labour the sound of 'peep, peep, peep,' will be heard at frequent intervals. Both the young queens imprisoned in the cells as well as those at liberty, produce this challenging cry. I'huber says, 'What seemed most singular was that this female (virgin queen) emitted a very distinct sound, or clacking, from her prison. It was still more audible in the evening, and even consisted of several monotonous notes in rapid succession.' Further on, referring to a newly-emerged queen, he says, 'When she approached the other royal cells, the bees on guard pulled, bit her, and chased her away ; they seemed to be greatly irritated against her. She twice emitted the sound ; in doing so, she stood her thorax against a comb, and the wings crossed on her back ; they were in motion, but without being unfolded or further opened. Whatever might have been the cause of her assuming this attitude, the bees were affected by it; all hung down their heads, and remained motionless. The queen confined in the second cell had not yet left it, and was heard to hum several times." Undoubtedly for hum he means pipe, or clack as he terms it. If the piping is heard in the evening, every preparation can be made to receive the swarm next day. There will sure to be a swarm issue forth. I have known, after hearing the piping over night, a swarm to come forth on a bright morning; afterwards, the sky becoming overcast, they again returned to the hive, and issued out on the day following. I have also heard the piping, and on the next morning have seen the swarm rise in the air, and before they alighted re-enter, and not to swarm again during that season. I suppose the cause was a fight to a finish between the rival queens.
Why do bees swarm? Why does a hen sit, rear her chickens, and then leave them to scratch for themselves? Why are the members of the smaller feathered race so solicitous for the safety of their callow nestlings and so anxious to protect them when they leave the nest as perchers, and in a few weeks afterwards, are just as anxious to vent out their rage upon their own offspring, as if they were the greatest strangers, should they approach the old domain? And why do members of the vegetable world bloom, bear seed, and scatter it far and wide? Some seeds are armed with little hooklets, that hitch in the coats of animals that browse upon the parent plants, and are thus carried and dropped miles away ; others are coated with adhesive matter which answers the same purpose as the hooklets ; other seeds again are bedecked with delicately buoyant down, as in the thistles, and, being thus armed with sails, are wafted far away from the neighbourhood of their nativity. Are not the various methods Nature has adopted to distribute the animal and vegetable kingdom analogous to swarming for the purpose of replenishing the earth? True some go away into a far country singly, others again gregariously. What bee-keeper has not looked at a bed of thistles when the wind is blowing, and, seeing the seeds caught up by their downy attendants, conceived the idea that they rise into the air like a swarm of bees? And what is 'to swarm"? An Anglo-Saxon word, meaning to ascend or go up. In some parts of England the word is so used to this day. "Shall 1 swarm the tree and get that bird's nest '' was an expression used when 1 was a boy. Now we use the word as meaning a great number, or a great multitude.
Bees swarm because it is one of Nature's ways of distributing and perpetuating their species. All species of bees do not swarm --that is, go away in a multitude--only social bees ; and not these in all cases.
What queer notions, past and present, have been given why _apis mellifera_ swarm. A evry commonly accepted opinion is the want of room. I knew a swarm of bees to enter the gable end of a house and build on the ridge-pole, and therefore had all the space between the roof and the ceiling--room enough to build yards of comb and store tons of honey. They occupied this space for years and regularly swarmed ; but on one occasion, making my way under the roof to have a look at the supposed great mass of comb and honey, there was to be seen only a very medium quantity of comb, but a fair supply of honey. In too much space the conditions are not good for wax secretion.
What strange statements are published by entomologists in referring to the swarming of bees--I mean those men who go in for the study, or perhaps I had better say the reading, of general insect life, and not confining their research to a special class. In _Insect Miscellaneous_ I read : "Bees being confined within a limited space, they cannot there increase and multiply beyond a certain point, and consequently, when the hive becomes too crowded for the population, it is expedient to thin their numbers by emigration (swarming). De Raumur, the naturalist, says he frequently possessed hives so full of bees that a portion of them were compelled to remain on the outside, conglomerated in a mass, and yet no swarm was sent off to thin their numbers. In other hives, on the contrary, where there was so much spare room, more than one swarm was thrown off." Again, the writer in _Insect Miscellaneous_ says : "The researches of naturalists, indeed, have discovered many curious facts relative to the proceedings of bees in such cases; but still many things, _like the immediate cause of their swarming,_ remain doubtful and obscure." In the latest work on natural history published, there are some romantic statements given as to the reason the cells in honeycomb are six-sided (hexagonal).
What is the incentive amongst bees that causes the swarming impulse? Chiefly, season or climatic circumstances. But not always these. There are exceptions. A friend of mine in the Old Country informed me that he once found a swarm of bees on a gate post in the depth of winter, when the ground was covered with snow, no doubt starved out. Not always when bees are short of stores will they leave in a mass as if swarming. I once knew a swarm of bees that had but a small quantity of honey stored for winter use make friends with an adjoining colony where there was plenty of stores, and acted literally up to the text "To him that hath shall be given," the members of the better equipped colony helping to transport the store, the weaker colony gradually intermixing with the stronger. Bees, as a rule, will not permit intruders to enter, but when they bring their own buttered scone, and their own tea and sugar, the visited very much relax that supposed hard and fast rule. Langsworth says: "Bees sometimes abandon their hives very early in the spring or late in summer or fall. Although exhibiting the appearance of natural swarming, they leave, not because the population is so crowded that they wish to form new colonies, but because it is either so small or the hives so destitute of supplies that they are driven to desperation." I have known a starving colony to leave their hive on a spring-like day in December in the old land.