BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
It would seem that stinging, which is really an act of defence, depends upon two characters, which may be inherited separately, (1) the flying to the molester and (2) the insertion of the sting into him. In our Western bees both of these characters are present, the former one in a modified degree. The Himalaya bees possess only the first. They only threaten to sting. But in honey-gathering they are probably much inferior to the European races.
In conclusion, I would again draw attention to the value of the bee produced in the first generation of a cross between two distinct breeds. When a bee-keeper introduces a new race or breed into his apiary he has two, not one, new bees to study, the pure breed and the half-breed, and in addition the host of varieties that follow in the second and later generations. The generality of bee-keepers do not sufficiently distinguish between pure breeds and half-breds. The term "Italian," for instance, is often applied indiscriminately to the young of an imported Italian queen, and the young of her daughters, reared and mated in Britain, and even sometimes to the later generations--in fact, to any bee that shows yellow bands. In this way many observations that have been made about Italians have failed to be of value, and have even been in conflict, one bee-keeper blaming them
A SCENT-PROducing organ in the abdomen of the worker Honey-Bee.
It has long been known that bees, under certain conditions, particularly when swarming, will often, in vibrating their wings, make a peculiar hum, and that in so doing they attract their comrades. The attractive power has been supposed to lie in the sound of the hum, but some observations that I have made have led me to the belief that it is at least partly due to a scent which is emitted from a membrane situate between the fifth and sixth dorsal segments of the abdomen. Ordinarily, this membrane is covered by the fifth segment, but whenever the humming takes place it is exposed and the scent is then given off.* The scent is pungent and suggests a mixture of that of iodine with that of formic acid. When humming and exposing the membrane, the bee stands in a particular attitude, the legs are extended and the tip of the abdomen is much raised, so that the exposed membrane occupies an elevated position. No doubt the vibration of the wings close to the elevated membrane distributes the scent in a very perfect manner.+
Footnote : The legs are extended, this tip of the abdomen raised, and the wings vibrated feehly by the bees that thrust out their stings in alarm when a hive is opened. The sting poison, which gathers in little drops on the tips of the stings, has a strong seent, which resembles that of jargonelle, and has the effect of alarming other bees and inducing them to sting.
I first noticed the scent during the hiving of a swarm in July, 1900, when hundreds of bees were exposing the membrane. In March, 1901, while dissecting the abdomens \(\sim\)f several freshly-killed bees, I noticed that one of them \(\sim\) out the same scent. I then separated the membrane of this specimen with as little of the surrounding integument as possible, and placed it upon a piece of card. Here it emitted the scent strongly for some minutes, whereas the rest of the abdomen had no smell. On repeating the experiment with another abdomen, a similar result was obtained, but I found that not every specimen produced the scent.
By squeezing the abdomen of a freshly-killed bee so thatthe tip is distended, a very good view of the membrane can be obtained (see Fig. 36 a). It is soft and semi-transparent. The portion \(b\) has a milky-white appearance, and under the microscope it appears to be finely rugulose or covered with a large number of minute vesicules. At \(\epsilon\), where the membrane joins the basal portion of the sixth segment, there is a long narrow channel, the basal part of which is also rugulose.
Fig. 36.
Tip of Distended Abdomeu of Worker Honey Bee seen from above, enlarged,
4p, 5p, 6p.-Fourtb, Fifth and Sixth Dorsal Segments.
6v.-Sixth Ventral Segment.
\(\lambda\).-Membrane. \(b\).-Rugulose portion. \(c\).-Nasanoff's canal.
It is the portion \(b\) and the channel \(\epsilon\) that are exposed when the bee is humming. It seems probable that the scent is produced by a liquid that is secreted in, and emitted from, the rugulose portion.
The organ in question appears to have been first noticed in the year 1883, when Nassanoff, of Moscow, decribed it, and an account of his description was sent by Zoubareff to the Swiss _Bulletin d'Apiculture_.
their condition may be, they will commence to hum and to expose the membrane. This action no doubt excites and warms them. It is usually intermittent, each interval being occupied in taking a few steps towards the interior of the hive; finally the bee disappears inside.
3. In certain artificial operations, such as when bees are being "'driven " from one hive into another, or when a number of bees are shaken into a box or on to the lighting board of the hive. (This's one of the simplest ways of demonstrating the phenomenon.)*
Under all these conditions there is a risk of loss of many bees either by their isolation, which may mean death by cold or starvation, or by their entering by mistake the wrong hive in which they may be killed, and it is the bees that have escaped from these dangers that attract the others still exposed to them; they draw them to the place of greatest safety, either to the queen or to the interior of the hive, or, when these places are not known, to where there is a large number of bees. A result of this arrangement is that when the number of bees in danger of failing to reach the place of safety is increased, these bees are more strongly attracted to it, because the number of those which succeed in reaching it is increased, and so large numbers of bees are not easily lost. A certain number of tired or young bees make themselves attractive as they enter the hive on almost every day when bees are flying, and no doubt during the whole season the loss of a very large number of bees is prevented by this action.
A constant waving of the antennae during the humming and exposure of the scent-producing organ indicates that the attractive impression is received by the antennae.
* [191] D. B. Casteel, _The Anatomy of the Honey-bee_, 1910, by R. E. Snodgrass, p. 68.
* [192] D. B. Casteel, _The Anatomy of the Honey-bee_, 1910, by R. E. Snodgrass, p. 68.
* [193] D. B. Casteel, _The Anatomy of the Honey-bee_, 1910, by R. E. Snodgrass, p. 68.
* [194] D. B. Casteel, _The Anatomy of the Honey-bee_, 1910, by R. E. Snodgrass, p. 68.
* [195] D. B. Casteel, _The Anatomy of the Honey-bee_, 1910, by R. E. Snodgrass, p. 68.
* [196] D. B. Casteel, _The Anatomy of the Honey-bee_, 1910, by R. E. Snodgrass, p. 68.
* [197] D. B. Casteel, _The Anatomy of the Honey-bee_, 1910, by R. E. Snodgrass, p. 68.
* [198] D. B. Casteel, _The Anatomy of the Honey-bee_, 1910, by R. E. Snodgrass, p. 68.
* [199] D.
bee be watched collecting pollen, it will be seen that the hind legs are never crossed, but that they are constantly rubbed together in a longitudinal direction. At the end of the tibia is a comb (3, Fig. 37). When the legs are being rubbed together the comb of the one leg scrapes the pollen out of the metatarsal brush of the other leg into the creep tacle 4, which I have named the **excipula.** The leg, previously bent, is now straightened (see Fig. 38), with the result that the auric closes on the excipula, compressing the pollen in it and forcing it up over its edge into the
corbicula at a spot (8) where there is a gap in the surrounding fence of bristles. The auric bears a fringe of hairs (7) directing the pollen into the corbicula. This process is repeated many times with both legs. The result is that the pollen collects, first at the distal end of the corbicula, then spreads, as it increases, over the floor of the corbicula, and finally rises and swells into a great lump bounded by the surrounding fence of bristles. After the floor of the corbicula has been fairly covered with pollen, further contributions are forced in as a wedge between the The surface of the robotic and the pollen already collected. This is seen in Fig. 40, which shows a pollen mass in the corbicula of a honey-bee caught early in April, fig12, consisting of white pollen, to which had been added a little orange pollen. It is also indicated in Fig. 42, which is an untouched micrograph of the two loads, cut in half, from the corbiculae of a worker of a bubble-bee, _Bombus terstris_, caught on July 23rd, fig12.
In the course of loading up this bee changed from white pollen to yellow or orange, and from yellow or orange to white no less than seven times, and the stratification caused by the successive changes is very instructive.
The bee keeps the growing load in shape by patting it occasionally with the metatarsus of the middle leg. The exact region thus patted is shown in Fig. 40 (middle drawing) as a remotely dotted area consisting of orange pollen added by the patting.
Casteel has lately pointed out that when the pollen grains are small, and the whole mass in the corbicula is well moistened, marks made by some of the corbicular bristles will be seen on the sides of the load. These scratches are transverse in direction, and show that the mass has been increased by the addition of pollen pushed up from below.*
The bubble-bee is the only bee besides the honey-bee outside the tropics that possesses a corbicula, and she loads it with pollen in essentially the same way as the honey-bee, but the apparatus employed is less specialised. On reference to Fig. 4, it will be seen that the bristles comprising the hind metatarsal brush are arranged, not in rows, but irregularly, as in the solitary bees. The pollen paste is found only in the corner of the brush nearest to the auric, which is the only part of the brush scraped by the vom. Only the upper end of the comb comes into contact with the brush. The teeth at the lower end of the comb are, in, fact, useless, being slender and hair-like (see Fig. 44), whereas in the honey-bee every tooth is well formed (Fig. 45). Indeed, the bubble-bee's comb shows very plainly that the teeth of the comb in both bees are nothing more than specialised hairs. In the bubble-bee the tips of the teeth form a nearly straight line, but in the honey-bee they form a convex curve, thereby making the comb an efficient instrument for combing out the whole of the metatarsal brush. The tibial spurs (Fig. 44, \(s\), _s_) would impede the working of so perfect a comb as that of the honey-bee and, though present in all other bees, are absent in _.ipis_ and its tropical allies, _Trigona_ and _Melipona_. At the base of the comb in each bee is a glabrous or naked area (_g_), which indicates by its width what part of the comb is most used.
In the honey-bee the working surface of the auric is covered with numerous small pointed teeth (6, Fig. 37) inclining in the direction that the pollen moves, but in the bubble-bee the surface is smooth.
The entrance to the corbicula, named by me the **Irmen** (8, Fig. 37) is worth a moment's attention. In the bubble-bee its edge is covered with short fluff consisting of fine branched hairs. Further in stand about three stiff bristles
Figure 44:
Tibial comb of right hind leg of _Bombus terrestris_, worker, inner side. \(s\), inner spur; \(\sigma\), pars glabrum; m, metatarsus brush; \(e\), part of metatarsal. brush ibat bears moist pollen.
Figure 45:
Tibial comb of right hind leg of _Apis mellifica_, worker, inner side. \(0\). pars glabrum.
Figure 46:
Distal and of left tibia of _Apis mellifica_, worker, end view, showing excipula and limen; \(e\), comb.
Figure 47:
Distal end of left tibia of _Bombus terrestris_, worker, end view, show-
excipula and limen; \(e\), comb.
Ideaning towards the entering stream of pollen. These bristles form a means of attachment to the corbicula for the pollen mass before it has grown large enough to be held by the bristles at the sides. In _Apis_ the fluff is scanty, and there is only one long impeding bristle (1o, Fig. 37). In both bees the entrance to the corbicula is overarched by the bristles on either side (see Figs. 37 and 43). This arch helps to support the accumulated mass of pollen while allowing fresh pollen to pass in freely underneath it.
It is evident that the honey with which the pollen is moistened comes from the mouth. Some authors have supposed that the honey is removed from the mouth on the feet, which are thus rendered sticky, so that the pollen dust clings to them ; others that the pollen dust is conveyed to the mouth to be moistened. It is true that I have found occasionally a minute ball of moistened pollen in the mandibles of pollen-collecting bees, but this might be accounted for by the fact remarked by Hommell, and later by Crawshaw and Casteel, that the mandibles are used to some extent in collecting pollen from the flowers. In the case of such flowers as white arabis, wallflower, and red ribes, the pollen is entirely gathered in the region of the mouth.
Casteel, in his recently published paper, _The Behaviour of the Honey-bee in Pollen Collecting_, considers it is extremely difficult to determine with absolute accuracy the essential steps involved in the process of adding moisture to the pollen. **He** states, however, that the honey from the mouth becomes well distributed over the brushes of all the legs, and that " all of these brushes also transport wet pollen which has come from the mouth parts, and thereby acquire additional moisture. The auricles and the plante of the hind legs become particularly wet from this source, since fluid is squeezed from the wet pollen when it is compressed between the auricles and the distal ends of the tibie. Dry pollen which falls upon the body hairs becomes moist when brought into contact with the wet brushes or with wet pollen. During the process of manipulation pollen passes backward from its point of contact with the bee toward its resting-place within the baskets."
**I** have noticed that the pollen on the brushes of the hind legs is much more moist than that on the brushes of the foreand middle legs. This greater wetness of the pollen on the hind legs may very well be accounted for partly, as Casteel points out, by the squeezing of the pollen between the auricle and the tibia, and partly by the fact that, by the frequent rubbing of the pollen-laden hind legs together with the addition of little or no dry pollen, the moisture is brought to the surface, just as when one works up a ball of dough it becomes sticky and clings to the board and rolling-pin if one does not keep adding flour.
It is well known that the honey-bee collects propolis in its sorbicule. Thinking it would be impossible for it to pass such a sticky substance through the leg into the sorbicule as it does pollen, I exposed a propolised quit in my apiary to the warm sunshine on a sunny day in March, rg12, and watched to see what would happen. A bee soon alighted, and after making several futile attempts, succeeded in detaching with its mandibles a little bit of propolis. Seizing the fragment in its fore legs, it dashed it into the left sorbicule with the left middle leg, and immediately afterwards patted it with the metatararus of this leg. Further fragments were detached with the mandibles and the bee succeeded in dashing many of them into its sorbicule in the same manner as before, some of them being converved by the left middle leg to the left sorbicule, and others by the right middle leg to the right sorbicule.
Thus the honey-bee loads its sorbicule with propolis in an entirely different way to that in which it loads it with pollen.
_This book is dedicated to my full partner -- my wife._QUECH REARING SIMPLIFIED
Jay SMITH
_Published by_
THE A. I. ROOT COMPANY
Copyright. 1923, by The A. I. Riout Company.
Marke in U. S. A.
## Chapter 11
For several years past there has been a growing interest in Queen-rearing, as more beekeepers are coming to recognize the important part the queen plays in bekeeping. I have been receiving a large amount of correspondence on the subject of Queen-rearing from beekeepers wishing for detailed information on the subject. Their many questions have prompted me to attempt this book, and to explain such points as are not clear to those interested in Queen-rearing.
To assist the honey producer in rearing his own appears is my primary object: but I also describe methods adapted to the amateur as well as the commercial queen-broeder. To the beginner in bekeeping, however, I would recommend a careful study of one or more of the following books on general bekeeping before taking up this work: "The A B C and X Y Z of Bee Culture" (Root), "Bekeeping" (Phillips), "Starting Right With Bees (Rowe), "Langstroth on the Honey Bee" (Dudant), "Fifty Years Among the Bees" (Miller). In addition to bee books one should read all articles in the bee journals by able writers and especially those written by Geo, S. Demuth, who is now generally recognized as our highest authority on bekeeping. For a description of different methods of Queen-rearing read Pellett's "Practical Queen Rearing."
In presenting this volume to the bekeeping public, nothing radically new or revolutionary is offered. The system described has been taken from many sources, so it is impossible to give credit to all who have contributed through their books and their writings to our bee journals. More is due to Mr. G. M. Doolittle than any other, for to him we owe the invention of artificial cell eups and the art of grafting.
I shall deal mainly with the successes I have had and not with the failures. I have two reasons for doing this. One is, that almost any bekeeper has failures without having to refer to a text-book on the subject; and the second is, that I wish to keep this book within modest dimensions. If I should chronicle all of my failures, a book so voluminous would result that a Webster's Unabridged might look like a vast-poeket edition in comparison.
The object of this book, then, is not to present many new methods but to place before the reader, with the aid of the camera, such methods with variations as I have used for twenty-one years, and to describe them in detail so that any one wishing to rear queens can succeed, and, if failure comes, he may refer to this book, and find the cause of it. Many have reported indifferent success with the grafting method of queen-rearing. Upon investigation, it was frequently found they had carefully followed all of the rules laid down with _one_ or _two_ exceptions. These very exceptions brought the failure. I hope this book may be of help to such. Frankly, I do not know whether it will or not. The reader must be the judge. Again, if this little volume interests some overworked business or professional man or woman, and, through it, pleasure and recreation are gained, and he is thus better able to meet some of the harsher things of life, I shall consider my efforts have not been in vain.
Vineineine-, Inselam, Wheeler 3, 1994.
## Importance of good Queens.
Chapter I.
In view of what has been said by the writers in the past, it would hardly seem necessary, if the best results are to be obtained in honey production, to call attention to the importance of having every colony headed by a good, prolific Italian queen.
You will note that I say a good _Italian_ queen. Ieekeepers are practically unanimous in the opinion that the Italian bees are much superior to Ihacks in nearly all respects. They are better workers, swarm less, are more gentle and are much superior in cleaning out European fool brood. Unfortunately the black bee was introduced into the United States over two hundred years before the Italian, and therefore the Blacks have become pretty well established in all parts of our country. They are now found wild in trees and rocks in every state from coast to coast, and in many parts of Canada. Consequently, one very good reason why the honey pro-dheer should rear his own queens is to get rid of the black bees and hybrids.
Every heekeeper conceeles the point that each colony must be healed by a good prolific queen, and all writers on the subject have emphasized it in the strongest terms, yet in truth very few of us fully realize the importance of good queens.
Put yourself to this test. When the season is over and you are taking off the honey, notice how much more honey some colonies produce than others. Then get out your pencil and paper, and figure how much more money you would have made if _all_ colonies had made as much honey as the best. The results are frequently starting. Then remember that there is positively no one element that contributes to the production of these big yields as much as _good young queens_. After you have these results tabulated, consider whether or not it would pay you to rear your own queens and because an expert at it, or have some members of the family or linu take up this most important branch of heekeping.
Our best authorities are agreed that there is not so much difference in the inherent honey-getting ability of the different colonies as there is in the _condition_ of these colonies; that is, they produce large honey crops because the conditions within the hives are ideal. There were plenty of voting bees and brood at exactly the right time. These colonies seemed to devote all of their energy to honey-getting. They did not bear. They did not swarm. They just _worked_, and these conditions were brought about by the fact that these colonies had good young queens, and not because they had inherited any exceptional traits or were constitutionally superior. That there is a difference in the honey-getting ability of different colonies is not denied; but it is difficult, indeed, to be able to prove that the reason a colony made the largest surplus was due to natural ability rather than to the condition within the hive.
* [1] D. H. HILL LIBRARY
* [2]**North Carolina State Collapse**Therefore, it is no easy matter for the honey producer to pick out the best queen, since it may be the opportunity that the queen had, rather than her natural ability. How, then, are you to select your breeding queen? First, be careful to see that _conditions_ are the same in all colonies, and that the queens are of the same age. Then select the queen that has the most desirable qualities, such as prolificeness and vigor, and whose bees are gentle, of pure blood, good honey-getters, showing little inclination to swarm.
Years ago I endeavored to breed up a honey strain by simply using as a breeder the queen whose bees produced the largest yield. I found that the honey-getting quality was not in the least improved; but that the bees were getting cross and dark in color. Then I adopted the rule of selecting the largest and most prolific queen whose bees were gentle and of good color. I found that better results were at once obtained. Being more prolific, this queen was able to keep the hive full of brood and bees at the beginning of the honey flow, which is the secret of successful honey production. If this rule is followed and in addition all colonies are re-queened from the best, in order to have them as nearly alike as possible in every respect, then we may select as our breeder the one that has the above qualifications and also the one that produces the biggest crop.
Some have reported that a medium-sized queen is as good as a larger one. That has not proved true in my experience, which has been that the larger the queen, the better. A queen that is extremely prolific has to be very large in order to contain the necessary number of eggs in process of formation to enable her to lay the four or five thousand eggs per day, which is the performance of a really good queen.
When the virgin emerges from the queen-cells, she should be large, long and pointed. In three or four days, she will be much smaller, but extremely active and nervous. After mating she rapidly becomes larger until she is twice her former size. The abdomen becomes long and broad near the thorax, gradually tapering to a point. Short, blunt queens are inferior.