BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
The farther removed from the transition cells, the more regular are found the male cells, so we often see several consecutive rows without defects; the irregularity is resumed on their opposite confines and does not disappear until beyond several rows of ill-fashioned workers cells.
When building drone cells, the bees establish a heavier block of wax defects; the irregularity is resumed on their opposite confines and does not preserve the same order and symmetry while working upon a larger scale. Irregularities have often been noticed in the cells of the bees. Reaumur, Bonnet and several other naturalists cite examples of this as so many defects. What would have been their astonishment had they observed that some of these anomalies were calculated, that there is, so to speak, a mobile harmony in the structure of the combs: if, through some imperfection of their organs or of their instruments, the bees made some uneven or illshaped cells, they would still show talent in repairing them, in compensating them by other irregularities; it is much more astonishing that they know enough to quit the ordinary route when circumstances demand that they build drone cells, and that they be able to vary the dimensions and the shape of each piece to return to a regular order; that after having built thirty or forty rows of drone cells, they quit the regular order again to return to the starting point by successive reductions.
How can these insects get through suh difficult requirements, such complicated structures, change from the small to the large, from the large to the small; from a regular plan to fantastic shapes and from these back again to a symmetrical figure? No known system can explain it.
Since bees are every year obliged to construct cells of different sizes, we can attribute this trait to instinet, but it is an instinet capable of modification. What circumstance is it which prompts them to change the plan of the cells? Is it alteration in their senses, a change in the temperature, more abundant food or more suitable than what they find during the rest of the season? Not by any means; it seems to be the laying of the queen which determines the kind of cells to be built: as long as she lays none but worker eggs, you do not see the bees build drone cells; but if she finds no room available for the latter kind of eggs, the workers seem to be informed of it at once and we see them immediately gradually changing the shape of the cells, and at length producing cells for the masculine cradles.
There is another circumstance under which bees enlarge the dimensions of the cells; it is when a considerable crop of honey presents itself; not only do they give the cells a much larger diameter than common, but they prolong their tubes as far as space admits. In times of great harvest, we
### 160 New observations upon bees.
see irregular combs, the cells of which are an inch to an inch and a half in depth.
On the other hand, bees are sometimes induced to shorten their cells. When wishing to lengthen an old comb, the cells of which have received their full dimension, they gradually reduce the thickness of its edges, by ganwing down the walls of the cells, until they have restored the original lenticular shape; they then add wax to the edges of the pyramidal bases, as we have seen them doing in ordinary work: it is a certain fact that they never lengthen the cells of a comb in any direction without having first thinned out its rim, which is diminished in a sufficient space to remove any angular projection.
This law which obliges the bees to partly demolish the cells on the edges, before giving them additional length, deserves more profound investigation than we are able to give it; for even if we can conceive the instinct which leads them to a particular industry, how can we account for that which induces them to undo a part of what they have executed with the utmost care? We must acknowledge that such phenomenae will long be a stumbling-block for all hypotheses that try to explain instinct.
When they construct a new comb there is a regular gradation in all the parts next to the edge, to which they appear to be accustomed and which may be necessary in the formation of new cells. But those edge cells are prolonged later like the cells of the rest of the surface, so that they no longer preserve the decreasing gradation observed in new combs. Thus it is evidently for the purpose of restoring the comb to its primitive form that they reduce the depth of the cells proportionally to their distance from the edge.6
All the anomalies exhibited in the labor of bees, are so well appropriated to the object proposed, that they seem to be a part of the plan under which they act, concurring to the general order.
The greatness of views and means of the ordaining wisdom is such that it does not reach its aim through minute exactness, it goes from one irregularity to another which compensate each other: the measurements are lofty, the apparent errors are managed by a sublime geometry, and order results from diversity. This is not the only example that science has divulged to us of preordained irregularities which astonish our ignorance and secure admiration from our most enlightened minds; for the more we study the general laws as well as the special laws, the better we see the perfection of this vast system.
5 Huber does not appear to have perceived that the bees always round off the outer edge of each cell, evidently to give it greater strength, as this rim makes the edges of the cell thicker, especially at the points of junction of one cell with another. It is this heavier rounded edge which they remove whenever they wish to add to the length and, as noticed by several writers, the rounded edge is rebuilt whenever they leave work, so that the surface of the cell upon which they travel is constantly braced by a rounded rim. The beekeeper who uses the honey extractor readily perceives the difference; for the combs, after using the honey knife to remove the couplings, show the lack of this rim. However, the bees rebuild the rim, as they repair the combs, when they are returned to them.
## Appendix to the chapters on the architecture of bees.
By P. Huber, Son of F. Huber.
Having been called upon to review the facts which I have described, I have acquired a little information which had not been transmitted to my father by his faithful secretary; among these facts are found a few peculiarities which I now will present upon the method of comb enlargement, upon the principle and cause of their irregularity and upon the shape of the transition cells in drone combs.
It was not possible to give a complete idea of the enlarging of the combs, in the description of the bees' work, cell after cell. When we consider the matter in its ensemble we discover a few modifications which were not perceptible in very small parts of the comb, and upon which we had not arrested our attention, so as not to complicate our statement.
We have stated that the work of bees was ordinarily conducted downwards: one might believe that it is always so, but this fact, which is applicable to a part of the cells, does not extend to the entire surface of the comb, its shape preventing this. Circumstances sometimes permit us to watch the bees while they are building combs, without disturbing the natural order of their work; those circumstances are rare and do not give us all the advantages found in inverting the order of their work, but they give us a more correct idea of the whole.
For this purpose, it is necessary that the bees, hanging in a cluster at one side of the hive, should work upon the edge, or, in a way, outside of this cluster; after having built one comb they establish a second one, then a third, nearer and nearer to the observer who follows their work through the transparent wall of the hive.
The original base, upon which the bees begin, is composed of three or four cells, sometimes more; after being continued of that breadth for two or three inches, it begins to be enlarged at about three-fourths of this length.
Were the bees to work only downwards, it would form but a narrow strip of a uniform diameter, only a few bees could work upon it at the same time; but it is necessary that the work should proceed rapidly, and that they be able to sculpt at the same time in all directions; the preliminary lengthening of this little strip and its widening at its inferior end enable a large number of bees to work upon the edge, and the entire orbit of the comb is extended in every direction under the work of their shears.
The bees at the lower edge of the comb lengthen it downwards, those on the sides widen it to the right and left; those above the main bulging portion extend it upwards; the wider it extends below, the more necessity there is of its rising directly to reach the vault of the hive.
Thence results a fact which we had not yet mentioned; that the cells of the first row are not the first built throughout the hive; so the primitive cells are only those which are constructed at the upper part before the comb is widened. This small base is sufficient to trace out the pyramidal bases of the entire comb; but although the subsequently built cells of the upper line are built either upwards or obliquely they are of about the same shape as the primary cells; they are composed of vertical plates, with or without rhomb, according to the side from which they are viewed. They fit againstpyramidal cells as well as against the ceiling of the hive; there is more irregularity and confusion in them than in ordinary primitive cells but the strength and general order lose in no way thereby.
The same thing occurs when the lateral edges of their combs reach the vertical wall; the bees build the bases of the last cells perpendicularly to this surface, so that they are similar to those of the first row, with the only difference that they are situated horizontally instead of vertically; and when the wall is of glass, one sees the base of all those cells in the shape of a zigzag in its center, as with the first cells built.
Thus bees work in all directions, their processes are uniform in every case. But we should be unable to recognize the original small waxen block, did we not take notice that it now appears as a flat ribbon which runs around the edge of the entire comb. It is in this edge that the bees sculpt new cells and deposit scales of wax; its width is of two or three lines and it is apparently of more compact build than the rest of the comb. The bees work at the same time over all parts of this ribbon when they have abundance of wax.
We must notice, however, that even when their work progresses in all parts, it does not advance in the same proportion; they work more quickly downwards than horizontally, and more slowly upwards than in any other direction; thence ensues the ellipse or lense shape which the comb assumes while it is being enlarged; thence also the greater length than breadth. it being more pointed at its inferior extremity and narrower at the top than in the middle. The shape of the combs, therefore, is fairly regular; their outline usually offers no asperity; and there is a singular harmony in the lengthening of all the cells. We have previously stated that the length of their prisms is in proportion to their age; but investigating with more attention, we recognized that, in a new comb, their length is proportioned to their distance from the edge. Thus the first rows are not those of which the cells are deepest, the cells there are shallower than in the middle of the comb; but when the comb acquires a certain weight, the bees hasten to prolong those cells so essential to the solidity of the whole; sometimes they even make them deeper than those that follow.
The prisms are not perfectly horizontal, their orifice being almost always a little higher than the base, which enables us to recognize the original position of a comb, though detached. Hence the axis of a cell is not perpendicular to the wall which separates the two faces of a comb; this rule, hitherto overlooked, is an insuperable bar to geometrical calculations regarding the shape of the cells, for these prisms are more or less inclined upon their bases, sometimes deviating from the horizontal above 20deg, ordinarly 4deg or 5deg.
However, whatever be their irregularities they are less prominent than those of the bases, and frequently where the latter are irregular, the cells preserve the hexagonal form, as we will show.
Bees in general observe a tendency to symmetry, perhaps not so much in the small details as in the totality of their operations; it sometimes happens, however, that the combs assume a singular shape; but if we followed in details the work of these insects, we could nearly always assign reasons for these apparent anomalies; the bees are compelled to adapt them
wished to avoid; they built it far enough away from it to give their cells the proper depth, and after succeeding in this they carried their masonry parallel with the glass. The comb was built up to the ceiling of the hive and filled all the space that it was possible to occupy, with the exception of the interval between the flat-base cells and the ascending branches; but although this comb was not of the ordinary shape, its symmetry was perfect; the braces built for strengthening it were exactly alike and at equal distances from the center; there was not an extra cell on either side and the projection of their lateral sides was uniform in every part.
We may readily judge, by these various works, of the spirit of union which regulates the bees; we will now detail the irregularities found in the building of drone combs.
In the previous chapter we stated that the drone cells are surrounded with several rows of cells of average size. A comb is rarely commenced with drone cells, the first rows being formed of very regular small cells; but the openings soon cease corresponding exactly with one another, and the bases are less symmetrical; it would be impossible for the bees to build irregular cells in regular shapes; that is why we often see between those cells some masses of wax occupying the intervals. By thickening the sides and giving the contours a more nearly circular shape, the bees sometimes succeed in uniting cells of different diameter, for they have more than one method of compensating the irregularities of the cells.
But although the surfaces of the cells always show hexagon outlines with only slight modification, the bases offer much more pronounced irregularities, which announce a determinate plan and explain their progressive enlargement.
Examining a comb through a vertical line in its middle we observe that the cells next to this line are enlarged without much alteration of shape; but the bases of the adjacent cells are no longer composed of three equal rhombs; each instead of corresponding with three others, corresponds with four cells on the opposite face, while their orifices are not less hexagonal; but their base is composed of four pieces, two of which are hexagonal and two rhomboidal (Plate X, fig. 1). The size and shape of these pieces vary; these cells, which are somewhat larger than the third part of three opposite cells, comprehend a portion of the bottom of a fourth cell, in their circumference. Under the last regular pyramidal bottoms are found those having a base in four parts, three large and one small, the latter a rhomb. The two rhombs of the transition cells are separated by a great interval, while the two hexagonal pieces adjoin and are perfectly similar (Plate X, figs. 2 and 4). In a cell farther down, we notice less inequality between the two rhombs of the bottom; the circumference of the cell embraces more of the fourth cell on the opposite surface, finally we find a great number of cells whose bottom consists of four pieces perfectly regular, namely, two elongated hexagons and two rhombs equal, but smaller than those of the pyramidal bases (fig. 3). As we recede from the cells with regular tetrahedral bases, either downwards or to the right and left, we observe the cells recovering their ordinary shape; that is, one of the rhombs contracts and finally disappears, and the pyramidal shape is resumed, but of larger size than it was in the cells of
correspond with the large side of the hexagon are rectangular parallelograms (c fig. 9).
N. B. The pyramidal bases which are separated from one another by technical base cells, do not have their losenges situated similarly; it is a consequence of what we have stated (fig. 5 and 6).
These observations show us how flexible is the instinct of the bees, how well it yields to the local conditions, to the circumstances and requirements of the family. Necessity, in the work of these insects, as in all that pertains to the habits of animals, must be limited to a small number of essential points, all others being subordinated to the circumstances.
The limits of their industry are assuredly less narrow than at first supposed; and the reader will admit, with us, that the conduct of bees depends also in some measure upon what might be called the judgment of the insect; this judgment, doubtless, is rather a matter of tact than formal reasoning; but its subtleness resembles choice, rather than habit or habitual mechanism independent of the will of the insect.
## Chapter 64when the bees are short of wax, they are sometimes compelled to interrupt their work: when a more ample supply enables them to elaborate the material, they resume the work; it is probably during this interruption that they varnish the edges of the cell, and when the latter have been lengthened, they retain traces of the material with which they had been coated.
These peculiarities had evidently not struck any of the naturalists who wrote upon the bees; they knew that propolisis was used to coat the inside of the hive; but they were not aware of this resin being used in the building of the cells; this was worth verifying, I made sure of it by comparative experiments, using the ordinary reagents.
The propolisis taken from the walls of the hive and from the edges of red-colored cells, submitted to the action of ether, alcohol or oil of turpentine, imparted a golden color to these liquids. The brown matter of cells was dissolved by them, even when cold. The orffices of cells, in either alcohol or turpentine, retained the cell shape and their yellow tint after losing the varnish that coated them. Those placed in ether also lost the red varnish, they became bleached shortly after and disappeared when the wax was dissolved.
The coloring matter of the cell orffices, exposed to a mild heat, became soft and could be drawn into threads; the propolisis of the walls did likewise. Nitro acid, at a low heat, poured on both, whitened the yellow wax in a few minutes, but the varnish of the orffices and masses of propolisis underwent no alterations.
Other orffices, put into boiling water, displayed a curious pecularity; after the wax in them was melted, the varnish remained entre above it, on the cake which it formed, without losing its hexagonal contour, while its diameter seemed a little enlarged.
Fixed caustic alkali which changes wax into a kind of soap, has no effect upon propolisis; we tried its action upon very old cells which had already served as cradles to a number of larvae, the ceocoons with which they were lined hiding the varnish and the wax upon which they had been moulded. The primary effect of the alkaline wash was to dissolve the wax by combining with it, separating it from the silky cocoons; then it bleached the ceocoons, which are naturally of brown color and gave them the appearance of gauze: they retained the shape of the cells; the reddish threads then appeared, for they were not dissolved, and remained upon the outer edges of the cocoons, just in the way that they had been placed by the bees in the furrows formed by the junction of the different pieces which composed the cells. These threads of propolisis were finally separated from the cocoons, but they were not altered by remaining several months in the solution.
From these experiments it is evident that the substance which gives a dark red color to the edges of the cells and to the lines of intersection of their walls, has the greater analogy to propolisis; it is clear also that the yellow color of the cells has no relation to the varnish covering the joints of their different pieces.
Notwithstanding my confidence in such conclusions, I felt that they would be indisputable only after I had found the bees in the act. It was then necessary to follow them in their harvest of propolisis and make sure of their use of it; but these researches were difficult.
The completion of the cells. " 169
Propolis has similar properties to those of gum-resin and it has long been suspected of belonging to the vegetable kingdom. But for many years I fruitlessly endeavored to find the bees on trees producing an analogous substance; but none of my investigations directed me to those upon which the bees gathered this harvest: though we saw multitudes returning laden with it.
Being fatigued with the uselessness of my attempts, I devised a very simple expedient, from which I could obtain some light. The question was to secure such plants as would be likely to supply propolisols, and place them within their reach; this plan succeeded; the first plants that I placed near my hives displayed to me in a short time that which I might have never found out, without this scheme.
In the beginning of July, some branches of the wild poplar, which had been cut since spring, before the growth of their leaves, with very large buds, coated both on the outside and inside with a viscous, reddish and odoriferous sap, were brought to me; I planted them in vessels before my hives, in the way of the bees going out to the field, so that they would be sure to notice them. In less than a quarter of an hour a bee took advantage of this chance; she allighted upon one of the branches, on one of the largest buds, separated its involuera with her teeth, pressing out its parts, drew out threads of the viscous matter; then taking with one of the legs of the second pair what she held in her jaws, she brought forward one of the posterior legs and placed into the pollen basket of this leg the little pellet of propolisis that she had just gathered; this done, she opened the bud in another spot, removed more threads of the same material, took them with the legs of the second pair and gently laid them in the other basket. She then flew to the hive; in a few minutes a second bee alighted upon these same branches and loaded up propolisis in the same manner.
We made the same experiment upon recently cut poplar limbs, the young shoots of which were filled with propolisols; they did not appear to attract the bees; but their sap was neither as thick nor as red as that which we had first offered to them, the buds of which had been preserved since spring.
Since the bees harvested this reddish and viscous substance from the buds of the common poplar, all that was needed was to identify this substance with propolisols; no doubt of this remained after an experiment which we then made.
We took dry propolisols from the walls of an old hive, we broke it up and soaked it in ether; this liquid assumed a yellow tint in each of nine consecutive experiments; but at the last it was very slightly colored; we evaporated it and there remained at the bottom of the vessel a residue of grayish white color. This residue, after having been steeped in distilled water, was examined with a microscope and distinctly showed vegetable debris, such as epidermis, portions of membrane, some opaque, others transparent, but no trachea.
Ether gave a similar reaction on poplar buds, it was colored with yellow several times over, and the residues, steeped in distilled water, showed through the microscope similar debris, but less thoroughly dissected than those found in propolisols.