BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
I think the bees must know something of this old saying. Most truly they do not 'rust out,' but 'wear out ;' and if we are at all like the bees our lives will not be lives of idleness. We shall not get rusty for want of work.
I come at morn, when dewdrops bright
Are twinkling on the grasses,
And woo the balmy breeze in flight
That o'er the heather passes.
I come not these little eyes are dim
To every sense of duty ;
We owe a certain debt to Him
Who clad this earth in beauty.
And, therefore, I am never sad,
A burden homeward bringing,
But help to make the summer glad
In my own way of singing.
And thus my little life is fixed
Till tranquilly it closes.'
Chambers' _Journal._
Indeed, as they work unceasingly day after day, doing the same thing, I do not think we ever can hear them say, in bee language, whatever it is, 'Oh, I am tired of all this! It is just the same thing every day! It is so dull to do it again and again!' The cheerful hum we hear, as the bee flies past us, does not, I think, sound at all like such a grumble. Do you think it does? It may be the same thing every day, but it is what the bees have to do, and they do it very cheerfully ; and I am sure of this, that they are never so happy and in such good temper as when they are at work ; and never so cross, as you will find when you keep bees, as when they are obliged to stay at home by the weather being cold or wet. Then they are much more inclined to sting.
Their patience puts me in mind of a well-known patient donkey. At Carishrooke Castle, in the Isle of Wight, where Charles the First was confined as a prisoner in 1647, there is a very deep well, three hundred feet deep, and, in order to draw the water, there is a contrivance of a great wooden wheel, which, when it is turned, draws up the bucket. This wheel is made so large and broad that a donkey stands inside, and turns it by stepping on, as if walking, although, in fact, the poor animal never really advances an inch, for, as it moves, the wheel of course moves from under its feet. What dull work does this seem, always stepping on, but always in the same place! But the donkey, like the bees, is patient. One donkey was known to do it for fifty years, and another for forty years.
## Chapter V
community of bees in a hive.
The next thing to notice, as we see the bees in hundreds going in and out of the same little door, is the fact of their living and working together, and helping one another. They form thus, what is called a community or colony.
In thus living together they are different from most insects and animals. Indeed, but few do the same. We may find in many cases vast numbers of insects living together in the same place, such as swarms of gnats in a damp cellar, or millions of flies filling the air, or coming in great numbers into a house. Or again, amongst birds, we may find thousands of starlings congregated together; or large colonies of rooks, many of them building their nests in the same tree, and then in winter time coming home to roost at night in countless numbers, so that the very air is darkened. But, although they thus congregate together, they do not form a community; they do not work together for a common purpose; they do not feed and take care of each other's young. Each insect looks out for the supply of its own needs. Each pair of birds,--sometimes the hen bird alone,--build their own nest and rear their own young, and have no regard to or interest in others.
But, when we come to look at bees and some other insects, we find a different state of things altogether. We find that everything, even their very lives, depend upon their living in a community or society, all obeying, by instinct, common rules, each one doing its own part in the common work.
'Alike ye labour, and alike repose;
Free as the air, yet in strict order join'd,
Unnumber'd bodies with a single mind.'
We see the same, in great measure, in wasps, which live together during summer and autumn, all helping together in the work of the common home. We see the same in ants, which are insects in many respects as wonderful in their habits and instincts as bees.
Here, to illustrate what **I** have said about insects working together for a common purpose, I may relate **a** story told by Sir John 'Lubbock of some wonderful ants which actually make slaves of other ants, and, in order to obtain and bring them into captivity, go out on regular slave-making expeditions.
One day a whole body of these Amazon or slave-making ants was seen making its way, like an army of soldiers, all drawn up in battle array, and without straggling, across some distance of ground, and through a thick hedge, and straight on, until at last they reached the nest which they were intent on robbing. Then for a few minutes there was a fierce battle, but the Amazon s soon got the best of it, and, forcing their way into the nest, were presently seen marching home, but each ant now carrying in triumph, as the spoils of victory, one of those little white things, often called ants' eggs (which however are really insects in a more advanced state), and which in their captors' nest soon would become live ants, and very useful slaves. And so you see instinct taught them to go out with a common purpose, to work together, and to assist one another.
I can tell you, however, a much more pleasant story given by the same author. I may say that in order to observe their habits, he kept a considerable number of nests of ants in his own house in little cases or boxes, made partly of glass, so that he could see all they did.
On one occasion, in one of his nests, there was a poor ant which, on account of being deformed, 'never appeared able to leave the nest.' However, one day, he says,'I found her wandering about in an aimless sort of manner, and apparently not knowing her way at all. After a while she fell in with some specimens of the little yellow ant, who directly attacked her. I at once set myself to separate them, but, owing either to the wound she had received from her enemies, or to my rough, though well-meant handling, or to both, she was evidently much wounded, and lay helpless on the ground. After some time another ant, but from her own nest, came by. She examined the poor sufferer carefully ; then picked her up gently, and carried her away into the nest. It would have been difficult for any one who witnessed this scene to have denied to this ant the possession of humane feelings.'
Again he says, 'At the present time I have two ants perfectly crippled, so that they are quite unable to move, but they have been tended and fed by their companions, the one for five, and the other for four months.'
Sec, then, how they not only live together, but are kind to one another, and help one another.
Beavers, again, amongst animals, are striking examples, in some respects, of the same thing. Their wonderful houses, built with rooms and passages, and made strong and secure with wood, stones, and mud, are made by them for the common purposes of the whole colony. In it they live and, work together.
In the case of bees, this community or society is absolutely necessary. A single bee cannot live by itself. If you were to take a bee, or, we will say, half-a-dozen bees, and put them by themselves into the most comfortable little live possible, they would very soon die. They would have no spirit to work. They would not even care to get food for themselves, although there might be plenty near at hand.
But how different is it when the whole colony is together! Then, by common instinct the bees seem as one united band of hearty, contented workers ; working together for their common wants, helping one another whenever and however they can, each doing its own part, always happily at peace amongst themselves. What a good example do they give us!
THE SONG OF THE BEES.
Flying out, flying in,
Circling the hive with ceaseless din,
Now abroad, now at home,
Busy through wood and field we roam.
Here in the lily cup, there in the clover,
Gather we sweets the meadow over.
Food to our young we carefully take ;
Pollen we bring, and wax we make ;
A band of us shapes each tiny cell,
Another follows, completing it well.
Working all, working ever,
Suffering idlers among us never,
Never pausing to take our ease :
Oh, busy are we, the honey-bees!
Cheery we stay, and gaily we roam,
Never too hurried to greet a brother,
With feelers crossed we talk to each other ;
Never too selfish to share our stores ;
Some seek them abroad, some use them indoors ;
Unitedly guard we our homes from harm,
Stationing scouts to give the alarm.
So, working all, and working with will, Providing in summer for winter chill, Whirring and buzing, nor caring for ease, Oh, cheery are we, the honey-bees!
Whether abroad, or whether at home,
Loyal we stay, and loyal we roam.
In royal apartments our queen-bee is reigning :
We render our homage unmingled with feigning :
Lowly we bow as we pause by her side,
The choicest of food with her we divide.
Thus working all, and working with heart,
Each striving good to the whole to impart,
Busy and cheery, we think not of ease,
And loyal are we, the honey-bees!
This lesson we teach wherever we roam :
Mortal, like us, go labour unwearily,
Work with thy kind, and work with them cheerily ;
Duty fulfil, wheresoer thou may'st owe it ;
Where honour is fitting, fail not to bestow it ;
It matters not whether at home or abroad,
Be faithful to man and be loyal to God.
Thus work thou well and work thou ever ;
The lessons we teach thee thou may'st not dissever :
Be busy, be cheery, be loyal, for these
Are the truths thou may'st learn from the honey-bees!
_Child's Companion_.
## Chapter VI \(
u\)
Different kinds of bees.--humble bees and their use.
Hitherto we have only been speaking of bees in very general terms--the common hive-bees that we see working in our fields and gardens; but there are many other kinds as well, and, if we only use our eyes, we shall soon see some of them. To find specimens of them all, however, would be impossible, for there are more than two hundred and fifty different kinds. in our country alone, and some of them are very scarce, and many of them are only found in particular places.
One kind of wild bees, however, you will certainly find without difficulty--at least, in summertime. I mean the large humble bees, which make such loud noise as they fly amongst the flowers, or when by chance they come into the house.
And then, besides these very large humble bees, you will soon find many others of different shapes, sizes, and colours--some of them very small. And as you look along some dry, warm bank, you will probably find the home of some one of these many kinds. You will see a very small hole, and some of the humble bees going in and out. And, if you follow this hole a short way, you will find the nest beautifully made; although not made to last through the winter, but only for the time necessary for the youngbees to come to their full growth. Before the winter comes, and the banks become sodden with wet and snow, and the nests are thus destroyed, the young queens, or mother bees, leave their summer homes, and hide up for the cold months in some dry nook, or crevice of a tree, and only come out again, to begin work and to make their nests, when another year has come round, and the weather is fine and warm.
Now you have doubtless been taught that everything that God has made is for some wise purpose, and does some good, although in many cases we may not know what it is. And the more we observe all the habits of animals and insects, the more we shall see evidence of this great truth, 'Nothing without purpose.'
I mention this here because we see it remarkably the case with the humble bees. They have always been favourites--considered pretty harmless insects; but it is only quite lately that, by close observation, it has been discovered that they are of the greatest use, and do a most important work in our fields. I cannot now fully explain it all; but, to give you some idea of this discovery and its value, I may say that just because their tongue is a little longer than the tongue of other bees, they are so very useful amongst certain flowers (especially the red clover) in our fields, that a great deal of trouble has been taken, and a great deal of money spent, in order to send some of them all the way across the sea to the other side of the world--to Australia and New Zealand, where they were not found before. It is very difficult and expensive to send them so far; but they are so very useful to the farmers in those distant lands, that it is quite worth while. Hundreds have been taken, and let loose in the fields.
And then besides the humble bees there are, as I have said, many other kinds, somc of which are termed'solitary bees'--bees, that is, which live a solitary life ; do not live in communities, but make nests by themselves and for themselves alone. Amongst these there is, for instance, the leaf-cutting solitary bee ; which makes its little nest in the ground, or in clefts of walls or trees, with small pieces of leaf cut and fitted in with great care and trouble.
There is also the mason bee ; so called because it builds its little house of small stones--or, rather, grains of sand--and -- glaciers all, like a mason, with a kind of cement or mortar of its own manufacture. You may sometimes find one of these little nests, almost the size of a walnut, fastened on to an old wall ; and so firmly made that a knife will hardly cut it. Or sometimes you may find --them in very odd places indeed. I know of a case where the little bee chose for its nest the lock of a table drawer in a clergyman's study, and another the padlock of a door. These locks were found full of sand and dirt, and were at first supposed to have been injured in mischief ; but upon being opened, were found to contain the nest of a mason bee with food for its young.
Another kind of bee I saw lately making its nest in an old nail-hole in the door of a shed. It was filling it quite full with food ready for its young.
## Chapter VII. varieties of the honey-bee.
Altiough we find the same animals in very different countries, yet, generally speaking, we find them varying in many respects--in appearance and habits--according to the country in which they live. Thus there are Arab horses and English horses, and, again, English dogs and French dogs. And in the same way, there are English bees, and Italian, Syrian, and Cyprian bees; also Indian bees and a race of stingless bees in Brazil, and very many more.
Again, just as some of the foreign animals are more valuable than the English varieties--as, for instance, the Syrian sheep, of which probably you have seen pictures with its long tail of valuable wool supported on a little carriage; so some kinds of foreign bees are better and more useful than the English, although we must add that some of them are bees of quick temper when carelessly treated, and sting very- sharp indeed. With some, however, it is just the reverse, and this is especially the case with the Italian, or, as they are sometimes called, Ligurian bees; of which kind you will hear a great deal, as numbers of them are now kept in all parts of the country instead of the common English bees.
These Italian bees came at first from the north of Italy, and are exceedingly beautiful bees, marked with three bright golden bands or girdles; and aresaid to be the best-tempered and gentlest of all bees, so long as they do not mix too much with their English neighbours. But that which makes them most valuable is not their good looks, but their activity and industry. They are early risers, and will be at work before the other bees are out of their hives ; and will continue to work in the fields and gardens later in the evening. They will also work longer into the cold weather of autumn, and at other times when most bees keep within doors. This is a very good character to give them--is it not?--early risers, hard workers, good - tempered. They are, I think, quite the sort of friends we should try to make.
Then, again, amongst the other varieties of which I spoke, there are some, of which probably many more than at present will be kept in England before long. The Syrian, for instance, is a very valuable race of bees. They are smaller than the Italian, but are marked in very much the same fashion. Unfortunately, however, they are very bad-tempered. This also is the character of the bees from the island of Cyprus ; which, however, notwithstanding their angry disposition, some say are the best of all bees.
A well-known bee-keeper went to Cyprus in 1882, taking the long voyage for the purpose of bringing home to England a great many of these bees. He tells us how, after much trouble, he bought forty hives in one place, and carried them a long way over rough mountain roads, on the back of mules, each mule carrying two colonies in the earthen hive of the country, slung, one on each side of the mule. On one occasion, however, the bees quite lost their temper. Perhaps he shook them, or disturbed their homes in too rough a manner ; and then, to teach him to be more gentle and careful, they punished him with a hundred stings.
If we go to India, we find many other kinds. The largest honey-bee yet discovered is a native of Hindostan, Ceylon, and the Malay Peninsula. It collects immense quantities of honey, which it stores in huge combs suspended from the topmost boughs of the tallest palm-trees, and also from rocks, in places often far out of reach. Some people have tried to keep them, but have not as yet succeeded, for the race is a very wild and savage one, as much so, in their way, as the terrible tigers of the country.
## Chapter VIII.
American bees--the bee-line.
America, as well as other countries, has 'its own bees. You will hear something later on of bee-keeping in America, and the vast scale in which it is carried on there ; but at present we are thinking only of the wild bees, or native races. There are a great number of these inhabiting the extensive forests of the country. And it is said that where monkeys abound, the wonderful instinct of the bee teaches it that the only safe place in which to build its nest, in order to be out of the way of these active thieves, is on the topmost and most slender - boughs of the trees, where even a monkey cannot climb.
In some parts of the country, where the nests are in hollow trees, or any other accessible place, a bee hunt often affords great amusement as well as profit. The hunter goes out near - the woods, and, after catching a bee, gives it as much honey as it can eat and carry ; and then, getting himself into a good position, so that when the bee flies he can see its little form against the light sky, he lets it go. The bee, after making a circle or two, goes straight home, the man watching it as far as he can, and taking particular notice of the direction in which it goes. It soon comes back again for some more honey, and the hunter knows it to be the same bee, for he has marked it with a little red paint.
Again he feeds the bee as - before, and then, going in the direction he saw it take the first time, he lets it go again, and marks its flight. And so, by degrees, he gets nearer and nearer to the nest.
Then he takes his bee, and goes to the right or left of the line, and lets it go again. Straight it flies, making thus, of course, a new 'bee-line,' as it is called, at a certain angle to the first line. Observing this carefully, the hunter knows that where these two so - called lines meet one another is the exact spot where he will find the nest. So it proves, and he takes the honey. It requires, of course, much care and ingenuity, but in this way affords good sport as well as profit.
You may try and find a wasp-nest some day much in the same way, for wasps, as well as bees, fly in a straight line when returning home. There is no loitering idly, remember, on the way, as very often we see in the case of boys and girls when sent on an errand--stopping and playing by the roadside, and forgetting for a time what they have been sent to do. No ; the bees go straight, and go as fast as they can. They have their work to do, and they do it.
How they are able to make this straight 'becline' home, even when they have never been the way before, is a great mystery. It is, indeed, by what we call their instinct, although we little know, perhaps, what instinct is. We only know that it seems in some way a marvellous power given them by the Creator, which, in many respects, almost supplies the place of the powers of reason given to man, and often enables them to do what man with all his reason never could.
It is the same instinct which is found even yet more wonderfully in some animals, and especially in dogs, who will find their way home for one or even two hundred miles across a strange country, where they have never been before.
A cat will sometimes do the same. The following story was given me on good authority :--A cat was taken by a lady from London to Lowestoft, on the Suffolk coast, by railway, a distance of a hundred and eighteen miles. There it escaped, and in a fortnight's time appeared at its old home in London,having found its way by the teaching or leading of its instinct. This is, indeed, far more wonderful than what bees can do, but it is example of the same kind of instinct. \(\sqrt{\phantom{
ule{0.0pt}{1.0pt}}
ule{0.0pt}{1.0pt}}\)
## Chapter IX.
Bees in the olden time.
Before we think more especially of English bees and bee-keeping, it will be interesting to look into some of the records of the long-ago past, and to see what was known of bees in the earlier ages of the world, and how far they were valued.
With this object in view, we look first at the Bible, and there again and again, in almost all parts, we find some mention or allusion to bees, or honey, or honeycomb. And we are led to think that, as in these days, the Holy Land had a very valuable race of bees, which greatly abounded, and gave honey held in high estimation and largely used as food.
In the very early days of the Patriarchs we know that the honey of the country was esteemed of sufficient value to form part of the 'present' which Jacob sent down into Egypt by his sons to appease the ruler of the land, his own son Joseph, that so he might send away his other son and Benjamin. The 'present' was a 'a little balm and a little honey, spices and myrrh, nuts and almonds.' Again, in Ezek, xxvii. 17, we read of honey as a distinct article of 'trade,' mention being made of Judah and the land of Israel trading in honey with Tyre.
Again, we read in the Bible of bees, just as in these days, building their nests in very various places --rocks, trees, and so forth. The Psalmist speaks (Psa. lxxxi. 17) of 'honey out of the stony rock.' And it was in 'the wood,' when 'honey dropped'from some nest built on a tree, that Jonathan took a little to satisfy the cravings of hunger, and without knowing it, disobeyed his father's command. And then we read of a colony of bees which actually made its nest in the carcase of the lion which Samson had killed some time before.
Whether the bees were, in any way, kept in hives, or the honey simply taken from wild bees, we can hardly say ; but, whatever the case in the Holy Land, bees were certainly thus kept (and had been so for long) in other countries in the time of our Lord. John the Baptist in the wilderness ate 'wild honey,' implying, perhaps, that some honey was to be had from bees not in a 'wild' state. At all events, in Greece and Italy bees had both been'kept' and observed long before this time.
Among the many who wrote of bees and honey in those olden days, Virgil, the great poet of Italy, who lived and died a few years before Christ, stands first of all. He devoted the whole of one of his books to the subject ; and although he made a great number of strange mistakes, and took many of his ideas from yet more ancient authors, and probably was not himself a bee-keeper, he must nevertheless have taken considerable interest in the subject As example of his errors, or of the common ideas of those days with regard to bees, he supposes that when bees are lost, a fresh colony can be obtained from the carcass of a young ox ; and he gives many and exact directions how to proceed in such a case.
He also speaks of bees carrying little stones to serve as ballast'to steady them in stormy weather :-