BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
A vigilant eye should be kept upon every colony that has not an impregnated queen; and when its queen is about a week old it should be examined, and if she has become fertile, she will usually be found supplying one of the central combe with eggs. If neither queen nor eggs can be found, and there are no certain indications that she is lost, the hive should be examined a few days later, for some queens are longer in becoming impregnated than others, and it is often difficult to find an unimpregnated one, on account of her adroit way of hiding among the bees.
If the Apariaan relies on artificial swarming, he may deprive his queens of their wings, as soon as they are impregnated.! In a large Apary, where many swarms might otherwise come off together, this will greatly di minish the labor and perplexity of the bee-keeper. I have devised a way of doing this, so as to designate _the age of the queens_ :--With a pair of scissors, let the wings, on one side, of a young queen be carefully cut off: when the hives are examined next year, let one of her two remaining wings be removed, and the last one the third year.
The fertility of queens usually decreases after the second year, and before they die of old age the contents of their spermathecas sometimes become exhausted, and they lay only drone-eggs.4 Unless, therefore, queens are unusually fertile, it will be safer to remove them after they have entered on their third year,!
Footnote 4: "Questions differ much as to the degree of their fertility. Those are best which deposit their eggs with uniform regularity, leaving no cells unsuppliedas the brood hatches at the same time on the same range of comb, which can be again supplied: the queen thus losing no time in searching for empty cells."Jrgens. In bee-life, as well as in human affairs, those who are systematic, ordinarily accomplish the most.
A young queen, or a sealed royal cell, should be given to a colony, the second day after the old one is removed--for if they raise a queen from the egg, she may find nearly all the cells filled with honey or bee-bread, and the population greatly reduced.
Early in October--when some brood is usually found in every healthy stoek, and when all the colonies should be examined, with reference to the coming Winter--if any are found to be queenless, they should be united to other stocks. If, however, the old queens were seasonably removed, and the stocks that raised young ones were properly attended to, few queenless colonies will be found in which enamel and perfume two-thirds of the sheep-waik. This petest can seriously raise the queen in a small, grape fly-catch, and then elips off their wings. He assured me that he never lost a swarm from the day of this discovery to the day he saw me, which was, I think, five years after."--9, 77.
Footnote 5: "Piesel says, that a queen that has suffered from hunger for 34 hours never recovers her wanted fertility. I shall show, in another place, that after recovering from severe cold, queens cease to lay worker-eggs.
Footnote 6: "Questions differ much as to the degree of their fertility. Those are best which deposit their eggs with uniform regularity, leaving no cells unsuppliedas the brood hatches at the same time on the same range of comb, which can be again supplied: the queen thus losing no time in searching for empty cells."Jrgens. In bee-life, as well as in human affairs, those who are systematic, ordinarily accomthe Fall. At this season, or as soon as forage fails, such stocks may usually be detected by the "incessant attempts of other colonies to rob them."
The neglect of a colony to expel its drones, when they are destroyed in other hives, is always a suspicious sign, and generally an indication that it has no queen. _Healthy stoeks almost always destroy the drones, as soon as forage becomes scarce._ In the vicinity of Philadelphia, there were only a few days in June, 1858, when it did not rain, and in that month the drones were destroyed in most of the hives. When the weather became more propitious, others were bred to take their place. In seasons when the honey-harvest has been abundant and long protracted, I have known the drones to be retained, in Northern Massachusetts, until the 1st of November. If bees could gather honey and could swarm the whole year, the drones would probably die a natural death.
The importance of preventing the over-production of drones has been corroborated by the discovery of Mr. P. J. Mahan, that those _leaving_ the hive have quite a large drop of honey in their stomachs--while those _returning_ from their pleasure excursions, having digested their dinners, are prepared for a new supply.12
Footnote 12: _Aristotte (History of Animals, Book IX, Chap. XI), speak of the troregularite and thick combe built by some stocks, and the superabundance of drones hosting from them. He notices, also, the destruction of the drones when he-storage fills, and describes their excursions as follows \(\sim\)"The drones, when they go abroad, rise into the slr with a circular flight, as though to take violent excelues, and when they have taken enough, return home, and gurg themselves with honey." Columbia says, that the proper time for removing the surplus honey is when the bees expel the drouc._
"The drone," says quaint old Butler, "Is a gross, stingless bee, that spendeth his time in glutony and idleness. For howsoever he brave it, with his round velvet cap, his side gown, his full p Lo88 OF THE QUREN. 295
He worketh not at all, either at home or abroad, and yet spendeth as much as two laborers: you shall never find his raw without a drop of the purest nectar. In the heat of the day he flieth abroad, aloft and about, and that with no small noise, as though he would do some great act; but it is only for his pleasure, and to get him a stomach, and then returns he presently to his cheer."
It has already been stated (p. 51), that the bee-keepers in Aristotle's time were in the habit of destroying the excess of drones. They excluded them from the hive--when taking their accustomed airing--by contracting the entrance with a kind of basket work. Butler recommends a similar trap, which he calls a "_drone-jot_." The arrangement used in my hives to prevent swarming, will serve also to exclude the drones. Towards dark, or early in the morning--when clustered, for warmth, in the portico--they may be brushed into a vessel of water, and given to chiekens, which will soon learn to devour them. In excluding them from hives having an unimpregnated queen, the entrance must be adjusted to let her pass.
It is interesting to notice the actions of the drones when they are excluded from the hive. For a while they eagerly search for a wider entrance, or strive to force their bulky bodies through the narrow gateway. Finding this to be in vain, they solicit honey from the workers, and when refreshed, renew their efforts for admission, expressing, all the wille, with plaintive notes, their deep sense of such a eruel exclusion. The bee-keeper, however, is deaf to their entreaties; it is better for him that they should stay without, and better for them--if they only knew it--to perish by his hands, than to be starved or butehered by the unfeeling workers. With movable-comb hives, pity and profit may be perfectly reconciled.
10"(p. 51), by removing all excess of drone-comb from the breeding apartment.*
Footnote *: If a member of drones are confined in a small box, they give forth a strong odor: Bwammerdam supposed that the queen was impregnated by this sent ( _overa semidefinite*_) of the drones.
In the Summer of 1853, I discovered that after a queen is taken from a paper cone (p. 159), the bees will run in and out of it for a long time, thus proving that they recognize her peculiar secret. It is this odor which causes them to run inquiringly over our hands, after we have caught a queen, and over any spot where she alighted when her swarm came forth.
This scent of the queen was probably known in Aristotle's time, who says: " When the bees swarm, if the king (queen) is lost, we are told that they all search for him, and follow him with their sagacious smell, until they find him." Wildman says: " The scent of her body is so attractive to them, that the slightest touch of her along any place or substance will attract the bees to it, and induce them to pursue any path she takes."!
The intelligent bee-keeper will readily perceive not only how the loss of queens may be remedied, by the movable-comb hive, but how any operation, which in other hives is performed with difficulty, if at all, is in this rendered easy and certain. No hive, however, can make the ignorant or negligent very successful, unless they live in a region where the climate is so propitious, and the honey resources so abundant, that bees will prosper in spite of mismanagement or neglect.
Those who have not the leisure or disposition to manage their own bees, may, with my hives, entrust the care of them to competent persons. The business of the gardener seems naturally associated with that of the Aparian ; and practical gardeners may find the management of bees, for their employers, quite a lucrative part of their profession. With but little trouble, they can make new colonies, remove the surplus honey, and on the approach of Winter prepare the bees to resist its rigors.
[FIGURE:S4.F1][EN* 328 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE.
## Chapter XII
THE Bee-Moth, and other remarks of BEBS-DBERASBS
of BEBS.
The Bee-Moth (_Tinea mellonella_) is mentioned by Aristotle, Virgil, Columbia and other ancient authors, as one of the most formidable enemies of the honey-bee. Modern writers, almost without exception, have regarded it as the plague of their Apiaries; while in this country its ravages have been so fatal, that the majority of cultivators have abandoned bee-keeping in despair. Most of the contrivances devised against it have proved worthless, and not a few have aided its nefarious designs.
Having closely studied its habits, I am able to show how _careful_ bee-keepers may protect their colonies from being ruined by its assaults. The _coreless_ will obtain a "_mouth-proof_" hive only when the sluggard finds a "_need-proof_" soil. Before stating how to circumvent the moth, its habits will be briefly described.
Swammerdam speaks of two species of the bee-moth (called in his time the "_bee-eof_"), one much larger than the other. Linnaeus and Reaumur also describe two kinds -- _Tinea cereana_ and _Tinea mellonella_. Most writers suppose the formgr to be the male, and the latter the female of the same species. The following description is abridged from Dr. Harris' Report on the Insects of Massachusetts :
" Very few of the _Tinea_ exceed or even equal it in size. In its adult state it is a winged moth, or miller, measuring, from the head to the tip of the closed wings,from five-eighths to three-quarters of an inch in length, and its wings expand from one inch and one-tenth to one ineh and four-tenths. The fore-wings shut together flatly on the top of the back, slope steeply downwards at the sides, and are turned up at the end somewhat like the tail of a fowl. The female is much larger than the male, and much darker-colored. There are two broods of these insects in the course of the year. Some winged moths of the first brood begin to appear towards the end of April or early in May--earlier or later, according to climate and season. Those of the second brood are most abundant in August; but some may be found between these periods, and even much later." No writer with whom I am acquainted has given such an exact description of the difference between the sexes, that they can always be readily distinguished. The beautiful wood-cuts of the moths, larvae, and coeoons, which I present to my readers, were drawn from nature, by Mr. M. M. Tidd, of Boston, Mass, and engraved by Mr. D. T. Smith, of the same city. A large number of specimens were furnished to Mr. Tidd, and great accuracy has been secured. He seems first to have noticed that the _tongue of the female projects_ so as to resemble a beak, while that of the male is very short." While some males are larger than some females, and some females much lighter-colored than the average of males, and occasionally some males as dark as the darkest females, _the peculiarity of the tongue of the female is so marked, that she may always be distinguished at a glance_.
The tongue of the female is double, and the line of separation is shown in the figure in which she is represented as lying on her back. Both male and female were accurately copied from specimens of the average size and form.
In this sketch, an under-sized male is represented.* His color was so dark that, but for the tongue, he might easily have been mistaken for a female of a different and much smaller species.*
These insects are seldom seen on the wing, unless started from their lurking places about the hives, until towards dark. On cloudy days, however, the female may be noticed endeavoring, before sunset, to gain an entrance into the hives. "If disturbed in the daytime," says Dr. Harris, "they open their wings a little, and spring or glide swiftly away, so that it is very difficult to seize or to hold them.* In the evening, they take wing, when the bees are at rest, and hover around the hive, till, having found the door, they go in and lay their eggs." "If the approach to the Apiracy," says Bevan, "be observed of a moonlight evening, the moths will be found flying or running round the hives, watching an opportunity to enter, whilst the bees that have to guard the entrances against their intrusion, will be seen acting as vigilant sentinels, performing continual rounds near this important post, extending their antennae to the utmost, and moving them to the right and left alternately. "Wee to the unfortunate moth that comes within their reach!" It is curious," says Huber," to observe how artfully the moth knows how to profit by the disadvantage of the bees, which require much light for seeing objects, and the precautions taken by the latter in reconnoitering and expelling so dangerous an enemy."
"Those that are prevented from getting within the hive, lay their eggs in cracks on the outside ; and the little worm-like caterpillars hatched therefrom, easily creep into the hive through the cracks, or gnaw a passage for themselves under the edges of it."#--Dr. Harris.
"As soon as hatched, the worm encloses itself in a case of white silk, which it spins around its body ; at first it is like a mere thread, but gradually increases in size, and, during its growth, feeds upon the cells around it, for which purpose it has only to put forth its head, and find its wants supplied. It devours its food with great avidity, and, consequently, increases so much in bulk, that its gallery soon becomes too short and narrow, and the creature is obliged to thrust itself forward and lengthen the gallery, as well to obtain more room as to procure an additional supply of food. Its augmented size exposing it to attacks from surrounding foes, the wary insect fortifies its new abode with additional strength and thickness, by blending with the filaments of its sixteen covering a mixture of wax and its own excrement, for the external barrier of a new gallery,* the _interior_ and partitions of
which are lined with a smooth surface of white silk, which admits the occasional movements of the insect, without injury to its delicate texture. In performing these operations, the insect might be expected to meet with opposition from the bees, and to be gradually rendered more assailable as it advanced in age. It never, however, exposes any part but its head and neck, both of which are covered with stout helmets, or scales, impenetrable to the siting of a bee, as is the compoeition of the galleries that surround it."--Bevan.
The worm is here given of full size, and with all its peculiarities carefully represented. The sealy head is shown in one of the worms; while the three pairs of claw-like fore legs, and the five pairs of hind ones, which are suckers, are clearly delineated. The tail is also furnished with two of these suckers. The breathing holes are seen on the back.
board and the edges of the hive. It can pass through a very small crevice, and as soon as safe from the bees, it will begin to enlarge its cramped tenement, by gnawing into the solid wood. The time required for the larva to break forth into winged insects, varies with the temperature to which they are exposed, and the season of the year when they spin their cocoons.* I have known them to spin and hatch in ten or eleven days; and they often spin so late in the Fall, as not to emerge until the ensuing Spring.
The male usually keeps away from the hive, but the female seeks in every way to gain an entrance. If the stock is weak and discouraged, she lays her eggs! among the combs, or inserts them in the corners or crevices, or among the refuse wax and bee-breach on the bottom-board, where her progeny can be concealed and nourished till they are able to reach the combs.
In Plate XX., Fig. 57, Mr. Tidd has faithfully delineated, and Mr. Smith skillfully engraved, the black mass of tangled webs, cocoons, excrements, and perforated combs, which may be found in a hive where the worms have completed their work of destruction.
The entrance of the moth into a hive and the ravages committed by her progeny, foreibly illustrate the havoc which vice often makes when admitted to prey unchecked on the precious treasures of the human heart. Only some tiny eggs are deposited by the insidious moth, which give birth to very innocent-looking worms ; but let them once get the control, and the fragrance* of the honied dome is soon corrupted, the hum of happy industry stilled, and everything useful and beautiful ruthlessly destroyed.
The honey-bee is not a native of the New World, and, when brought here, was called by the Indians the consecutively, like those of the queen bee, but are found in the dets, fully and perfectly formed, a few days after the female moth emerges from the cocoon. She deposits them, usually, in little clusters on the combs. If we wish to witness the discharge of the eggs, it is only necessary to select a female moth, two or three days old, with finger and thumb, by the bead-else will constantly reotrude her ovipitor, and the eggs may then be distinctly seen, passing along through the semi-transparent dute. (See Plate XIII, Fig. 44, C).
* Last Summer I heard a bee-moth larva in a small box. It spun a cocoon, from which issued a female moth. Ifedding her by the bead, I allowed her to deposit eggs on a piece of honey-comb. Three weeks afterwards, I examined the comb, and found on it some web and two larva. The eggs were all shrivelled and dried up, except a few which were perforated, and from which, I suppose, the larvae emerged. This appears to be a case of true parthenogenesis in the be-month.*-Translated from Dr. Dismore _by 8_, Waxer. As among hundreds of specimens furnished to Mr. Tidd very few males were noticed, I conjectured that the eggs of these females would hatch important progression, and took measures to have Dr. Joseph Leldy investigate the subject. It seems, however, that in this matter, our German brethren have the priority.
* The odor of the moth and larva is very offensive.
white man's fly.* Longfellow, in his " Song of Hlawatha," in describing the advent of the European to the New World, makes his Indian warrior say of the bee and the white clover :--
"Wheresoo'er they move, before them
Swarms the stinging fly, the Almo,
Swarms the bee, the honey-maker;
Wheresoe'er they tread, beneath them
Springs a flower unknown among us,
Springs the White Man's Foot in blossom."
As the bees flourished for years undisturbed by the moth, it seems probable that it was not brought over in the first hives, but at a much later period. In whatever way it was introduced, it has so multiplied in our propitious climate of hot summers, that few districts are now exempt from its ravages.
Fifty years ago our markets were proportionally better supplied with honey than they now are, and large tubs filled with snow-white combs were a common sight.
Many Apiarians contend that newly-settled countries are most favorable to the bee; and an old German adage runs thus :--
"Bells' ding dong,
And choral song,
Deter the bee
From industry :
But hoot of owl,
And'wolf's long bowl,'
Inette to moil
And steady t-all."
"Ite suprising in what conditions swarms the bee have overspeed the far West, within but a moderate number of years. The Indians consider them the haringens of the white man, as the buffalo is of the red man, and say that, in proportion as the bee advances, the Indian and the buffalo retire. They have been the heralds of civilization, steadily preceding it as it advances from the Atlantic beders; and some of the ancient settings of the West pretend to give the very year when the honey-bee first crossed the Mussiabol. At present it awarnOthers affirm that our colonies are too numerous to find sufficient food. That neither of these reasons account for the change, will be subsequently shown. Others lay all the blame on the moth, and others still, on our departure from the old-fashioned mode of keeping bees.
It is undoubtedly true that the moth so super-abounds in many districts, that no profit can be derived from managing bees in the simple way which was once so successful. Often the old bee-keeper, after hiving his swarms, never looked at them again until the Fall, when all the colonies which had too few bees, or were too light to survive the Winter, were condemned to the brimstone-pit. Some of the heaviest were also killed for the sake of their honey, and the _very best_ were reserved for stock hives.
In a newly-settled country, where weeds are almost unknown, the farmer who plants his corn and "lets it alone," may often harvest a remunerative crop. If, in process of time, as the weeds increase, he continues to plough and plant in the "good old way," he will only be laughed at for, complaining that the pestifervous weeds have caused his corn to "run out,". And yet, with equal fully, many bee-keepers do not understand why plans which answered when moths were unknown or were very scarce, cannot be made to succeed at the present time.
If the old plans had been rigidly adhered to, the ravages of the moth, destructive as they must have been, would never have been as great as they now are. _The use of patent hives has contributed to fill the land veith_the devouring pest._ Ever since their introduction, the notion has almost universally prevailed that stocks must not, under any circumstances, be voluntarily destroyed; and hence, thousands of colonies, which, under the old system, were mercifully killed, are now left to perish by slow starvation, while thousands more are so feeble in the Spring that they serve only to breed a host of moths to be the pest of the Apiary.
The truth is, that improved hives, without an improved system of management, have done, on the whole, more harm than good. In no country have they been so extensively used as in our own, and no where has the moth so completely gained the ascendeeney. Just so far as they have discouraged ordinary bee-keepers from the old plan of "taking up" their weak swarms in the Fall, just so far have they extended "aid and comfort" to the moth. Some of them might, unquestionably, be so managed as, in ordinary cases, to protect the bees against the moth; but no hive which does not give the control of the combs, can be relied on for all emergencies. As for many of the complicated contrivanes, which have been devised by men ignorant of the first principles of bee-keeping, and the "swindle-trapes" of sharpers, who, to fill their own pockets, would be glad to kill all the bees in the world, they not only afford no more security against the moth, than the old box-hive, but are full of fixtures, which scrve no end but to annoy the bees and multiply lurking-places for moths and worms. The more they are used, the worse the condition of the bees ; just as the more a man uses the nostrums of the lying quack, the farther he gets from health.*
* [199] Cleveland, Ohio, who is so widely known for his interest in Horticultural and Apairrian pursuits, will be read with great interest :
"Clleveland, Feb. 19th, 1859.