BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
''He often wished, the better to accomplish his vast, unlimited views, for a year of perpetual heat and light to perfect his inquiries; with a polar night, to reap all the advantages of them by proper drawings and descriptions.''
**96**. The name of queen was then given to the mother bee, although she in no way governs, but seems to reign like a beloved mother in her family.
**97**. She is the only perfect female in the hive, the laying of eggs being her sole function; and so well does she accomplish this duty, that it is not uncommon to find queens who lay more than 3,500 eggs per day, for several weeks in succession during the height of the breeding season. In our _observing hives_ we have seen them lay at the rate of six eggs in a minute. The fecundity of the female of the white ant is, however, much greater than this, being at the rate of sixty eggs a minute; but her eggs are simply extruded from her body, and carried by the workers into suitable nurseries, while the queen-bee herself deposits her eggs in their appropriate cells.
**9S**. This number of 3,500, that a good queen can lay per day, will seem exaggerated to many bee-keepers, owners of small hives. They will perhaps ask how such laying can be ascertained. Nothing is easier. Let us suppose that we have found a hive, with 1,200 square inches of eomb oceupied by brood. As there are about 55 worker-cells to the square inch of eomb (**217**), 27 to 28 on each side, we multiply 1,200 by 55, and we have 66,000 as the total number of cells occupied at one time. Now, it takes about 21 days for the brood to develop from the egg to the perfect insect, and we have 3,145 as the average number of eggs laid daily by that queen, in 21 days. Of course, this amount is not absolutely accurate, as the combs are not always entirely filled, but it will suffice to show, within perhaps a few hundred, the actual fecundity of the queen.
Sueh numbers can be found every year, in most of the good colonies, provided that the limited capacity of the hive will not prevent the queen from laying to the utmost of her ability.
**99**. The laying of the queen is not equal at ali seasons. She lays most during the spring and summer months, previous to the honey crop and during its flow. In late autumn and winter months, she lays but little.
**100**. Her shape is widely different from that of the cther bees. While she is not near so bulky as a drone, her body is longer; and as it is considerably more tapering, or sugar-loaf in form, than that of a worker, she has a somewhat way-like appearance. Her wings are muel shorter _in proportion_ than those of the drone or worker;1 the under part of her body is of a golden color, and the upper part usually darker than that of the other bees.2 Her motions are generally slow and narrowly, although she can, when she pleases, move with astonishing quickness. No colony can iong exist without the presence of this all-important insect; but must as surely perish, as the body without the spirit must hasten to inevitable decay.
Footnote 1: The wings of the queen are in reality longer than those of the worker.
**101**. The queen is treated with the greatest respect and affection by the bees. A circle of her loving offspring often surround her, testifying in various ways their regard; some gently embracing her with their antennae, others offering her food from time to time, and all of them politely backing out of her way, to give her a clear path when she moves over the combs. If she is taken from them, the whole colony is thrown into a state of the most intense agitation as soon as they ascertain their loss; all the labors of the hive are abandoned; the bees run wildly over the combs, and frequently rush from the hive in anxious search for their beloved mother. If they cannot find her, they return to their desolate home, and by their sorrewful tones reveal their deep sense of so deplorable a calanity. Their note at suel times, more especially when they first realize their loss, is of a peculiarly mournful character; it sounds somewhat like a succession of wailings on the minor key, and can no more be mistaken by an experienced bee-keeper, for their ordinary happy hum (**76**), than thepiteous meanings of a sick child could be confounded by the anxious mother with its joyous crowings when overflowing with health and happiness. We shall give in this connection, a description of an interesting experiment.
**102.** A populous stoek was removed, in the morning, to a new place, and an empty live put upon its stand.
Thousands of workers which were ranging the fields, or which left the old hive after its removal, returned to the familiar spot. It was truly affecting to witness their grief and despair; they flew in restless circles about the place where onee stood their happy home, entering the empty hive continually, and expressing in various ways, their lamentations over so cruel a be-reavement. Towards evening, ceasing to take wing, they roamed in restless platoons, in and out of the hive, and over its surface, as if in search of some lost treasure. A small piece of brood-comb was then given to them, containing worker-eggs and worms. The effect produced by its introduction took place much quicker than can be described. Those which first touched it raised a peculiar note, and in a moment, the comb was covered with a dense mass of bees; as they recognized, in this small piece of comb, the means of deliverance, despair gave place to hope, their restless motions and mournful voices ceased, and a eheerful hun proclaimed their delight. If some one should enter a building filled with thousands of persons tearing their hair, beating their breasts, and by piteous erries, as well as frantie gestures, giving vent to their despair, and could by a single word cause all these demonstrations of agony to give place to smiles and congratulations, the change would not be more instantaneous than that produced when the bees received the brood-comb!
The Orientals called the honey-bee "_Deborah;_ She that speaketh." Would that this little insect might speak, in words more eloquent than those of man's device, to those who reject any of the doctrines of revealed religion, with the assertion that they are so improbable, as to labor under a fatal _a priori_ objection. Do not all the steps in the development of a queen from the worker-egg, labor under the very same objection? and have they not, for this reason been formerly regarded, by many bee-keepers, as unworthy of belief? If the favorite argument of infidels will not stand the test, when applied to the wonders of the bee-hive, is it entitled to serious weight, when, by objecting to religious truths, they arrogantly take to task the Infinite Jehovah for what He has been pleaseil to do or to teach? With no more latitude than is claimed by such objectors, it were easy to prove that a man is under no obligation to believe any of the wonders of the bee-hive, even although be is himself an intelligent eye-witness to their substantial truth.
**103**. The process of rearing queen-bees will now be par ticularly described.
Early in the season, if a hive becomes very populous, and if the bees make preparations for swirning, a number of royal cells are begun, being commonly constructed upon those edges "if the combs which are not attached to the sides of the hive. These cells somewhat resemble a small pea-nut, and are about an ineh deep, and one-third of an ineh in diameter: being very thick, they require much wax for their construction. They are seldom seen in a perfect state after the hatching of the queen, as the bees eut them down to the shape of a small aeorn-cup (fig. 21.). These queen-cells, while in progress, receive a very unusual amount of attention from the workers. There is scarcely a second in which a bee is not peeping into them; and as fast as one is satisfied, another pops in her head to report progress, or increase the supply of food. Their importance to the community might easily be inferred from their being the center of so much attraction.
**104.** While the other cells open sideways, the queen-cells always hang with their mouth _downwards_. Some Apiarists think that this peculiar position affects, in some way, the development of the royal larvae; while others, having ascertained that they are uninjured if placed in any other position, consider this deviation as among the inscrutable mysteries of the bee-hive. So it seemed to us until convinced, by a more careful observation, that they open downwards simply _to save room_. The distance between the parallel ranges of comb in the hive is usually too small for the royal cells to open sideways, without interfering with the opposite cells. To economize space,
**106.** As it is not intended that the young queens should all be of the same age, the royal-cells are not all begun at the same time. It is not fully settled how the eggs are deposited in these cells. In some few instances, we have known the bees to transfer the eggs from common to queen-cells; and this may be their general method of procedure. Mr. Wagner put some queenless bees, brought from a distance, into empty combs that had lain for two years in his garret. When supplied with brood, they raised their queen in this old comb! Mr. Richard Colvin, of Baltimore, and other apiarian friends, have communicated to us instanees almost as striking. Yet, Huber has proved that bees do not ordinarily transport the eggs of the queen from one cell to another. We shall hazard the conjecture, that, in a crowded state of the hive, the queen deposits her eggs in cells on the edges of the comb, some of which are afterwards changed by the workers into royal cells. Such is a queen's instintive hated of her own kind, that it seems improbable that she should be intrusted with even the initiatory steps for securing a race of successors.
(For further partieulars concerning the raising of large numbers of queen-cells, see **515-530.**)
**107.** The egg which is destined to produce a queen-bee does not differ from the egg intended to become a worker; but the young queen-larvae are much more largely supplied with food than the other larvae; so that they seem to lie in a thiek bed of jelly, a portion of which may usually be found at the base of their cells, soon after they have hatched, while the food given to the worker-larvae after three days, and for the last days of their development, is coarser and more sparingly given, as will be seen farther on.
**108.** The effects produced on the royal larvae by their peculiar treatment are so wonderful, that they were at first rejected as idle whims, by those who had neither been eyewitnesses to them, nor acquainted with the opportunities enjoyed by others for accurate observation. They are not only contrary to all common analogies, but seem marvelouslystrange and improbable. The most important of these effects we shall briefly enumerate.
_1st._ The peculiar mode in which the worm designed for a queen is treated causes it to arrive at maturity almost one-third earlier than it it had been reared a worker. And yet, as it is to be much more fully developed, according to ordinary analogy, it should have had a slower growth.
Fig. 23.
THE STING OF THE QUEEN.
(Magnified. After Barb0.)_2d._ Its organs of reproduction are completely develope, so that it can fulfill the otilee of a mother.
_3d._ Its size, shape, and color are greatly changed; its lower jaws are shorter, its head rounder, and its abdomen without the receptacles for secreting wax; its hind legs have neither brushes nor baskets, and its siting is curved (fig. 23) and one-third longer than that of a worker.
_4th._ Its instinets are entirely changed. Reared as a worker, it would have thrust out its sting at the least provocation; whereas now, it may be pulled limb from limb without attempting to sting. As a worker, it would have treated a queen with the greatest consideration; but now, if brought in contact with another queen, it seeks to destroy her as a rival. As a worker, it would frequently have left the hive, either for labor or exercise; as a queen, it never leaves it after impregnation, except to accompany a new swarm.
_5th._ The term of its life is remarkably lengthened. As a worker, it would not have.lived more than six or seven months; as a queen, it may live seven or eight times as long. All these wonders rest on the impregnable basis of demonstration, and instead of being witnessed only by a seleet few, are now, by the use of the movable-comb hive, familiar sights to any bee-keeper.
**109.** The process of rearing queens, to meet some special emergency, is even more wonderful than the one already described. If the bees have worker-eggs, or worms not more than three days old, they make one large cell out of three, by nibbling away the partitions of two cells adjoining a third. Destroying the eggs or worms in two of these cells, they place before the occupant of the other, the usual food of the young queens; and by enlarging its cell, give it ample space for development. As a security against failure, they usually start a number of queen-cells, for several days in succession.
It was a German bee-keeper, Schiraeh, who discovered that a queen can be raised from a worker-egg. ("The New Natural and Artificial Multiplication of Bees," Bautzen, 1761.)
**110.** Duration of Development.\(-\)The eggs hatch in three days after they are laid. The small worm which is intended to produce a queen, is six days in its larval state, and seven in its transformation into a chrysalis and winged insect. These periods are not absolutely fixed; being of shorter or longer duration, according to the warmth of the alive and the care given by the bees. In from ten to sixteen days, in ten days, if the larva selected is about three days old; in sixteen, if newly laid eggs are selected, they are in possession of a new queen, in all respects resembling one reared in the natural way; while the extra in the adjoining cells, which have been developed as workers, are nearly a week longer in eoning to maturity.
**111.** The Virgin Queen.\(-\)Feeble and pale, in the first moments after her birth, the young queen, as soon as she has acquired some strength, travels over the eombs, looking for a rival, either hatched or unhatched.
**112. "Hardly had ten minutes elapsed after the young queen emerged from her cell, when she began to look for sealed queen-cells. She rushed furiously upon the first that she met, and, by dint of hard work, made a small opening in the end. We saw her drawing, with her mandibles, the silk of the cocoon, which covered the inside. But, probably, she did not succeed according to her wishes, for she left the lower end of the cell, and went to work on the upper end, where she finally made a wider opening. As soon as this was sufficiently large, she turned about, to push her abdomen into it. She made several motions, in different directions, till she succeeded in striking her rival with the deadly sting. Then she left the cell; and the bees, which had remained, so far, perfectly passive, began to enlarge the gap which she had made, and drew out the corpse of a queen just out of her nymphal shell. During this time, the victorious young queen rushed to another queen-cell, and again made a large opening, but she did not introduce her abdomen into it; this, second cell containing only a royal-pupa not yet formed. There is some probability that, at this stage of development, the nymphs of queens inspire less anger to their rivals; but they do not escape their doom; for, whenever a queen-cell has been prematurely opened, the bees throw out itsoccupant, whether worm, nymph, or queen. Therefore, as soon as the victorious queen had left this second cell, the workers enlarged the opening and drew out the nymph that it contained. The young queen rushed to a third cell; but she was unable to open it. She worked languidly and seemed tired of her first efforts.''--(Huber.)
**113.** Huber did not allow this experiment to go on any further, as he wished to use the remainder of the queen-cells. Had he left these cells untonched, the bees would have finished the work of destruction.
**114.** We have noticed repeatedly, that the queen-cells are always destroyed a few hours after the birth of the queen, unless the colony has determined to swarm. In the latter case, the workers prevent the newly-hatched queen from approaching the queen-cells, till she is old enough and strong enough to leave with the swarm. ( **113.**)
**115.** Like some human beings who cannot have their own way, she is highly offended when thus repulsed, and utters, in a quick succession of notes, a shill, angry sound, not unlike the rapid utterance of the words, "peep,""." If held in the closed hand, she will make a similar noise. To this angry note, one or more of the unhatched queen, imprisoned and nursed in their cells by the bees, answer by the sound "kooa, kooa"; the difference in their voices being due to the confinement of the latter in the cell.
These sounds, so entirely unlike the usual steady hnn of the bees, are almost infallible indications that a swarm will soon issue. They are occasionally so loud as to be heard at some distance from the hive.
The reader will understand that all these facts relate to a hive of bees, from which the old queen has been previously and suddenly removed, either by the Apiarist for some purpose, or by swarming, or accident.
**116.** Sometimes two queens hatch at the same time. We give below a translation of Huber's account in such event:
''On the 15th of May, 1790, two queens emerged from their cells, at about the same time, in one of our observing hives.
They rushed quickly upon one another, apparently in great danger, and grasped one another's antenna, so that the head, corselet and abdomen of the one, were touching the head, corselet and abdomen of the other. Had they curved the posterior extremity of their bodies, they could have stung each other, and both would have perished. But it seems that Nature has not wished that their duels should result in the death of both combatants, and that it is prescribed to queens, while in this position, to flee instantly with the greatest haste. As soon as both rivals understood that they were in danger from one another, they disentangled themselves and fled apart....A fuv minutes after, their fears ceased and they attacked one another again, with the same result. The worker bees were mnch disturbed, all this time, and more so while the combatants were separated. Each time, the bees stopped the queens in their flight, keeping them prisoners for a minute. At last, in a third attack, the stronger, or more savage, of the queens, ran to her unsuspecting rival, seized her across the wings, and, climbing upon her, pierced her with her sting. The vanquished queen, crawled languilly about, and soon after died.''--(''Non-velles Observations.'')
**117**. Although it is generally admitted that two queens cannot inhabit the same hive, it happens, sometimes, that mother and daughter are found living peaceably together, and even laying ears at the same time. This is when the bees, having noticed the decrease in fecundity of the old queen, have raised a young queen to replace her. But this abnormal state lasts only a few weeks, or a few months at ghost.
**118**. Our junior partner was, one day, hunting for a queen with his sister. "What a large and bright-colored queen!" exclained he, on finding her. "Why, no! she is dark and small," said his sister. Both were right, for there were two queens, mother and daughter, on the same comb, and not six inhees apart. At another time we were looking for an old queen, whose profileness had decreased, intending to supersedle her. To our wonder, the hive was full of brood. We found the old queen. Evidently a queen so small, so ragged and worn; could not be the mother of such a quantity of brood. We continued our search and found another queen, daughter of the first, large and plump. Had we introduced a strange queen into this hive, after having destroyed the old one, thinking that we had made the colony queenless, she would have been killed.
**119**. We could relate a number of such instances. The most interesting case was the simultaneous laying of two queens of different breeds in the same hive, one black, the other Italian. The colony had two queens, when we introduced our Italian queen. We found the younger one and killed her, and the old one was so little considered by her bees, that they accepted our imported queen and allowed both to remain together. To our astonishment there were some black bees hatehing among the pure Italians, and it was not till we accidentally discovered the old black queen that we understood the matter.
There ara more such cases than most bee-keepers would imagine, and when these happen to buyers of improved races of bees, if they are not very close observers, they are apt to accuse venders of having cheated them. Such instances make the business of queen selling quite disagreeable.
**120**. Impresnation.--The foundation of the queen bee has occupied the minds of Apiarists and savants for ages. A number of theories were advanced. If a number of drones are confined in a small box, they give forth a strong odor: Swammerdam supposed that the queen was impregnated by this sent (_aura seminalis_) of the drones. Reaumur, a renowned entomologist, in 17\(\pm\)1, thought that the mating of the queen was effected inside of the hive. Others advanced' that the ears were impregnated by the drones in the cells.
After making a number of experiments to verify these theories, and finding all false, Huber finally ascertained that, like many other insects, the queen was freundated in the open air and on the wing; and that the influence of this connection lasts for several years, and probably for life.
**121**. Five days or more after her birth, the virgin queen goes out to have intercourse with a drone. Several bee-keepers "of note, such as Neighbour of England ("Cook's Manual, 1884), and Dzierzon of Germany, wrote that a queen may go out on her marriage-flight when only three days old. The shortest time we have ever noticed between the birth of a queen and her first bridal-flight was five days, and on this we are in aeedance with Mr. Alley of Massaehusetts, one of the most extensive queen breeders in the world. The average time is six or seven days. Earlier bridal-trips are probably due to the disturbing of the colony by the Apiarist, for we have noticed that this disturbing hastens the maturity of the workers. The bridal-flight takes place about noon, at which time, the drones are flying most numerously.
**122**. On leaving her hive, the queen flies with her head turned towards it, often entering and departing several times before she finally soars into the air. Sueh precautions on the part of a young queen are highly necessary, that she may not, on her return, lose her life, by attempting, through mistake, to enter a strange hive. Many queens are lost in this way.
**123**. As the mating of the queen and the drone takes place in the air, very few persons have witnessed it. The following numeration will please our readers:
"A short time ago, during one of those pleasant days of May, I was roaming in the fields, not far from Courbevoie. Suddenly I heard a loud humming and the wind of a rapid flight brushed my check. Fearing the attack of a hornet, I made an instinctive motion with my hand to drive it away. There were two insects, one of which pursued the other with eagerness, coming from high in the air. Frightened no doubt, by my movements, they arose again, flying vertically to a great height, still in pursuit of each other. I imagined that it was a battle, and desiring to know the result, I followed, at my best, their motions in the air, and put ready to lay hold of them, as soon as they would be within reach.
"I did not wait long. The pursuing insect rose above the other, and suddenly fell on it. The shock was certainly violent, for both united, dropped with the awiftness of an arrow and * **The QUEEN.**