BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
One of the most interesting paragraphs in this chapter is that referring to the glandular organs, which we find very well explained both as regards their structure and functions. Ramdohr, in 1811, discovered a pair of salivary glands in the thorax, and two in other pairs were discovered by Meckel r846. These have been fully described by Siebold. Their functions are well known. Still Cheshire says, on page 72, "and yet dense ignorance respecting them is common to the present day, even such an accomplished German apiculturist as Ilerlepsch failing to mention them." Had Cheshire looked at page 136 of _Die Biene_, by Berlepsch, he would have found that not only does this distinguished German mention them, but that he also describes their functions. Schiemenz goes into the matter very carefully, and in an elaborate monograph, beautifully illustrated, he endeavors to show that they produce a secretion which is the food of the larvae and queens. This view has been proved to be incorrect, and Schonfeld has fully demonstrated that the food of the larvae is, as Dufour first pointed out, digested by the workers. Moreover, any doubt as to this being the case has been removed by the experiments of Dr. A. de Planta, who shows that the clyle food of queen, drone and worker larvae varies. Professor Cook explains this very clearly, and then goes on to treat of the honey stomach with its four-lipped mouth, and shows how the bee can either feed herself or store honey at will. We ourselves do not believe that the glands supply the larval food exclusively, although we think that secretion from these is added to the chyle food given them. Also, why do the queen and drones have glands? for if they get food as a secretion they do not want them. This is how Professor Cook sums up the matter : "Before leaving the subject, it seems well to remark that it would appear that the old view of Dufour, so ably advocated by Pastor Schonfeld, is, despite the arguments and researches of Schiemenz, the correct one. The queen, drone and larvae do not get this food as a secretion -- a sort of milk -- but it is rather the digested pollen or chyle modified, as the bees desire, by varying their own food. In addition to this albuminous food the queen and drones also take much honey ; thus they need the glands which furnish the ferment that changes cane to reducible sugar, and they have them. If all honey were fully digested, then the drones and queen would not need any glands at all. The fact that the pollen that the larvae do get is partially digested is further proof that this is chyme, or partially digested pollen."
The legs of bees, with their antennae -- cleaners, claws, spines and beautiful pulvilli, are fully described and illustrated, as are also the mouth parts and sting. He does not believe that the poison is dropped into the cells to preserve the honey, according to Dr. Mullenhoff's theory, but thinks the formic acid in honey doubtless comes from the honey stomach.
Chapter III. is devoted to swarming and natural methods of increase. Alluding to the piping of queens, he agrees with Landois that this is a true voice made in the cells, and even also by a queen whose wings are cut off. He says it is usually asserted that bees do no gathering on the day they swarm previous to leaving the hive, but that is not true. Mr. Doolittle thinks they just as active as on other days. The reason for clustering of the swarm, he says, is, no doubt, to give the queen a rest before her long flight.
Speaking of honey, he says it is "digested nectar." This nectar contains much water, though the amount is very variable -- a mixture of several kinds of sugar and a small amount of nitrogenous matter in the form of pollen. Nectar is peculiar in the large amount of sucrose cane sugar which it contains. Often there is nearly or quite as much of this as of all the other sugars. We cannot, therefore, give the composition of honey ; it will be as various as the flowers from which it is gathered. "Again, the thoroughness of the digestion will affect the composition of honey." He thinks it likely that incomplete digeston and the possible variation in nectar make the determination by the analyst, either by use of the polariscope or chemical reagents, a matter of doubt. He goes very fully into the action of honey under the polariscope, and shows that too much reliance should not be placed on this test. He finds the specific gravity varies from 1.40 to 1.50. Honey will generally granulate when the temperature is reduced below 70\({}^{\circ}\). Some honey seems to remain liquid indefinitely. Granulated honey is almost certainly pure.
In speaking of honeycomb he says : "The late Prof. J. Wyman demonstrated that an exact hexagonal cell does not exist. He also showed that the size varies, so that in a distance of ten worker-cells there may be a variation of one cell in diameter, and this in natural, not distorted cells." "This variation of one-fifth of an inch in ten cells is extreme, but a variation of one-tenth of an inch is common." We have ourselves carried out a large series of measurements which fully confirm this, and we hope soon to be able to publish the results. He says, " as we have also maintained, that bees change from worker to drone-cells, not by any system, but simply by enlarging and contracting. The transition cells are usually of four ross-although sometimes there are two or as many as eight." Prof. Cook says : "An English writer criticises Langstroth's representation of these irregular cells, and adds that the angles can never be less than 100\({}^{\circ}\). This is far from the truth, as I have found many cells where an angle was considerably less than this." We have also got a large number of impressions taken direct from the comb showing that Langstroth is right. Some combs which we last year exhibited at the Conversazione of the British Bee-Keepers' Association had several rows of perfectly square cell which would represent angles of 90\({}^{\circ}\).
Referring to the number of cells to the square inch, he says : "A recent English author, after stating the diameter of the cells adds : "The statement, many times made, that twenty-five and sixteen of these respectively is erroneous, as they are not square." He says these are 2913 and 18178. After many counts he thinks he should have used his eyes rather than his mathamatics, for he finds worker-cells per square inch vary from 25 to 29, and drone-cells from 17 to 19 per square inch. Our English author seems quite to have ignored the fact that because of this great variation and for convenience of calculation the above figures were adopted as an average."
A very interesting paragraph on pollen and propolus concludes the first part of the work, which occupies 163 pages. It is not rambling and spun out, like the writings of some authors, but is concise, clear, and contains all of any value to the bee-keeper. It is also written in a Christian spirit towards those from whom the author differs.
The second part is practical, and is devoted to the management of the apiary. Here the principal hives, appliances and various methods in use in America are described very fully and illustrated. In this part there is also much new matter added, making it very complete. The Langstroth and Heddon hives have full justice done them, as well as other hives in use in America. Our English bee-keepers will find much use:ul information, although some of the appliances and methods may not be suited to this country.
All Prof. Cook says as to management of hives for surplus is as useful for us as for our American friends, but we do not encounter the same difficulties in wintering as they do, therefore we do not need to take the same measures for the protection of our bees. Our methods of open driving and transferring are also simpler than theirs. The chapters following are full of practical information, and from them much may be learned. Honey plants are treated more completely than in any other work ; diseases and enemies of bees, with what is known about them, have also proper attention.
Prof. Cook is the leading scientific authority on all that concerns bees in America, and, as most of our readers know, is a pleasant writer. Being Professor of Entomology at the State Agricultural College in Michigan, he has the opportunity of testing methods and appliances at the experimental apiary attached to the College, some of the vantages of this being apparent in the book before us. Unlike a recent author, who not only jealously witholds the names of many of the inventors or advocates of particular methods, but in many cases claims them as his own, thinking no doubt that he is the man, and that wisdom will perish with him, Prof. Cook is scrupulously particular in giving names. This is as it should be, and we think it shows a much more noble spirit to give glory unto whom it is due than to rob those entitled to it. Altogether the work is a great improvement on the former editions, and is one that no bee-keeper should be without. It is printed in clear type, on good paper, and contains 222 illustrations, The price is 6s., and Mr. Huckle is agent for its sale here.
and methods as important to progressive bee-culture as did Napier to ocean travelers, but a few years ago.
We all are aware that the survey precedes the building of the railroad, and the reconnaissance locates the field and line of battle. Just so is it with us at this time. Prof. Cook knows the difficulties to be encountered --he has ''studied the waves of adversity'' which have repeatedly dashed over our chosen pursuit, and caused much consternation. He has ''surveyed the line'' upon which it is to be hoped we can all ride to success ; and located the plan of battle which may give us the victory. We shall anxiously await the result of his meditations.
**BEE-PASTURAGE.**
One of the cardinal points is that of providing pasture for the bees. He proposes to plant ten acres of the Rocky Mountain bee-plant--to plant broadcast, and let it take care of and perpetuate itself. This matter of planting for honey has been a pet theory for years, with me, and I hail the day for an _experiment_ on a large scale, feeling assured that it is one of ''the winning cards.''
Those depending on the wild pastures for bee-forage should not fail to plant for honey, and thus secure a good crop every season, as the years come and go. If _drowth_ comes and finds them depending on streams which dry up, they are then the sufferers.
They should have pastures for the bees, with plants having deep roots to go and seek the moisture below, or else have pastures that can be watered from convenient wells or ponds, and thus aid Nature to secrete the nectar in the dry times.
Every season teaches some new and useful lesson. Those who heed these lessons are on the rise. Those who do not are on the down grade. Will apiarists be content to repeat each year the mistakes of the former one? If they are wise, No. If they are heedless and unprogressive, Yes.
**HONEY ADURTAATION.**
It has been asked here and elsewhere if extracted honey is now being able to be able to detect the effect of the honey.
It has been asked here and elsewhere if extracted honey is now being able to detect the effect of the honey.
## 10.3 The Bee-Keepers' Magazine.
Bees require a breathing apparatus, quite as well as ourselves, and I think it will astonish you when I tell you how complicated it is. In the first place bees, have no lungs like a horse or bird. They do not depend upon one organ to supply the oxygen necessary to enable the several parts to perform their functions. Before going further let me explain that the air we breathe is composed of three gases, one of which, oxygen, is the element that sustain _li/e_, as well as the fire which burns in the grate. Life may be called a burning process.
In ourselves, our blood comes in contact with oxygen within the lungs and then travels by the most delicate channels to every part of our body. In the bee there is a blood pump like our heart. It is called the "'dorsal vessel," and resembles somewhat an injector such as is found on every locomotive, but depends on the opening and shutting of valves, for its successful operation. It leads the blood received, through the several openings in it, to the head, whence it oozes back through the whole body.
Instead of lungs, bees have what is called a tracheal system--a trachea is merely an air tube--and these air tubes travel in every conceivable direction within the body. They receive the outside air through openings in the body, called spiracles. Adult bees have fourteen of these openings. The spiracles open into large sacs, from which branch out the air tubes before spoken of. As I before said the blood does not receive the oxygen from lungs, and hence these air tubes must perform this life-giving function. Every part, every member, however small, however delicate, must be reached by these breathing tubes. Bees breathe with a regular motion, but instead of an expanding and contracting of the chest, it is a lengthening and shortening of the abdomen. Watch a tired bee stop at the entrance before going in, and you will see him pant away like a tired horse.
You know if a rubber tube is bent short it will "' kink." To prevent this kinking in the suction hose of a fire engine, a spiral wire is run between the outside and inside coatings. Man may invent, but he will find often that his inventions are very old in God's patent office. Here in the bee we find tubes just like your engine suction-hose. Each trachea is formed of threads wound close together. When the bee twists and turns its body, how important it is that the air tubes shall not kink, hence the beautiful spiral construction. Could anything be more wonderful. In man the tracheal system is not so elaborate as I before said, and the blood in his case, performs the functions of the multitudinous minute air tubes which per meat or traverse every portion of the bee's anatomy.
Take a good sized pill box and fill it half full of wax. Catch a worker, and kill it with ether, chloroform or alcohol, and permit the killing fluid to evaporate. With a hair-pin, heated over a lamp, make a little bath of melted wax in a convenient spot in the pill box, and having clipped off the wings and legs of the bee, drop it on its back in the little bath aforesaid. The bee should not be more than half immersed in the wax, which is then allowed to cool. When cold, which will be in about a minute, pour water over the bee until it is covered. In a good light--say sunlight--with a needle knife (made by heating the point of a coarse sewing needle until red hot hammering it with a tack hammer, on the face of a flat iron, and after tempering by heating cherry red and plunging in water, sharpened on a hone, and inserted in a match, for a handle), and a fine needle inserted in another match, go to work and cut away the under part of the rings of the abdomen, and carefully lift them off. If you have good eyesight or if not, by aid of a cheap lense (magnifying glass) of good construction you will be astonished at the sight before you. There lie the honey'sack, digesting stomach, bile tubes and intestine. Running in all directions, but starting from the sides, you will note fine white tubes branching out into smaller, and these organs into still smaller, until lost to sight. These are the air tubes I have been talking about, and you will note that they not only encircle the digesting stomach, but are wound around the other parts in sight. If your lense be strong enough, and you have not ruptured it in your dissection, you may find the nerve system, which lies just under, or when the bee is right side up, just over the wax producing portion of the abdomen and which runs the whole length of the bee from tail to brain. You will find it composed of two ''cords'' almost transparent, with occasional bulgings in which the two ''cords'' are joined. In and about this very nerve system you will find the fine breathing tubes before spoken of. Up into the compound eye, with its thousands of lenses, run other breathing tubes, every lense being supplied with oxygen in this manner, so that its functions may be performed.
Cheshire tells us that some of the trachea, or breathing tubes, are so small that a quarter of a million bundle together would hardly be larger than a human hair!
Let me advise those who care a straw about such matters as I have spoken of, to buy what is known as the ''Handy Dissecting Microscope," with three lenses, from Messrs. Bausch & Lomb, -of Rochester, N. Y. I would advise the buying of one with rubber mounting like a pocket lense, as it can be shut up and placed in the vest pocket without danger of hurting the lense. The cost is $1.50 and a pair of nickel-plated pliers are furnished with the instrument. These microscopes magnify from five to twenty-five diameters ; that is, if a thing is 1-too of an inch across, the highest power will make it look % of an inch wide. Let me urge parents to get their sons interested in nature. Did you ever know a boy interested in insects and flowers to go to the bad? Never let him forget that, though the bee is included by such men as Tyndall under the head of machines, yet there is an Engineer running it whose worker-bee a modified or aborted ovipis, utilized by the insect as an offensive and defensive weapon (the only one at its command), exactly in the way as other insects have been known to use _their_ ovipositors, depositing in the wound a quantity of corrosive poisonous fluid, similar in its torical properties to that pumped under the skin by the bee.
When we expect the perfect use of the different parts of any animal, we presuppose that we have a perfect one to deal with ; and as we know the worker-bee to be an imperfect example (inasmuch as its reproductive organs are aborted and undeveloped), is it an unfair assumption that the anatomical structure of the sting, being so identical, mechanically, with ovipositing organs of other insects, its use of this organ as a sting is, on the face of it, faulty and imperfect, especially when we observe the astounding fact that such a use of it ends in death, tearing from its fixing and base, in a rude repulsive way, part of the abdomen and its contents? This always seems to us a cruel and somewhat unnatural arrangement. Depend upon it that when we find an untimely death resulting from the exercise of such a natural impulse as self-defence, there is outage on, or interference with, Nature's law ; and an inquiry into such an abnormal state of things may assist us in finding the true uses of the parts under consideration. If the ostrich by using its two claws, the deer its antlers, the bull its horns, lost their lives as a necessary sequel of a defensive effort by a coarse rending away of these very weapons, we might, I think, very properly come to the conclusion that they were intended originally for some other use ; in the case of the reindeer, for instance, the horns are modified in form to plough up the snow in a food search, or to clear away for the herd through the bush, as in the case of many other deer.
I know you may quote against my assumption the fatal effect on the drone of a somewhat similar rending of its structure, but the analogy scarcely holds good, for with him we are dealing with an admittedly _per/ect_ insect per-event.
I show how to use the same argument as in the case of a _impefect_ one--in the case of its inability to take part in reproducing its kind, how-ever well it may indirectly aid others in so doing, just as the worker is a necessary help in reproduction, by nectar and pollen-gathering, brood-rearing, cell-building, and so on, yet after all she is only an adjunct.
We find the queen humble-bee performing all these labors herself until she has a family of workers round her as deputies, still they are only reliefs, lady-helps.
We must, I think, consider the sting of the queen, with its curved form and barbs differing so much from those on the worker's sting as a true ovipositor, _the_ perfect instrument in the perfect bee, exactly corresponding (as it does): to the saw-like ovipositor of other hypmenoptera ; we must put it in opposition to the imperfect instrument either fautility used by the worker for another purpose than that originally intended, or in process of adaptation or modification. We find the ovipositor of the queen curved towards the under part of the abdomen, the barbs fewer in number, and not so sharp and formidable as those on the worker's sing ; the ovipositor (or sting) may thus be withdrawn when used in queen-fights. Here, again, is another bit of evidence against con:ideing the instrument as a sting :--The queen not using it when attacked by workers or any enemies such as ourselves when we handle or even injure her.
One cannot think, then, of the queen and worker being provided with such a complex and beautiful piece of mechanism, attached to which are the highly sensitive palpi ; the toothed sheath, the marvellous rods and slides, the barbs and poison apertures, the poison-bag, with its valves and admirable pumping arrangements, the oil-glands providing a lubricant which prevents the poison from clogging the darts, and (mark this) thus enabling them to be brought into use again and again at the need of The Bee-Keeper' Magazine. 373
The insect, the delicate poison-glands descreting the wonderful preparation from the blood and storing it in such an intricate reservoir,--I say we cannot think of all this work remaining dormant and useless in the queen, excepting on the occasion of a few fights spread over a few years, or in the case of the worker existing only as a standing menace of death if brought into play, especially when we remember that for every one bee using its siting as a sting in its wild or natural state, very many thousands die without ever so using it. It is not, I hope, blasphemy to say the Creator does not waste His work in any such way.
We must look around for as regular a use of this whole apparatus, as we find when we regard the tongue or the pollen-clearing and collecting containers. We cannot attend the queen in her movements on the cell-base during egg-laying, but we may 'clumsy try to imitate her. In this effort I take apiece of foundation : and make a scratch with a needle. I next apply strong sulphuric acid, the same diluted, and poison from a bee's sting, two different parts of it, and I find the joint action of the wax and acid produce a stickiness of the surface, to which my little bits of white thread (resembling bees' eggs) adhere, and remain fixed by their ends quite as firmly as if placed there by the queen herself, though the implement of the queen is much in advance of mine, inasmuch as she can apply the corrosive fluid at the time of making the scratch by slightly bending the abdomen forward, or with her curved ovipositor she can use the side barbs as the saw-fly uses its saws, depositing in the groove her poison just as the saw-fly does. This discovery filled me with delight, for I could by analogy now see the use for what had hitherto seemed almost useless organs in the mother bee. I could also dispense with the generally received notion that the egg is provided with an adhesive secretion on its extrusion (but by what glands secreted we are not told). The necessity for the extremely sensitive palpi of the sting, so as to enable the bee to feel about on the sides formed by the lozenges of the cell-base for a suitable spot on which the egg may be placed, thus becomes evident. Let the queen use her sting and poison in a contest with an opponent if you like, but we can no more call that its true office than we can say the true use of the hind-legs of a horse is as a means of attack and defence. Well, as the horse uses its heels, the worker-bee uses its sting, its old ovipositor, for which it has no use other than those it can adopt it to. My idea that the sting is used by the queen as a groove-former, and the poison spread on wax as an adhesive compound, to which the egg is attached on being laid, is somewhat borne out by the experiment of Mr. C. N. Abbott. This well-known practically scientific bee-keeper found that when he gave wooden-based foundation, the queen refused to lay in cells.