BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
**251.** Most of the above statements are taken, or rather abridized, from "Les Neeturies," of Gaston Bonnier, a professor at the Ecole Normale Superieure of Paris (187!!). This work was awarded a medal by the Academy of Science of Paris. Donnier backs his statements with one hundred and thirty engravings made from microscopic researches.
**255.** He explains, not only bow the nectar is formed in the blossoms, but also how the extra floral nectar, the so-called _honey-dew,_ is produced on different parts of plants, or trees.
**257. "Mr. Knight once observed a shower of honey-dew descending in innumerable small globules, near one of his oak trees. He eut off one of the branches, took it into the house, and, holding it in a stream of light admitted through a small opening, distinctly saw the aphiles ejecting the fluid from their bodies with considerable force, and this accounts for its being frequently found in situations where it could not have arrived by the mere influence of gravitation. The drops that are thus spurted out, unless interrupted by the surrounding foliage, or some other interposing body, fall upon the ground; and the spots may often be observed, for some time, beneath and around the trees, affected with honey-dew, till washed away by the rain. The power which these insects possess of ejecting the fluid from their bodies, seems to have been wisely instituted to preserve cleanliness in each individual fly, and, indeed, for the preservation of the family; for, pressing as they do upon one another, they would otherwise soon be glued together, and rendered incapable of stirring. On looking steadfastly at a group of these insects (_Alphides sulcis_) while feeding on the bark of the willow, their superior size enabled us to perceive some of them elevating their bodies and emitting a transparent substance in the form of a small shower:
"Nor seorn yc now, fund elves, the foliage sear, When the light aphids, arm'd with puny spear, Probe caeh emulgent vein, till bright below, Like falling stars, clear drops of nectar glow." Evans.
**258. "Honey-dew usually appears upon the leaves as a vis-ed transparent substance, as sweet as honey itself, sometimes in the form of globules, at others resembling a syrup. It is generally most abundant from the middle of June to the middle of July--sometimes as late as September.**
"It is found chiefly upon the oak, the clm, the maple, the plane, the sycamore, the limc, the hazel, and the blackbcrry; occasionally also the cherry, currant, and other fruit trees. Sometimes only one species of trees is affected at a time. The oak generally affords the largest quantity. At the season of its greatest abundance, the happy, humming noise of the bees may be heard at a considerable distance, sometimes nearly equalling in loudness the united hum of swarming.'--(Bevan.)In some seasons, bees gather large supplies from these honey-dews, but it is abundant on:y once in three or four years. The honey obtained from this source is usually of a dark eajor, and never of a good quality.
**259**. It is very difficult to ascertain, at all times, the special source of honey-dew, whether from the trees or from the _aphilides_. In order to give all sides a hearing, we will cite a letter from Mr. Bennier on this subject, and leave the reader to draw his own conclusions:
"Plant lice are seen even on trces that have no extra floral nectaries. They do not produce exudations (properly speaking), but bore the tissues to eat the contents. Their presence on the plant has no connection with that of the nectar. The ex-cremental liquid of aphids is not equally sweet in all the species, and the bees harvest only that which is very sweet. They generally prefer the true honey-dev (millee), which exudes from the leaves at certain times, and contains mannite and saccharine matter.
"I have seen bces, however, harvesting the sweet liquid of the aphids and the true millee at the same time, on the aspen, maple, and sycamore.
"I have rarely seen the extra floral necitar of the sspecial nectaries overflow and run in drops, but the true millee of trees may fall in small drops, and some observers conclude, from this fact, that it is produced by aphids. I have often seen some trees, and even all the trcs, of a timbcr, covered with an abundant millee, falling in small drops, although there was not a single louse on the higher limbs.
"To sum up, we must not confound the three kinds of sweet liquid, which may be produced outside the flowers: 1st, The extra-doral nectar proper, produced, like the nectar of flowers, from special sugar tissues; 2d, The true millee, produced on the surface of the leaves of trees or shrubs, without the action of aphids; 3rd, the excretion, more or less sweet, sometimes containing very little sugar, abundantly produced by a great number of aphids."
**260**. In some blossoms, as in the red elover, the corolla is so deep and narrow, that the nectar is out of reach of the loney-bee. Larger insects, such as the bumble-bee, or smaller ones, as some wing, enjoy it to the exclusion of our favorites. Yet in some seasons, we have seen bees working on red-cliver blum, and have attributed this to the corollas being shorter, owing to drouth, or scant growth. Mr. Bonnier has discovered that, in some such flowers, the nectar is sometimes so abundant that the bees can reach it. It is true that insects, and even bees, can tear the tender corollas of some blossoms, optimise the honey receptacle, to reach the nectar, but this is "if such rare instance, in the honey-bee, that it cannot be considered of any practical value.
**261**. The honey, when harvested, is stored in the rear of the hive, above the brunl, and as near it as possible.
When just gathered, it is too watery to be preserved for the use of the bees. To evaporate this water, they force a strong current of air through the hive, and the bee-keeper can ascertain the days of large honey-yield, by the greater ruler of the bees in front of their hive during the night following. If a strong colony is put on a platform scale, it will be found, during the height of the honey-harvest to gain a number of pounds on a pleasant day. Much of this weight will be lost in the night, from the evaporation of the newly-gathered honey. A thorough upward ventilation, in hot weather, will therefore contribute to increase the ripening of honey (**763**).
When the cell is about full, the bees seal it with a flat cover or equiping made of wax. This capping is begun at the lower edge of the cell, and is raised gradually, as the honey is deposited within, till the cell is entirely sealed. These equipings being flat, depressed, or uneven, are easily distinguished from the caps of the brood, which are convex and of a darker color.
**262**. Ave the caps of the honey-cells air-tight?
The caps of the brood-cells, made of pollen and wax, are undoubtedly porous enough to allow the air to reach the larva; and some Apairists question the imperviousness of the scaling of honey-comb. Mr. 'leshire himself, while of 'pinion that "the bee aims at compact coverings for her honey," says that "not more than ten per cent of these are absolutely im
pervious to air." Yet his own description of the cause of the well-known whiteness of theappings, owing to the air which is left behind and "cannot escape," would prove that these eappings are originally made as air-tight as a thin coat of wax can make them. But it is possible that the thin coat of wax, though evidently air-tight, be, _in some circumstances_, porous enough to allow moisture to soak through it slowly, like water through leather.
The pollen, or fertilizing dust of flowers, is gathered by the bees from blossoms, and is indispensable to the nourishment of their young--repeated experiments having proved that brood cannot be raised without it. It is very rich in the nitrogenous substances which are not contained in honey, and without which ample nourishment could not be furnished for the development of the growing bee. Dr. Hunter, on disseeting some immature bees, found that their stomaehs contained pollen, but not a particle of honey.
We are indebted to Huber for the discovery that pollen is the principal food of the young bees. As large supplies were often found in hives whose inmates had starved, it was evident that, without honey, it could not support the mature bees; and this led former observers to conclude that it served for the building of eomb. Huber, after demonstrating that wax can be secreted from an entirely different substance, soon ascertained that pollen was used for the nourishment of the embryo bees. Confining some bees to their biv without any pollen, he supplied them with honey, eggs, and larvae. In a short time, the young all perished. A fresh supply of brood being given to them, with an ample allowance of pollen, the development of the larvae proceeded in the natural way.
### 264.
We had an excellent opportunity of testing the value of this substance, in the backward Spring of 1852. On the 5th of February, we opened a hive containing an artificial swarm of the previous year, and found many of the cells filled with brood. The eombs, being examined on the 23d, containedneither eggs, brood nor bee-bread; and the colony was supplied with pollen from another hive; the next day, a large number of eggs were found in the cells. When this supply was exhausted, laying again ceased, and was only resumed when more was furnished. During the time of these experiments, the weather was so unpromising, that the bees were unable to leave the hive.
Dzierzon is of opinion that bees can furnish food for their young, without pollen; although he admits that they can do it only for a short time, and at a great expense of vital energy; just as the strength of an animal nursing its young is rapidly reduced, if, for want of proper food, the very substance of the nother's body must be converted into milk. The experiment just described does not corroborate this theory, but confirms Huber's view, that pollen is indispensable to the development of brood.
Gundelach, an able German Apjarist, says that if a colony with a fertile queen be confined to an empty hive, and supplied with honey, comb will be rapidly built, and the eelis filled with eggs, which in due time will be hatched; but the worms will all die within twenty-four hours.
Semetimes bees, unable to feed their brood for lack of pollen, desert their hives (**407, 663**).
**265**. In September, 1856, we put a very large colony of bees into a new hive, to determine some points on which we were then experimenting. The weather was fine, and they gathered pollen, and built comb very rapidly: still for ten days, the queen-hve deposited no eggs in the cells. During all that time, these bees stored very little pollen in the combs. One of the days being so stormy that they could not go abroad, they were supplied with eye flour (**267**), none of which, although very greedily appropriated, could be found in the cells. During all this time, as there was no brood to be fed, the pollen must have been used \(\mathfrak{h}_{V}\) the bees either for nor nor to assist them in secreting wax; or, as we believe, for both these purposes.
**266**. Bees prefer to gather \(fresh\) pollen, even when there are large accumulations of old stores in the cells. With hives giving the control of the combs, the surplus of old colonies may be.made to supply the defieiency of young one\({}_{S}\); the latter, in Spring, being often destitute of this important article. Although the bees of queenless colonies do not usually go in quest of pollen, some oeasionally harvest it, and as it is not used, it aeeumulates in the hive. Sometimes it deteriorates during the Winter and becomes worthless, from mould.
If honey and pollen can both be obtained from the same blossom, the industrious insect usually gathers a load of each. To prove this, let a few pollen-gatherers be dissected when honey is plenty; and their honey-sacks will ordinarily be full.
When the bee brings home a load of pollen, she stores it away, by inserting her body in a eel, and brushing it from her legs; it is then carefully packed down, being often evvered with honey, and sealed over with wax. Pollen is seldom deposited in any except worker-cells.
Aristotle observed, that a bee, in gathering pollen, confines herself to the kind of blossom on which she begins, even if it is not so abundant as some others; thus a ball of this substance taken from her thigh, is found to be of a uniform color throughout; the load of one insect being yellow, of another, red, and of a third, brown; the color varying with that of the plant from which the supply was obtained. They may prefer to gather a load from a single species of plant, because the pollen of different kinds does not pack so well together. Reaumur has estimated, that a good colony may gather and use as much as one hundred pounds of it in a year.
**267.** When bees cannot find pollen, in early Spring, they will gather flour, or meal, or even fine sawdust, as a substitute. This was noticed by Hartlib, as early as 1653.
Dzieron, early in the Spring, observed his bees bringing vye-meal to their hives from a neighboring mill, before they could procure any pollen from natural supplies. The hint was not lost; and it is now a common practice, wherever beekeeping is extensively carried on, to supply the bees early in the season with this article. Shallow troughs or boxes are set not far from the apiaries, filled about two inches deep with _finely-ground, dry, and polluted rice-meal, oatmeal or ocean with floor_. Where bolted flour, or meal, is given, it should be tightly pressed with the hands, to prevent the bees from drowning in it. To attract then to it, we bait them with a few old combs, or a little honey.
The boxes must be placed in a warm spot sheltered from the wind. Thousands of bees, when the weather is favorable, resort eagerly to them, and return heavily laden to their lives.
This artificial pollen or bee-breal, is kneaded by them with saliva, or honey brought from the live. This is easily ascertained by tasting the little pellets, which in the hurry are loosened from their baskets, and fall to the bottom of the flour box. In fine, mild weather, they labor at this work with great industry; preferring the meal to the \(old\) pollen stored in their combs. They thus breed early, and rapidly recruit their numbers. The feeding is continued till, the blossons furnishing a preferable article, they cease to carry off the meal.
We will here add that, as a rule, colonies that do not carry in meal or pollen, at the opening of Spring, are without broad, either because they are queenless, or from want of honey, or from some other cause.
The discovery of flour, as a substitute for pollen, removes a very serious obstacle to the culture of bees. In many districts, there is for a short time such an abundant supply of honey, that almost any number of strong colonies will, in a seed season, lay up enough for themselves, and a large surplus for their owners. In many of these districts, however, the supply of pollen is often quite insufficient, and in Spring, the swarms of the previous year are so destitute, that unless the season is early, the production of brood is seriously checked, and the colony cannot avail itself properly of the the superabundant harvest of honey.
**345**. As low energy on their bodies the pollen, or fertilizing substance, they aid most powerfully in the impregnation tion of plants (**S78),** while prying into the blossoms in search of honey or bee-bread. In genial seasons, fruit will often set abundantly, even if no bees are kept in its vicinity; but many Springs are so unproitious, that often during the critical period of biosoming, the sun shines for only a few hours, so that those only can reasonably expect a reunnerating crop whose trees are all mununuring with the pleasant hun of bees.
**269.** One of the laws of Nature is that the crossing of the races produces offspring with greater vigor, endurance, and faculty of reproduction. Fruits succeed better, when the pollen, which fertilizes the pistil, comes from some other blossom; and the insects are intrusted with the mission of transporting this pollen from one blossom to another, while gathering it for their own use. In some plants, fertilization would have been impossible, without the help of insects. For instance, some plants, such as the willows, are diecious, having their male organs on one tree, and their female organs on another. The bees after visiting the one for pollen, go to the other for honey, and the fe other plants, such as the _Scrophularia Nodosa_ (Simpson honey plant\(-\)Fig. 49), the female organs are ready for foundation earlier than the male. But as the flower secretes a large quantity of honey, which is replaced in its nectaries as fast as the bees gather it, the bees, in traveling from one blosson to another, carry the pollen of an old blossom to the pistil of a younger one, and fertilization is accomplished. Some plants, corn, for instance, produce such quantities of pollen, that the agency of insects is less indispensable to the fertilization of their blossons.
**220.** To determine the advantages which flowers derive from insect fertilization, any one can wrap a few flowers in gauze, just before the opening of the bud, and compare the number of fertile seeds, from flowers thus treated, with those of other blossoms.
We have heard farmers mention the fact that the first crop of red clover furnishes but little seal, compared with the second crop. This is because the bubble-bees, which help its fertilization, are very scarce in Spring, while they are much more plentiful in Summer. "In Australia it was found impossible to obtain seed from red clover until the bubble-bees were imported into that country" (Darwin).
\(\Lambda\) large fruit-grower told us that his cherries were a very uncertain crop, a cold northeast storm frequently prevailing when they were in blossom. He had noticed that, if the sun shone only for a couple of hours, the bees secured him a crop. If those horticultrists, who regard the bee as an enemy (**S71**), could exterminate the race, they would act with as little wisdom as these who attempt to banish from their inhospitable premises every insectivorous bird, which helps itself to a small part of the abundance it has aided in producing. By making judicious efforts early in the Spring, to entrap the mother-wraps and hornets, which alone survive the Winter, an effectual blow may be struck at some of the worst pests of the orchard and garden. In Europe, those engaged extensively in the cultivation of fruit, often pay a small sun in the Spring for all ways and hornets destroyed in their vicinity.
## Chapter 271.
Water is necessary to be to dissolve the honey, which sometimes granulates in the cells, to digest the pollen and to prepare the food with which they feed the larvae. They can raise a certain amount of brood without water, but they always seem to suffer more or less in consequence (**662**). In the Winter, they breed but little, and the moisture which condenses on the walls of the hive is generally sufficient. Yet we have noticed that as soon as bees are brought out of the eellar (**653**), if the temperature is sufficiently warm, a great many will be seen sucking water. This fact shows that Berlebach was right when he advised bee-keepers to give water to bees during Winter, to avoid what he called disease of the thirst. Besides, every one may notice that bees take advantage of any warm Winter day to bring it to their hives; and, in early Spring, may be seen busily drinking around pumps, drains, and other moist places. Later in the season, they slip the dew from the grass and leaves.
Every careful bee-keeper will see that his bees are well supplied with water. If he has not some sunny spot, close at hand, where they can safely obtain it, he will furnish them with shallow wooden troughs, or vessels filled with floats or straw, from which -- sheltered from cold winds, and warmed by the genial rays of the sun--they can drink without risk of drowning.
A barrel half filled with earth and then filled with water, in which some water-cross or other aquatic plants are kept, to preserve it from putrefaction, and to prevent the bees from drowning, will do very well. For a small apiary, a jug or bottle (fig. 50),filled with water, and inverted on a plate covered with a small piece of carpel, will be sufficient. It can also be given in the combs. Mr. Vogel, editor of the _Biencen-ijiang_, on the 19th of March gave to a colony a comb containing crystallized honey, and another containing about three-fourths of a ground of water. Within sixteen hours, both combs were altogether emptied by the 1000.
**273**. A learned French hex-keeper, Mr. 100 Layens, made many experiments in regard to this matter.
"In the month of May, 1\(\times\)'s, I put a lump of sugar near a slot where a great many hexs came for water; they paid no attention to it. The sugar.was then moistened and covered with honey. The bees, attracted by the honey, came in great numbers, and suckul up most of the moist sugar. After they became accustomed to this, I decreased the moistening, till I gave them nothing but dry sugar, when they brought water to dissolve the sugar, and removed all except the parts which were too hard to be dissolved easily."--(Bulletin de la Suisse, Nov., 1880.)
The same writer has noticed that, in Spring, if the hexs are compelled to go very far for water, many of them perils. The found a loss of three hundred and fifty grammes of bees\(-\) four-fifths of a \(\mathrm{pound}-\)from a hive, during a sudden Spring storm (**606**).
From the 10th of April to the 31st of July, forty colonies consumed 187 liters of water, about fifty gallous; the greatest quantity used in a day being seven liters, or about fifteen pints.
That does do not need water, in circumstances other than these named above, is evident from the fact that, in importing lakes from Italy, we did not succeed in receiving them alive, until our shippers reluctantly consented to send them without water (**595**).
**271**. Bees seem to be so fond of salt, that they will often alight upon our hands to lick up the saline perspiration.
"During the early part of the breeding season," said Dr. Bevan, "till the beginning of May, I keep a constant supply of salt and water near my apiary, and find it throughed with bees from early morm till late in the evening. About this period the quantity they consume is considerable, but afterwards they seem indifferent to it. The eagerness they evince for it at one period of the season, and their indifference at another, may account for the opposite opinions entertained respecting it."
## Chapter 4 The "bee-lines,"-hives with immovable combs.
**22.3**. The first hives that were provided for bees were as rule as their natural abodes. We do not need to look back very far to remember the "bee-gun," so called, probably, because it had often been made out of the gun tree, with two sides crossing in the middle, and a rough board nailed on top, while a notch in the lower end formed the entrance. In the Old World, they manufactured straw or willow "skaps" and puttery hives, which are still used in Asia and Africa. The earthen hive was simply a tube, laid on its side. and closed at each end with a movable wooden disk.
This disk was removed to take the honey, which is always located at the back part of the hives.
There further lives were, unquestionably, the most sensible of these old kinds. In the Islands of Greece they were set in thick stone walls, built on purpose with the entrance on one side of the wall. Sometimes they were located in the walls of the houses, and the honey was removed from the inside of the house, or, if in walls, from behind, out of the flight of bees.