BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
" He does not know the receipt, Charlie! Now,confining myself to the common, or, as it is generally styled, the Hive-Bee,* whose ways and habits have been carefully studied by Huber and other illustrious naturalists, it appears that each community of bees consists of from 10,000 to 60,000 members: of these one is a perfect female, and the mother or queen bee; from 600 to 2000, at certain seasons, are males; and the remainder are workers, or neuters.
"The entire period of the life and reign of the queen is calculated at about two or three years. During this period, it cannot be said that she performs any good work for the welfare of her realm, other than increasing its population. When she issues from the egg she is, like the rest of her sisterhood, a helpless and an ugly grub; yet you can plainly tell that she is destined for a favoured life, from the fact that her birth-chamber is of larger dimensions, is vertical in position, and is shaped more like a cylinder than an octagon. Sheis thus provided with sufficient room for the due growth and expansion of all her members, as she advances towards maturity ; and to hasten this growth and expansion, her nurses and future subjects supply her with an abundance of the richest and most nourishing food ; not the simple bee-bread, of which I have already spoken, and which is considered sufficient for common bee-infancy, but a rare and rich preparation compounded from flowery juices, and called 'royal jelly,' because reserved expressly for royal nutriment. Thus spaciously lodged and delicately fed, the favoured grub, when arrived at full growth, spins within her cell a silken shroud ; therein changes to what is called a nymph or pupa ; and thence, in due time, issues forth in all her dignity of majestic size, in all the resplendency of her golden-ringed body-suit, the more conspicuous for the scantiness of her gauze drapery,--those filmy wings in which alone her outward gifts, instead of surpassing, are inferior to, those of her subjects."
"It seems," said Charlie, reflectively, "a fine thing to be a queen."
"Well, now let us turn to the bee-worker, who, on emerging from her egg, finds herself inhabiting one of the hexagonal or six-sided cells, of (48)which the hive is in the main composed. The shape and proportion of the cell, as well as the quality of her bee-bread, seem purposely calculated to diminish her growth ; but they in no wise deteriorate her working faculties."
" What about the males, papa? Have you nothing to say in _their_ favour? "
" These are the _drones_ ; and I can't say much in their favour, because they never do much to
deserve it. Their existence is a very joyous one between April and August, during which time they participate in, or contend for, the royal graces, and are supported at the cost of the bee-workers ; but when the queen has finally chosen her partner or partners from them, the bee-workers fall upon the rest, and sweep them away in one general massacre.
Such are the three orders, or degrees, which exist in the great bee community."Yes: the queen, the workers, the drones. But you have told me nothing about their stature or appearance. How shall I know one from the other?
"Well, listen: the worker is about half an inch long, and about one-sixth of an inch broad, at the upper part of the abdomen. The antennae, or feelers, are twelve-jointed, and each terminates with a kind of knob. The abdomen consists of six joints, or rings; and under the scaly coverings of the four middle ones are situated the _wose-pockets_."
"Wax-pockets," exclaimed Charlie.
"So they are called; because they are the organs in which the secretion of wax takes place. At the extremity of the abdomen is situated the _sting_, which is straight. The lower joint of the hind tarsi, or ankle, if I may so call it, is widened until it forms a basket, fit for the reception of the pollen collected from the flowers by the hairs 'which thickly cover the little creature's legs."
"And what about the drones?"
"These are the male bees, and, unlike the males in most communities, do no work at all. They are called _drones_, from the peculiar noise they make in their flight; are much largerthan the neuters or workers, and thicker in proportion. The antennae, or feelers, are provided with an additional joint. The eyes are remarkably large, and meetupon the crown. _Observe_ : neithermales norqueens have wax-pockets, nor pollen - baskets ; their legs are less hairy ; and the queen bee's sting is not straight,but curved.
"Of the perfect females it may be said that they are much larger than either the workers or the males ; they are also easily known by the yellow tint LEO AND TARSUS OF DRONE BEE of the under part of the body, and by the extreme shortness of their wings, which, instead of extending to the extremity of the abdomen, leave some of its rings uncovered.
"Such being the different inhabitants of a beehive, I shall now proceed to give you a sketch of their characteristic habits, and then of the building, outside and inside, which they construct with so much architectural skill."
## Chapter 3 General sketch of the Habits of Bees.
"Many-coloured, runshine-loving, spring-botokening bee!
Yellow bee, so mad for love of early-shooming flowers!
Till thy waxen cells be full, fair fall thy work and thee,
Buzsing round the sweetly-smelling garden-plots and flowers."
"The life of the mother or queen bee," said Mr. Walters, " is mainly occupied in laying eggs to increase the population of the hive. This increase, though varying according to the state of the weather, is, on the whole, very rapid--sometimes at the rate of 300 eggs in a day, or in the later spring months of 1000, or even 2000. The increase, however, is not continuous. Under certain conditions, which I shall duly describe to you, a grand emigration, or, as it is called, _swarming_, takes place, and new beecolonies are established.
"Respecting the males, I must add to what Ihave said before, that their only known use is to assist the queen in peopling the hive ; and after the swarming season is over, the great majority of them are slain in cold blood by the workers, as if the latter were afraid they might consume too much of their winter store.
"The greater part of the workers themselves do not live out a twelvemonth; but the queen bee's existence often stretches beyond a period of three years.
" Now, Charlie, we will suppose that you and I are wandering, one bright warm night in May, in the vicinity of a bee-hive. To our surprise, instead of the stillness which generally prevails at night, there is a loud commotion ; sounds fall upon our ears as if the interior of the hive were the scene of a sudden tumult. And these sounds continue throughout the night, and throughout the next morning, and even into mid-day. They are indicative of a swarming or emigration, and Io, about noon, forth rush the body of emigrants, either preceded or followed by their queen. Leaving them settled for a while on a neighbouring bough, you and I return to the original hive. Here tier upon tier of six-sided cells hang suspended from the roof, most of them occupiedas the sleeping-nests of the industrious workers, the nurseries of the infant bees, and as storehouses for honey and bee-bread. But no one is asleep. The departure of the queen bee has left the little state without a head ; and like the House of Commons without a Speaker, the continuity of its business has been interrupted. To gather up the broken reins, the remnant left in the hive proceed, like the House of Commons, to choose a new ruler."
"Oh, go on, papa!" exclaimed Charlie ; " this is better than a fairy tale."
" I should think so, for truth is stranger than fiction. Well, among the mass of six-sided cells which chiefly compose the hive, you would perceive, on a glance into the interior, some half-dozen oval chambers, each thrice the size of a common cell, and these are--what?".
" Of course, the royal nurseries."
" Yes ; and within these'waxen palaces' have been for some weeks carefully fostered, in different stages of growth and development, some half-dozen princely infants, for one of whom the royal crown of Bee-land is intended."
"But for which one!" inquired Charlie. "How do the bees determine?"
another would-be queen issues from another royal chamber, and catching a glimpse of her rival, flies straight against her in a fury of royal rage.
"What poet could fitly sing the combat that now ensues? Head to head, chest to chest, they grapple and they struggle, and each has only, dragon-wise, to curve her tail and fix her venomed dart, and both, like the celebrated Kilkenny cats, will then fall victims to the mutual stings.
"But lo! at this critical moment, as if stricken simultaneously with panic fear, they part, and recede from the deadly and too equal combat.
"Hitherto the spectators have been looking on inactive, but not mute, for they have maintained a ceaseless hum ; but now that the royal warriors seem abashed, the hum swells into a tremendous roar. A few individuals, darting from the crowd, dare to seize upon the retreating queens and stay their flight, who, aroused by this indignity to a fresh access of rage, burst from their subjects' hold, and renew the fierce encounter. The issue does not long remain in suspense ; for now one of the queenly warriors, stronger or more skilful than her sister, rises above her, seizes a scanty wing, and inflicts a mortal sting on her unprotected body. Then she quickly withdraws her fatal weapon, while the hapless rival, after a brief death-agony, expires."
" And is all this true!" said Charlie, fixing on his father a gaze of wonder and admiration.
" Actually and positively true. And what think you is the next task of the victor! She approaches the royal chambers where still repose, unconscious, the four remaining nymphs or larvae of regal lineage. She tears aside from the entrance of each the silica hangings which partially protect it, thrusts through the aperture her poisoned dart, and, one by one, slays each probable rival. In this cruel work her subjects are pleased participants ; for no sooner does she abandon the scene of each successive assassination, than they drag from it the corpse she has left behind, and hasten to conceal the evidence of her fatal jealousy.
" We are told that it seems essential to the well-being of a hive that only one sovereign should be acknowledged, on the principle of Alexander the Great, that two suns cannot shine in one hemisphere. On this single sovereign, as the universal mother, the parent and popular of all the hive, depends not only the prosperity, but the very existence of the state. Moreover, without a queen to guide or accompany the swarm, no emigration could take place. Hence, to guard against risk of accident, it is necessary to keep up a surplus supply of royal nymphs. But it will sometimes happen that, notwithstanding all their care and forethought, a hive finds itself bereft of its sovereign, and without any successor to take her place."
"What is to be done then, papa? Do they elect one of themselves?"
"No ; one of the most extraordinary of natural phenomena then takes place. Having lost their sovereign, the bees set to work to _make_ another."
"What! to _make_, to _manufacture_ another? Oh, surely you are joking!"
"Nay ; I speak but the plain unvarnished truth. After devoting some few hours to decorous lamentation, they suddenly address themselves to the task of destroying--I mean, _apparently_ destroying -- their beautiful little city. Several parties here and there attack the six-sided houses, hastily toppling down their waxen walls, without any regard to the young which lie slumbering in happy ignorance. Of these unhappy little ones, perhaps four or five in number,the destroyers sacrifice all but a single nymph; and then, indeed, they lavish on this chosen object an amount of affection which almost compensates for the cruel slaughter of their kin. By pulling down the cells on either side, they convert the little nursery into a spacious palace-chamber, which allows its occupant unlimited space for growing; and there she lies for about ten days, being assiduously crammed meanwhile with'royal jelly.'"
"Well," said Charlie, " I call that a new way of making a queen. But go on, papa. I hope you are not tired, for I am not."
"I think the next point to be discussed is this, Whence do the bees obtain the materials for their wax and honey! Look at these little creatures now softly humming round us, and flying from flower to flower with what appears to be an indefatigable curiosity. They are at work, we know, but they wisely make a pleasure of their work, and each little adventurer roams about in the sunshine with a sense, I think, of positive enjoyment.
"'Hot midsummer's petty creno,
Sweet to me thy drowsy tone,
Telling of countless sunny hours,
Long days and solid banks of flowers;
Of guifts of sweetness without bound,
In Indian wildernesses found;
Of Syrian peace, immortal leisure,
Firnest cheer, and bird-like pleasure.
Wiser far than human seer,
Yellow-breeched philosopher!
Seing only what is falr.
Slipping only what is sweet,
Thou dost mock at fate and care,
Leave the chaff and take the wheat.'
" You will remember that I have described the bee's thigh as loaded with a kind of pannier or basket, into which, when she meets with a suitable flower, she brushes off the _pollen_ or dust ; and having sucked in a full store of 'nectared sweets,' she makes her way, as straightly and as swiftly as an arrow, to her busy home.
" Having arrived at the gate, and been examined by the sentinels, she passes into the interior, and immediately presents to the queen,
LRO OF A BE.
as an act of homage, a portion of her honey. Shethen puts aside a little for her own use, and the remainder she deposits within one of the store-cells set apart for this purpose. Her next step is to get rid of the contents of her pollen-basket. This flower-dust, or flower-farina, after undergoing a certain process, of which swallowing forms a part, becomes the 'bee-bread' of which we have already spoken, and the most valuable nutrient of 'bee-existence,' especially before the stage of maturity is reached. After being swallowed, it is probably administered at once, like 'golden syrup,' to some of the baby occupants of the nursery cells ; or, if more has been collected than immediate need requires, this, like the honey, is first diluted and packed, and then laid up for future use.
" We have seen, to use the language of an agreeable writer, how our host industrious gatherer has brought home her share of pollen, or 'bee-bread,' and honey, or 'bee-wine ;' but where is her portion of _wax_--of that all-precious material in which both the bee-bread and the bee-wine are so carefully preserved?
" On this occasion, having given away all her honey, she can make no wax ;--a lesson that we should be just before we are generous.
" Long ago not one of the observers of bees, or keepers of bees, could have told you why a bee without honey could not contribute wax, though the answer to the question could now be given by almost any school-boy."
" Not by me, papa."
" That is your own fault, for not having read more, or kept your eyes open. The opinion formerly held was, that humble-bees, and all bees, either collected their wax ready-made from the flowers, or manufactured it from the pollen which they stored up in their thigh-basket. That there was a mistake here--that the chief foundation of wax could not be pollen, because of the varied colour of the latter--was first observed by the great anatomist, John Hunter. Huber and others, starting from this observation, and making numerous experiments, found that bees which were fed _entirely_ upon honey and sugar, and deprived, at the same time, of all opportunities of collecting pollen, succeeded nevertheless in constructing their honeycombs and wax; though without the 'bee-bread' made from the flower-farina, or pollen, they were wholly unable to feed their young.
" Hence this result follows: that honey, or sugar, and _not_ pollen, is essential to the manufacture of wax--a secretion which, 'exuding from the rings of the bee's stomach, is sometimes visible in the form of scale.
"But besides the pollen and the wax, the vegetable world furnishes the bees with yet another material for their architectural works. This substance is called _pyropolis_, from two Greek words signifying 'before the city,' and is so called because it is chiefly applied externally, and to the outworks of the waxen edifices. It consists of a brown resin, collected from trees producing a certain kind of gum. The bees in collecting it make free use of their thigh-baskets; but to avoid their movements being impeded by so adhesive a substance, they knead it up, and render it more tenacious, before transferring it to their receptacles.
"With this propolis all accidental holes and crevices are filled up, and the honeycombs, originally of the purest white, are carefully varnished.
'Now, is not all this very wonderful, my boy! How is the bee taught to collect this pollen, and this honey, and this propolis ; and how does it acquire a knowledge of the purposes to which each should be devoted? Let me quote you some fine melodious and sensible lines of Prior. He exclaims :-
"Tell me, ye studious, who pretend to see
Far into Nature's boosm, whence the bee
Was first informed her vent'rous flight to steer
Through trackless paths and an abys of air!
Whence she avoids the slimp marsh, and knows
The fertile hills where sweeter herbage grows,
And honey-making flowers their opening buds disclose?
How from the thickened mist and setting sun
Finds she the labour of her day is done!
Who taught her against winds and rains to strive,
To bring her burden to the certain hive!'
"There can be but one answer, Charlie, what-
ever the presumuous ingenuity of man may endeavour to devise. The knowledge, instinct,
intelligence--whatever you choose to call it--of
the bees, as of other insects, must have had a
divine origin, must have sprung from God."
"How wonderful are all thy works, O God!"
exclaimed Charlie, in a reverent voice, and with
folded hands.
Mr. Walters rested a while, and then resumed.
"During cold weather bees appear to lapse into
a semi-torpid condition, and consume much less
food than at other times. Their respiration is
conducted by means of _trachece_, or air-tubes, and
(430)
its activity is greater or less according to the insect's greater or less activity.
" It may well be deemed an extraordinary fact, says a writer, that among the enemies of our skilful and industries little architects are to be counted certain species of moths, which, despite the danger lurking in the stings of the bees, enter the hives and deposit their eggs. After these are hatched, they feed upon the combs. Mice sometimes nibble their way into the hives in winter, and destroy and pillage uncontrolled.
" Bees are not wholly of a pacific nature. Their wars are frequently of a most desperate character. When one community is attacked by others, it will offer a gallant resistance, and does not yield until overcome by numbers. The weaker hives are very much exposed, in the sweet spring-time, when flowers are few, to these destructive raids."
## Chapter 1. The Bee-Hive.
"Here their delicious task the forevent bees
**In warming millions tend ; around, athwart,**
Through the soft air the busy nations fly,
Cling to the bud, and with inserted tube
Suck its pure essence, its ethercal soul ;
And off, with bolder wing, they soaring dare
The purple heath, or where the wild-thyme grows,
And yellow lead them with the luscious spoil."
James Thomson.
WW that I have described to you the
architects, their manners and customs, and the materials they work with, I am naturally led to consider the kind of
**of its skilful arrangements we are indebted more to the perseverance of Huber, the naturalist, than to all the observations of his predecessors. Nor have succeeding students added much to the interesting and valuable details which he collected.**
"When bees begin to build a hive, they divide themselves into bands, one of which has to gatherand produce the materials ; another works them up, and forms them into a kind of outline of the dimensions and partitions of the future cells; and a third brings provisions to the labourers, who are unable to leave their work. But, according to Mr. Rennie and other observers, no distribution of food is made to those whose task of collecting propolis and pollen calls them to the field. It is presumed they will attend to their own wants. Nor is any allowance supplied to those who initiate, as it were, the architecture of the cells. Their province is very troublesome, because they are compelled to level and extend, as well as to cut and shape the wax to the required form and dimensions ; but, after awhile, they complete their task, and retire to the fields to regale themselves with food, and to refresh themselves with a sense of unrestrained liberty and pleasure. But their successors have to draw their mouth, their feet, and the extremity of their body, several times over the entire surface of their work ; and as they never desist until the fatiguing occupation is at an end, they frequently require refreshments, for which purpose waiters are always in attendance with a sufficient supply. The worker, when hungry, bends down his trunk before his purveyor,to intimate that he fain would eat. Immediately, the other opens his bag of precious honey, and allows a few drops to trickle out. The brief repeat over, back goes the labourer to his toil, and with his feet and body repeats the same motions as before.
"Now, observe, Charlie, the book I have beside me,--and which induced me at the outset to talk upon this particular subject,--is Huber's great book on Bees. Let me read to you his minute account of the various operations undertaken and carried through by _our little architect in the erection of a hive.
"That he might watch these operations, he took a large glass vessel, shaped like a bell, and glued thin wooden slips to the arch at intervals, because the glass itself was too smooth for the bees to support themselves upon it.
" Into this glass bell was introduced a swarm, consisting of some thousand workers, several hundred males, and a fertile queen, who soon ascended to the top. Those first gaining the slips fixed themselves there by their fore-feet ; others, scrambling up the sides, joined them, by holding their legs with their own, and they thus formed a kind of chain, fastened by the two ends.
to the upper parts of the receiver, and served as ladders or a bridge to the workers enlarging their number. The latter were united in a cluster, hanging like an inverted,,pyramid from.the top to the bottom of the hive.
**"The country affording but little honey, Huber provided the bees with syrup of sugar in order to quicken their work. They crowded to the edge of the vessel which contained it ; and having satisfied themselves, returned to the group. A general repose now prevailed, while the nursesees set off into the country on a foraging expedition. Returning loaded with pollen, they kept guard at the mouth of the hive, cleansed it, and closed up its edges with propolis. For about fifteen hours the wax-workers remained motionless--the curtain of bees, consisting always of the same individuals, assured the observer that none replaced them. A few hours afterwards, it was discovered that all these individuals had wax scales under the rings ; and next day this phenomenon was still more general."**
**"Wax scales, papa? Oh, you spoke about**_them_ **before," said Charlie.**