Edward Bevan

“ Of all the various members of the insect race, there is none which so abounds with useful lessons, or is more fraught with wonder, than the honey bee From the earliest ages it is found to have occupied the thoughts and the pens of the philosopher, the poet, and the moralist; and whether we consider its instincts, or its contributions to our comfort and convenience, there is scarcely one that can compete with it. In testimony of the early notice which it attracted, we have the evidence of Holy Writ, from which it may fairly be inferred that honey must have been one of man's earliest luxuries ”

“ I Shall now proceed to call your attention to the several members which form the bee community, and to some points in their wonderful economy. Every family of bees, when fully constituted, comprises a queen, several thousands of labourers, and several hundreds of drones. It is usual for naturalists, in giving an account of these insects, to commence with the Queen; but I, though a very loyal subject, shall give precedence to the labouring population, as constituting by far the most numerous portion of the family, and as being the most continuously and actively employed. ”

“ On going to the garden, he showed the bishop a long range of bee-hives. "There," said he, "is the bank from which I draw an annual dividend, and it is one that never stops payment." His harvest of honey enabled him to reduce materially his consumption of sugar, and also to send a considerable quantity to market; of the coarser portions he made a tolerable substitute for malt liquor, and the sale of his wax nearly paid his shoe-maker's bill! Ever since this memorable visit, when any of the clergy complained to the bishop of poverty, he would say to them "Keep bees! keep bees!" ”

“ A honey-comb is universally allowed to be one of the most striking achievements of insect industry, and a most admirable specimen of insect architecture. Every comb in a hive is composed of two ranges of cells backed against each other, and each cell is constructed - 17 - with the strictest mathematical correctness. According as they are designed for the cradles of working bees or of drones, they vary somewhat in dimensions, but in each size the strictest uniformity is preserved. ”

“ They are then quickly in the fields again in quest of a fresh supply. Thus, throughout the spring, summer, and autumn, whenever the weather is favourable, and even in unfavourable weather, if they are much in want of food or other materials, to use the language of the poet, the bees are to be seen,
"Gathering honey from every opening flower." ”

“ To accomplish this desirable object, every box or bee-hive should be furnished with movable wooden bars, upon each of which, or at any rate upon every other bar, pieces of worker-comb should be fixed, to serve as a guide to the bees, prior to their introduction to a swarm. This, you will perceive, has been attended to in the hive and boxes before you. And it will be found that the bees, if they have their guide-combs correctly and securely fixed, will invariably accept them as the foundations of their future structures ”

“ In the generality of seasons the bees obtain their principal stores of honey from the flowers of the fields, but they also, in some seasons, collect it much more abundantly from the leaves of several sorts of trees, on which it is deposited in the form of honey-dew, a very sweet substance which, having been sucked from the aforesaid leaves by an insect called the aphis or tree-louse, passes through its body nearly unchanged, covers those leaves which are beneath, and thus affords a delicious repast to bees, butterflies, and other insects. ”

“ The little creatures, when wax is needed, distend their stomachs with honey and remain in a quiescent state for about twenty-four hours, within which time the honey becomes changed in its nature, and oozes out between the scales in thin flakes ready for use. These the little artists remove with their hind legs, carry them forward to their mouths, and then mincing them up with a frothy liquor till the mass becomes glutinous, reduce it to a state which admits of its being easily moulded into honey-combs or any other form. ”

“ I have already stated that in the winter and the early spring the queen and the working bees constitute the whole family; but in April and May, in mild weather much earlier, so great a number of eggs is deposited, chiefly worker-eggs, but some portion also of drone-eggs, as, when hatched and brought to maturity, to encumber the hive so much by their numbers and the overpowering heat they produce, unless additional room be afforded them, as to cause the emigration of a large portion of the family. ”

“ How few are there, for instance, who, when partaking of their daily food, ever think of the numerous heads and hands that have been occupied in producing it, their anxious thoughts and laborious toils—to use a homely expression, that consider how the bread comes into the far mouths! But I have said enough, I trust, to set you a thinking, to call into exercise that best gift of God to man, his reasoning faculty, and feel confident that you will not be addressed in vain by your very sincere friend. ”

“ The under parts of her body are of a copper colour, so likewise are her thighs, but they are not furnished with baskets; for she has never occasion for any, being always waited upon by the workers. The sting of the working bee is quite strait; that of the queen is somewhat curved; and the tube which encloses it, besides its utility, as a sheath for the sting, affords a passage for the eggs which she lays; and, by its telescopic construction, she is able so to extend it as to deposit her eggs at the very bottom of the brood cells ”

“ The bees that are so rapidly bred in spring, as to render swarming or additional room necessary, finish their career about the commencement of winter: on those alone that are bred in smaller numbers, in autumn, devolves the business of the hive till the following spring, in the course of which they also become defunct. ”

“ In the next place, if the bees are not wealthy enough to spare a whole box full of honey, you can without difficulty take from them what they can spare. And thirdly, if in your apiary there should be any families very unequal in wealth, provided the boxes and bars are reciprocally adapted to each other, one or more bars can be removed from a weak hive and exchanged for the same number of loaded bars from a strong one, thus giving needful support to one or more families without injury to any. ”

“ Some of you I imagine to have a very limited acquaintance with bees, for the majority of those with whom I have conversed in other places respecting them have had their whole knowledge comprised in being simply aware that they can sting and gather honey. ”

“ The joints of which I have spoken enable it to fold itself up when at rest, and the desired protection is still further accomplished by means of a double sheath, in which the tongue, when unemployed, is always enclosed. There is much to excite our admiration in the manner in which the bees collect whatever they are in need of. Their first occupation in the earliest days of spring, as soon as breeding commences, is to collect the fertilising dust of flowers, known by the name of pollen or farina, and, as soon as they afford it, to procure honey from them ”

“ This, however, is an impunity which very few are endowed with, for in general the pain inflicted by a sting is very severe, not only at the moment, but, where timely remedies have not been applied, of considerable duration, ending often in much tumour and inflammation, and in some instances, where the stings have been numerous, fatal consequences have ensued. Whenever an attack is made by a bee, the person aimed at should walk quietly away to the nearest bush or other shelter. If he start or suffer himself to be ruffled, he is much more likely to be stung ”

“ The egg of the working bee is hatched in about four days, when it becomes a grub, in which state it is fed for about five days more, according to the temperature of the season; when it has increased so as to fill the cell, it is covered in by its nurses with a waxen lid. ”

“ I have told you that the working bees form the most numerous portion of the community; indeed for eight months of the year they and the queen constitute the whole; and in the height of the season every family numbers from twelve to twenty thousand, or more, but in - 10 - winter they become very much diminished, owing to the natural shortness of their lives, which only extend to from six to eight months. ”

“ Such wonderful specimens of constructive skill in the bee, as well as in some other members of the insect race, might well have excited the astonishment of Solomon and have called forth the apostrophes of David, and have led him to exclaim, when contemplating them, "Marvellous are thy works, O God! ”

“ Think how many flowers a bee must have visited to collect it, the trouble she must have had in constructing combs to receive it, how many journeys she must have made to import it, the pains she must afterwards have taken to secure it from being injured by exposure to the air, as well as from the depredations of wasps, moths, and other plunderers. ”

“ The same stock will occasionally throw off several swarms in the season, each successive swarm being always accompanied by the princess royal In general all the younger-princesses are kept imprisoned in their cells, till all further intention to swarm is given up, when those that are not required the queen regnant is allowed to destroy, which her jealousy is ever prompting her to do, whether they be required or not, and which nothing but the sedulous guard kept over them by the workers could prevent. ”

“ If the hive prove agreeable to the bees, they soon recover from the commotion, and as soon as they have become tolerably quiet, they should be carried to the place where they are intended to remain permanently, from whence they will soon begin to roam the fields in search of materials to furnish their new home. It is customary among the cottagers to make a noise when bees are swarming, generally by striking a frying-pan smartly with a large key. ”

“ In the formation of the common cells, you will be struck with the lightness of their structure, the wax expended upon them being employed with the strictest regard to economy, not a gram more being used than is barely necessary; whilst in fashioning the royal cradle, economy of materials would seem to be the last thing thought of. ”

“ If the family have neither a queen presented to them, nor eggs, nor grabs of a suitable age, they either pine gradually away or join some other establishment, transferring their allegiance to the sovereign thereof, and rewarding their new associates for their hospitality by an importation of the stores of the deserted hive. Before I take leave of the all-important lady I have been describing, I will just refer to the time the eggs which she respectively lays require for their full development as perfect bees. ”

“ I have told you already that the length of life allotted to the working bee does not extend beyond six or eight months; that of the drone seldom exceeds four months, whilst the queen's life is usually extended to three or four years. ”

“ If two or more of these royal ladies should happen to be at liberty at the same time, there is always a contest, which continues till fatal to all but one. A swarm consists of a queen, several thousands of working bees of all ages, generally also of a few hundreds of drones. ”

“ After this its various members become gradually developed, till, on the 21st day from the laying of the eggs it comes forth a winged insect. As respects the embryo queen, in her case every stage of the progression is shortened, and she is ready to emerge as a full-grown queen upon the sixteenth day. The progression of the drone is the slowest, four-and-twenty days being occupied before he arrives at maturity. In the respective periods of their adult existence, there is a still greater relative difference than in that of their embryo state. ”

“ They are emphatically called the working bees, and most properly, for they are true workers, enjoying nearly the whole of their time in fine weather in the collection and storing of provisions: much of it is also devoted to the construction of the waxen cells in which their stores are deposited and the young bees reared To each of these offices it has been generally considered that certain bees are duly appointed, and that thus the business of the hive is, by a regular division of labour, judiciously carried on. ”

“ Had such expedients been had recourse to by human beings, they would have been regarded as affording evidence of a continued chain of reasoning, for the most intelligent architect could not have more judiciously propped up a tottering fabric till it could be effectually secured.
Let me now bespeak your attention to the practical management of bees, and I shall precede my observations, thereon by addressing a few words to you upon the subject of swarming, though in all probability it is a proceeding familiar to most of you. ”