BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
Usder the foregoing adverse circumstances thinking men looked around for something that would be the salvation of the bees. It was long believed that the Italian bee (_Apis ligustiea_) was an insect far superior in many ways to the English bee (_Apis mellifieu_). Not only was it superior as a honey-gatherer, but it was reported to be far more alert, and more persevering in resisting the attacks of enemies, more especially the bee moth, which in England is known as the wax moth. So great was the onslaught with these moth pests that people owning as many as 200 colonies in a few years found themselves without a single bee. How to contend against this pest was an unsolved problem. The bar-frame style of hive was then little known, and the method of fighting the moth in the gin-case hives was not understood; and so it remains to this day. Not only were the bees kept in the crude methods of the day decimated by this pest, but those that had taken to bush life suffered, perhaps, to a greater extent than those more immediately under the control of man. On the Clarence River, to my knowledge, in the latter part of the sixties, it was not unusual for men to take a horse and drag and go in search of bees' nests, returning with two or three hundredweights of honey. Neither was it an unusual thing to find two or three bees' nests in the same tree. But in later years these, through the ravages of the bee moth, have nearly all disappeared. From the general slaughter among the bees caused by the pest named, some few bee-keepers, with more watchfulness than others, saved a few colonies out of the general wreck. To perpetuate and multiply these was the question of questions. The Italian bee was looked to for overcoming the trouble, and enthusiastic beekeepers were not long in importing the far-famed golden and leather coloured Italian bees.
In the _Australian Bee Mannul_ by Isaac Hopkins of New Zealand, the introduction of the Italian bee in the Southern Hemisphere is thus referred to:--''It was stated by Dr. Gerstaecker that four stocks of Ligurian bees were shipped in England by Mr. J. W. Woodbury, in September, 1862, and that they arrived safely in Australia after a passage of 79 days." It does not appear, however, that these stocks succeeded and propagated any more than a colony which Mr. Angus Mackay, Editor of the _Toven and Country Journal_ in Sydney, subsequently took to Brisbane, at great expense, from America. Mr. S. McDonnell, of Sydney, imported two colonies from America in 1880, and succeeded in raising stocks from them; and, later, Mr. Abrahams (now of Beecroft). a German bee-master, brought some colonies with him from Italy in 1883, settled in Parramatta, and, having succeeded in rearing a pure race of his queens, started an apiary for the Italian beefarming Company, of which he is manager and Mr. McDonnell Secretary." The date of the _Bee Manual_ from which this is taken is 1886.
In 1882 Mr. C. Fullwood, Brisbane, had sent to him direct from Charles Bianconini, of Bologna, twelve Italian Queens. Of these five arrived alive, and of a second shipment in the following year seven reached their new home safely. In these early years of the introduction of the Italian bee into Australia, the price of pure-bred tested queens, reared in the colony, was from PS2 to PS3 each; and I have heard that in some cases as high a figure as PS5 had been asked. Of late years I have seen three advertised for 7s. 6d.
The inauguration of Bee-keepers' Associations for the assistance of amateurs, and exchange of thought and bee-keeping ideas, followed soon after the introduction of the Italian bee. These Associations were based on similar lines to those established in England, which are acknowledged to have given incalculable benefit to the peasant classes in the rural districts, and the results have been equally beneficial in this State. It was never the intentions of these associations to do more than give instructions to aid people to add luxuries to their own table, in the same way as poultry-keeping, fruit-culture, kitchen-gardening, etc., is carried on, so as to expand the earnings of wage-earners, farmers' wives and daughters, and such-like.
With the pure Italian bees which were at that time expensive, came the necessity for the improvements in hives to permit of their successful and profitable management. The Langstroth simplicity bar-frame hive was welcomed as the very thing for housing these costly insects, and although there are many types of bar-frame hives available, the Langstroth bar-framed hive still holds chief place in the esteem of up-to-date bee-keepers.
**Some years ago, a disease, far more destructive to bees than the bee moth, and now bids fair to be far more serious, made its appearance amongst our bees--_Foil Hood_. On one occasion, at Bombala, I saw over 100 colonies of bees destroyed by this disease. The hives were filled with dead bees and festering foul-brood como thus spreading the disease far and wide, for the disease is contagious. Districts that were regarded as ideal as agricultural ones were almost swept clear of bees. If kepers of bees, be it but a single hive or an extensive apiary, earnestly set about acquiring a knowledge of the character of the disease and of the causes that are conducive to its spread, and co-operate with their bee-keeping neighbours and the Associations in suppressing it, the bee-keeping industry will be freed from a disaster that threatens to overwhelm it.
## Chapter 3 The Bees' Position in the Animal Kingdom.
All natural objects belong to one of three great divisions--mineral, vegetable, or animal. In classifying any object of nature, the first thing is to find to which of these kingdoms it belongs. These kingdoms are cut up into groups, and are divided and subdivided for the better understanding of the group or division any member of either kingdom may occupy.
Nature is very fond of diversity. She has been very lavishing in the distribution of her infinite resources in all three kingdoms. In the animal world alone she has spread out before us nearly half a million classes of creatures endowed with life which inhabit land or sea. To better understand this vast army, of which the honey-bee is a member,each one is marshalled under eight or nine different heads. This splitting up is for the purpose of narrowing down or limiting any one of them to a known position in the kingdom to which they belong, so that in speaking, reading, or writing of them the meaning will be the more intelligible and comprehensive. Thus, a bee is as much an animal as a horse, cow, or fish, but in their classification there are many grades between them. A horse resembles a fish far more than it does a bee. The horse and fish have internal skeletons and backbones (vertebrata), but the honey-bee has neither. Again, the honey-bee resembles a spider, crab, or earthworm more than it does a horse or fish, but there is a very wide difference between a bee and the first three named. A bee is like a spider or worm in that none of them have an internal skeleton or framework of bones. The framework of bees, spiders, worms, &c., are of the same construction, _i.e._, made up of external rings. Animals whose bodies are made up of external horny rings are termed _Annulosa_. The organs of locomotion in spiders, worms, &c., have feet. Becs, also, although they fly, walk upon feet. But the feet of a bee differ very much from those of a worm. There are joints in the feet of spiders and bees, but there are none in those of worms. Animals, the framework of whose bodies are composed of horny rings and have jointed feet, belong to that division of the animal kingdom termed _Arthropoda_.
Nevertheless, every member of the species is not equally profitable from a commercial point. Some varieties of this species are profitable only as wax-producers. When we consider the increasing demand in the Home market for Australian bees-wax, the quantity of honey consumed by our hive bees in the production of comb, and our local,requirements for the manufacture of that indispensable adjunct to profitable bee-keeping, artificial foundation comb, it at once raises the question :--Would it not be a prudent step to introduce into our State some highly profitable wax-producers!
## Chapter 4 Species and Varieties of Social Bees.
The genus Apis contains about 16 species and varieties of social bees having a commercial value, and these are the only ones to be dealt with here. A large number of bee-keepers favour crosses, and the cross sought for--the ideal bee of the future--must be one possessing untiring industry, great energy, and unlimited endurance, the queen possessing a docile temper, vigorous constitution, and known for her powers of fecundity, producing workers that are unlimited honey-gatherers and builders of flat, highly-finished combs, in which drone cells are not too numerous, the workers possessing, like the mother, the mildest of tempers. That such a variety of these industries and interesting workers as the foregoing describes will be produced is only a question of time.
The cat, a descendant of the most ferocious of felines, by years of domestication and association with the human family, has almost forgotten the use of her talons; so also the dog, the ox, and the horse have almost forgotten their powers to injure; therefore it is not unreasonable to suppose the bee of the future, although possessing a formidable sting, will, by careful breeding and selection, refrain from using the power she possesses to inflict injury.
The various races of bees differ greatly, and their geographical distribution is almost as wide as the poles, being found in a state of nature in both the temperate and torrid zones.
Whether the bee of the future, possessing all the qualifications and attributes that we think it ought to possess, will be a pure race or a cross that has not yet been produced time alone can decide.
With the pure races of bees that have already been imported into this State--black, Ligurian, and Carniolan--important steps have been made towards the ideal worker.
_Apis mellifera_ is too well known to need any description, but a chapter on "The Species and Varieties of Bees" would be incomplete without reference to them. Our old friend the black bee was the first variety imported into Australia, and, like the black aboriginal human race of the continent, will be soon superseded by a superior variety.
Whether the black bee was the first variety that was domesticated or not we have now no power of determining. The bees now found where the human race was first cradled are varieties of _Apis ligustica_. Therefore it is more reasonable to suppose that it was the Ligurian rather than the English bee. Be that as it may, it is the black bee that has followed in the wake of civilisation. Wherever the colonist has planted his foot the black bee has followed, but she is now fast making way for another variety that is more fashionable in its attire. Nevertheless, the black bee possesses some excellent traits that it will be well to retain with the incoming race. Her comb-honey is far superior in appearance to that of the Italian bee. This is the only attribute in which she excels her yellow-banded sister.
_Apis ligustica_, also known as the Ligurian, the Italian, and the yellow Alpine bee, has long been known to entomologists. It is supposed to be the bee that the Greeks and Romans wrote and using about.
Of the three varieties mentioned by Aristotle it is the one that he speaks of as being "small and round in shape and variegated in colour"-- his best variety. Virgil wrote of two varieties, and speaks of the better of the two as being "variegated and of. a beautiful golden colour." They appear to have been very fashionable in the time of these ancient historians.
The fashions of this world change. After the lapse of more than 2000 years these yellow-banded bees have again become the favourite variety, not alone on account of their attractive markings and form, but for the many excellent qualities they possess over their old-fashioned black brethren.
In 1805 Spaniola described it, and was the first to call it the Ligurian bee. He found it in the plains of Piedmont. Spaniola gave the variety the name of Ligurian from the old Roman name of the northern shores of the Gulf of Genoa, the district that is hemmed in by the Carmic and Helvenic Alps. The bee of the northern districts of Italy, generally known amongst the beekeepers as the leather-coloured Italian, differs somewhat from its more southern neighbour.
This southern bee is smaller, more "'ladylike,' and three of the abdominal rings are of a bright golden yellow. This bee is also found in Asia Minor, the islands adjacent thereto, and in the Caucasus. Its nature is more excitable, and it cannot be depended upon like that of the north. In America, Italian bees are now
the abdomen long and beautifully tapering towards the caudal extremity. These yellow queens are very beautiful and have the advantage of being more readily distinguished on the comb when mixed with the workers than their darker compeers, an advantage that should not be lost sight of, especially with those who have not a very observant eye. The advantages that _A. ligustica_ have over _A. mellifica_ may be summed up as follows :--The queens are extremely prolific, and as soon as one brood emerges from the chrysalis she is ready to refill the brood cells with enormous quantities of eggs. In this respect she greatly surpasses her black sister. It is seldom one finds the brood comb of the latter regular. In the same comb will be found eggs and larvae in various stages of development. In the brood combs of the Italian bee these irregularities are very rare, the brood in each comb will be as even as sealed honey, every cell having its innate in the same stage as its neighbours. They recover from spring dwindling early in the season, and as the early honey-bearing flowers expand they have a large army ready to enter upon the labours of the field. The variety as a rule is possessed of a mild temper. Nevertheless I have seen the progeny of some queens far more irritable than any black bee I ever handled. A little smoke will easily subdue the Italian bee, and they bear manipulating well. It is not an unusual thing to see the bees at work while the comb is held in the hand, and occasions have occurred of the queen depositing her eggs in the presence of the observer. They adhere to the comb with greater tenacity than the black bee ; the latter can easily be removed by a sudden jerk, whilst the Italian bee has nearly always to be brushed off. They bear artificial swarming much earlier than our old friend the black bee, and to an extent that would soon decimate if not entirely annihilate the latter. They defend their stores with the courage of a British tar, whilst that same attribute makes them marauders and determined robbers of their weaker neighbours. A fairly strong colony is proof against the wax moth. For industry, and as honey gatherers, they have not as yet been surpassed. Mr. Radl-kofer says ''Not only are Italian bees distinguished by an earlier awakened impulse to activity and labour but they are remarkable also for the sedulous use they make of every opening flower, visiting some on which common bees are seldom or never seen.''
Morawits and Douglas say ''The brighter coloured southern bee of Italy is more suitable for hot climates,'' whilst Langstroth (speaking of the Italian bees generally) says that ''the Italian bees are less sensitive to cold than the common kind'' (black). Thereis no doubt a good deal of truth in both statements, for bees like other animals adapt themselves to climatic changes more readily than members of the vegetable kingdom. In the warm valley of the Hunter River the leather-coloured bee is the favourite.
Italian drones are far more vigorous than those of the black bee, and as a rule are on the wing much earlier in the day. The virgin queen has also this early rising habit. This habit of the sexes is a great aid in keeping a good strain unmixed, especially in a district where black drones are numerically weak. Dzierzon was under the impression that where both kinds of drones exist in about equal numbers the Italian queens will usually encounter the Italian drones, because both drones and queens are more active and agile than those of the common bee.
The reason of the Italian bee again becoming the favorite after the lapse of so many years was without doubt the beauty of its markings and the mildness of its temper, the latter making it the ladies' bee _pur ercellence_, and the amount of care and attention that has been bestowed upon it has developed traits and characteristics that could never have been brought out in the black bee. If the same amount of care and attention be bestowed upon it during the next quarter of a century that has been bestowed upon it during the last, the ideal bee of the future will soon become a reality.
_Apis dorsata.--_This bee is sounetimes termed the giant bee of East India. No variety of bees build such slabs of comb as this one. Of ten times under the ledges of rocks, or hanging from the thick branches of trees, combs 6 feet long by 3 feet in width are met with. _A dorsata_ frequently appear to build these slabs of wax for the mere fun of the thing, or for the purpose of keeping their 'prenticed hand in practice, which must be accounted as an advantage in their utility as wax producers. _A. zinate,_ of the **P**hilippine Islands, is said to be a larger bee than _A. dorsata,_ but it is highly probable that it is a variety of the latter. In constructing their comb, the cells in which drones are reared do not appear to differ in size from that of the worker's cell. Mr. Frank Benton was the first to give any reliable information in regard to these bees. He visited India in 1880-81, and in the jungles obtained colonies by cutting the comb from their original attachments. Ile placed these colonies in frame hives, and permitted them to have free ingress and egress, and they did not desert these enclosed habitations. They were found not to be so ferocious as had been represented. With proper precautions when lived they
are easily handled, even without smoke. From the quantity of honey and wax present when these bees were obtained, it was evident they are good gatherers. Owing to illness Mr. Benton failed to take these bees to America for the purpose of acclimatisation. He says : "These large bees would doubtless be able to get honey from flowers whose nectaries are located out of reach of ordinary bees, notably those of the red clover, now visited chiefly by humble bees and which, it is thought, the East Indian bees might pollinate and cause to produce seeds more abundantly. Even if no further utility, they might prove an important factor in the production of large quantities of excellent wax, now such an expensive article."
_Apis indien_ is common in Ceylon and the southern parts of Asia. It is domesticated in the East Indies by the Dutch and British settlers, who keep them in habitations made of clay similar to drain pipes, placed in trees and other elevated positions.
The worker of this species of bee is \(\lx@sectionsign\) inch long ; general colour, a dark brown, almost black, with a yellow shield on the thorax between the wings ; each segment of the dorsal plates of the abdomen is tinged with an orange colour. The queen is about one-fourth larger than the workers, and is readily distinguished from them, being of a dark copper colour. The drones are not much larger than the workers, but differ from them in colour, being of a metallic blue ; their wings in the sunlight constantly changing colour--something like shot silk. They are very active, and are said to be very gentle, while the pain resulting from their sting is not so severe as that of _A. dorsata._
_Apis trigram_ (our native bee) are natives of Australasia, and extend into India. They are something less than our common house thy ; colour, black, with dirty white rings on the dorsal segments of the abdomen. They generally build in the hollows of trees, and store their honey in irregularly-formed cells. It has an agreeable flavour, but the storage of it by the bees is so small the insect is not worth domesticating.
_Apis forem._ The tiny honey bee of India, one of the smallest of the species known, even more slender than our native bee. It colour, any are a blue black, one-third of the abdomen having a bright orange ring. Like _A. dorsata,_ they build in the open air, fascubilig our single comb to a twig in a bush, and, like all honey-gathering bees, it hangs vertically. The comb seldom contains more than about 20 inches of surface, usually about 7 inches longer by about 3 inches in width. The cells in the comb are extremely small : there are about 100 to the square inch.
_Apis mellifera_.--There are several varieties of _A. mellifea_, and it is this species, on account of their use to man, that has been in all ages so universally sought for. The black or brown, or, as it is sometimes called, the German bee, is the common well-known hive bee that was introduced into New South Wales by Dr. Wilson, and is now so universally distributed throughout our forests. _The Cyprian_ bee, as its name indicates, is a native of Cyprus. The dorsal segments of the abdomen are a golden yellow. They are very irritable, easily angered by rough handling, and susceptible to the least excitement, nevertheless they are valuable as honey gatherers. _The Italian_ bees (Ligurians) are natives of Italy. They have golden or leather-coloured segments on the three dorsal plates of the abdomen nearest the thorax. Those having the golden markings are chiefly met with in the southern parts of the peninsula, whilst the leather-coloured are inhabitants of the northern districts of the country. They are supposed to be a fixed strain of a cross between the German and the Cyprian bees. Both these varieties readily interbreed and their progeny are always reproductive. Since the Ligurian bee has become fashionable four and even five banded bees are to be net with. _The Carnialian_ bees are natives of Carniala in Austria. The workers are somewhat larger than the common black bee, neither is the abdomen so pointed. They differ in colour in having a ring of silvery-hued hair on each dorsal plate. As honey gatherers they probably rank equally with the Italian bees, and the cross between the two varieties is said to be superior to that between the black and Italian.
_The Tunic bee_ is sometimes named the Punic bee ; they are natives of the northern districts of Africa. They are not so valuable as either of the former as honey-gatherers. The best working variety of _A. mellifea_ is the pure Italian.
_Apis dorsuta, A, indien, A, trigona, A, florea,_ and _A. mellifea_ are species of the genus Apis ; but the German, the Cyprian, the Italian, and the Carnialian bees are only varieties of the species _Mellifica_. Species differ from varieties in that they do not readily interbreed, and where such intercourse takes place the progeny are hybrids or mules, and result in not being reproductive. A species _is_ a conception subordinate to a genus with attributes extending to fewer individuals, whilst a variety is that which varies or differs from others of its kind.
## Chapter 5 The Bees' Home.
Nor the home of the bees - their habitat ; that would necessitate my writing of the species _Apis mellifera_, and that would require a description of the habits of _dorsata, fuseiata, mellifiea_, and many others having social habits, and also of the varieties these have branched off into--the leather-coloured Italian from the north of Italy ; the golden Italian, from the south of that peninsula ; the Cyprian, from the island of that name ; the Carnidian, from Hungary ; and our old friend from England, the black bee.