James Duncan

“ A loud confused noise is heard throughout the hive, and hardly any of the workers are observed going abroad to forage; numbers are whirling about in an unsettled manner in front of the hive; and the moment is come, to a considerable portion of the family, for bidding adieu to their ancient abode. All at once the noise in the interior ceases, and the whole of the bees about the doors re-enter; while those returning loaded from the fields, instead of hurrying in as usual, hover on the wing, as if in eager expectation. ”

“ And the excrescence produced in the human ear, which also goes by the name of wax, is certainly a substance as different from that of the body which produces it as either the one or the other. Upon the whole, until I meet with a more probable theory, supported by facts, I must give it as my humble opinion that the wax is produced from the body of the bee alone, or rather, that the bees can speedily convert into wax what they bring from the flowers, and therewith build their combs and seal up both their young and their honey. ”

“ In spinning the cocoon, the Queen spends only 24 hours; she remains in a death-like torpidity between two and three days, is then metamorphosed into a nymph, and, after remaining in that state four days and a half, she comes forth a perfect Queen on the sixteenth day. In the case of the workers and males, the transformation is no sooner completed than they are at liberty to abandon the confinement of the cradle, and hasten,—the former, at least,—to partake of the labours of the community, and to range the fields and flower-gardens in the very plenitude of bee-enjoyment. ”

“ Every person accustomed to work amongst bees, knows how safely he may go into the midst of a newly departed swarm, not one bee of which will molest him, unless he accidentally crush or injure it during his operations. They are so intent on the great object of their emigration, the acquisition of a new abode, and so sensitively anxious about the safety of their mother and Queen, that what on ordinary occasions would draw forth many a vengeful weapon, now passes utterly unheeded by them ”

“ They may then be seen in numbers crawling on the ground, where they perish from the cold, or are trampled under foot, and devoured by birds or frogs. Such as escape for a while, may be seen flying from destruction, lighting on the shrubs and flowers to enjoy a moment's respite from their terrors; or buzzing about our windows, or wandering about from hive to hive, into one of which they no sooner enter, than certain death awaits them. ”

“ In feeding a weak hive, a close neighbourhood is particularly dangerous; the smell of the syrup is quickly diffused over the whole colony, and pillage generally ensues. In swarming, too, when the newly departed emigrants are discouraged by a sudden blast or change of atmosphere, and the Queen hastens to return to her old abode, her ignorance of the locality, having, if a young queen, never been abroad before, renders her very apt to mistake and enter a hive where she is by no means welcome, and, the swarm following her, a bloody conflict takes place. ”

“ To the workers, also, are committed the various offices of guarding the entrance of the hive by night and day, during the honey season; of repulsing marauders—of keeping their abode free from all offensive matters—of renewing the air within by an ingenious mode of ventilation—of replacing a lost Queen, and of destroying the drones at the decline of the honey season. Receiving from nature these weighty charges, they labour assiduously to fulfil them; and, while each member of the community acts by the impulse of its individual instinct, it works less for private than for the general good. ”

“ During the larva-stage, as we have shewn, the solicitude of the workers about the welfare and nourishment of their infant charge is extreme; but from the moment they have sealed up the cell, and while the larva is undergoing its transformation, they seem to cease from every thing like individual attention; and though when a brood-comb is meddled with, their utmost ire is kindled against the invader, as far as concerns the reception of the newly-hatched insect, and its introduction to the duties and avocations of the Bee-community, they appear altogether selfish and indifferent. ”

“ It is mortifying to find writers of some celebrity in this branch of rural economy, defending the practice of suffocation, and using such arguments as the following: "If he who dines every day on a good dish of animal food, does not find fault with the farmer who sold his cattle to the butcher, or who carried them to the market after he had himself cut their throats,—why does he exclaim against the Bee-cultivator who suffocates insects destined by nature to die in the following year?" ”

“ If a stranger-bee by mistake enter a hive, and this sometimes happens in consequence of some slight alteration in the arrangement of the apiary, his close resemblance to his fellow-insects will not secure him from an immediate attack from all quarters; he is detected by a more subtle sense than vision, and instant flight alone can save him. Huber, to whose researches we are so much indebted in regard to the senses of Bees, has made some very conclusive experiments on that of smell, all of which we have repeated with precisely the same results. ”

“ Independent of the consideration that the carcase of the bee is not, like that of the sheep or ox, of use after its death, and that advantage may be derived from it while in life, the cold calculating spirit which could approve and recommend such uncalled-for barbarity, seems very inconsistent with the enthusiastic admiration of the insect generally felt by apiarians, and betrays more of the selfishness of the honey-merchant, than the generous feelings of the delighted Naturalist. ”

“ Wasps, particularly those of the hornet species, are most destructive to bees. We have often observed one of these marauders enter a hive with fearless intrepidity, and, watching its motions through the glazed frame, have been astonished by its feats of strength and agility. In ascending the combs it is, of course, instantly attacked by the rightful inhabitants; if one only venture to assail it, the unfortunate bee has no chance of victory, and but little of escaping with life ”

“ He loves not the honey, but the bees; and, it must be confessed, is frequently on the lookout for these industrious little insects. He plants himself on a post of the fence, or on a small tree in the garden, not far from the hives; and from thence sallies on them as they pass and repass, making great havoc among their numbers." The ravages of this little tyrant are not confined to the bee species; he is to be seen often "in pasture fields, taking his stand on the top of rank weeds near the cattle, and making occasional sweeps after passing insects, particularly the large black gad-fly. ”

“ Theirs is the office of searching for and collecting the precious fluid which not only furnishes their daily food, as well as that of their young, and the surplus of which is laid up for winter stores, but also the materials from which they rear their beautiful combs. In the little basket-shaped cavity in their hind-legs, they bring home the pollen or farinaceous dust of flowers, kneaded by the help of the morning dew into tiny balls, which form an important ingredient in the nourishment of the brood ”

“ We have seen it remarked, in Bee-publications, that the finest honey is got from young swarms; the fact is so, generally speaking, but not, as we might naturally be led to infer from the assertion, because it is the produce of young bees or of fresh swarms, but because bees swarm only at the height of the honey-season, when the flowers are in their richest fragrance, and because the combs are then new, and have not as yet served as receptacles for the brood. ”

“ The incontrovertible facts in the natural history of the Bee, are, in themselves, too remarkable to justify any attempt to draw upon the imagination for additional wonder; and the Naturalist who is desirous of making himself thoroughly acquainted with the instincts and habits of this interesting little creature, should be cautious in considering, as an established fact, any discovery, or supposed discovery, which has not been, again and again, verified by rigid experiment. ”

“ Sweeping the hollow of the honey-cup with their little probosces, the little skilful chemists eagerly imbibe the saccharine juices as they exude from the nectarium, receive them into the globular honey-bag, which forms their anterior stomach, and hurrying homewards with their precious load, disgorge it into the cells prepared for its reception. The quantity which each bee deposits at one time is very small, the honey-bag when full not exceeding the size of a pea; but the aggregate quantity collected by the whole population is prodigious. ”

“ Arriving amongst his hives, though from the chillness of a spring morning, not a bee is seen stirring out of doors, he has not time to fill the feeding-troughs from the vessel in his hand, before he is surrounded by hundreds; and in the space of five minutes or less, the float-board of every trough is covered with a dense mass of eager feeders. ”

“ The truth is, the Bees have recourse in spring, but generally speaking, in spring only, to dunghills and stagnant marshes, for the sake of the salts with which they are impregnated, and which their instinct teaches them are advantageous to their health after their long winter confinement. If we place before the Bees a portion of honey, and a portion of liquid drawn from a corrupt source, their choice will completely vindicate the purity of their taste, and their power of discrimination in the selection of their food. ”

“ Irritated by such opposition, and annoyed at the sight of so many royal cells in every quarter, the young Queen becomes extremely agitated, and at last rushes, together with the bees to whom she has imparted her agitation, through the outlets of the hive, and thus forms the second swarm. ”

“ Our prescribed limits have restricted us, in a great degree, to mere matters of fact, and prevented us often from illustrating our subject, as we might have done with advantage, by reference to the habits and instincts of other of the insect tribes. The same cause has operated as a bar to our indulging so frequently as our inclination would have led us, in those reflections which the wonders in animal economy are so well fitted to excite, and which lead so irresistibly to the conclusion that there is a Wise and Designing Cause. ”

“ Their mutual enmity may be truly said to be an in-born disposition with them, for no sooner has the first of the race in a hive about to throw off a second swarm, escaped from her own cradle, than she hurries away in search of those of her rivals, and, as will be afterwards described, exerts herself with the most impetuous eagerness to destroy them. When two Queens happen to emerge from their cells at the same time, a pitched battle takes place, which ends in the death of one of the combatants. ”

“ Exploring a glass hive in a soft spring morning, and following with his eye a Bee loaded with farina, the observer will perceive the little active forager, on her arrival in the interior, hurrying over the surface of the comb in search of a proper cell in which to deposit her burden; and having found one, fastening herself by the two fore-feet on its superior border, then bending her body a little forward, that her hinder feet may catch hold of the opposite edge of the cell. ”

“ Another species have their nests in the ground, enveloped like a sugar-loaf in a wrapper formed of a kind of matted fog. This is perhaps the insect met with by Humboldt, while exploring the Silla mountain in the province of Caraccas. It is described as a little smaller than the honey-bee of Europe, and as making its nest in the ground. It seldom flies, moves slowly, and is not apt to use its sting. Amongst the flowers in these regions to which the bees resort, is one which grows on the Tapurriba tree, and which communicates to the honey a peculiar bitterness. ”

“ There is another case in which this indifference appears very striking: a sudden change of weather about the end of autumn, from a mild temperature to raw frost, has such an immediate effect on the brood, that it is not uncommon to observe a young bee, which shall have so far succeeded in breaking its prison, as to extricate its head, and nearly its shoulders, yet perishing from cold in this situation, without the slightest effort on the part of the workers to save the life of a companion whose rearing has already cost them so much labour. ”

“ The time which they pass in this seeming repose is doubtless necessary for the elaboration of the honey, and the transfusion of the saccharine part in the form of wax. But in the centre of the mass, one worker has left its fellows, and laid the foundation of the future structure; it is succeeded by several others, each of whom, singly and separately, contributes its quantum of material and skill to the rising edifice, while succeeding bands of nurse-bees busy themselves in finishing and polishing the work, which the wax-workers have only rough hewn. ”

“ There may be one exception to these general remarks:—In a mild winter, a hive which is thinly peopled, but well-stored with food, has a chance of escaping. But even in this case, we cannot always count on its well-doing, though its failure may arise from a different cause. Want of numbers is injurious, not only because it is accompanied with the want of the requisite warmth, but also because it seems greatly to dispirit the bees; and we have seen many instances of hives deserted in spring while sufficiently provided with honey, but disheartened by paucity of numbers. ”

“ Now, this takes place only in certain circumstances, and under certain conditions, namely, that the family of the Queen so laying shall have been a very early swarm, that it shall abound in population, and that the season shall be genial, and the secretion of honey in the flowers plentiful. In such a favourable juncture of circumstances, it almost invariably happens that the Queen lays male eggs, and that, as the natural consequence, royal cells are built, in which she lays, and, in due time, she leads off a swarm. ”

“ No sooner has a swarm been safely lodged in a hive, than the industrious labourers commence the operation of building. One portion of the population employs itself in cleaning out their new abode, whilst a large number hastens to the fields, some of them to collect honey, the saccharine part of which is the source of the wax used in the construction of the combs,—and others to gather propolis, which is a tenacious substance employed in fixing the less adhesive wax to the roof of the hive, and in stopping up any crevices that might give entrance to vermin, or admit the cold. ”

“ A comb filled with brood, and placed in an empty hive, never fails to retain them there, to the utter disregard of the loss of their stores. The tenderest mother could not watch over her children with more affection, nor supply them with nourishment more impartially, or in greater abundance. At the same time it is done without waste, for the quantity is so proportioned to the demand, that none of it remains in the cells where the larvæ undergo their transformation to the nymph state. ”

“ He is a wise bee-master, then, who takes but one swarm from each stock; he may, generally speaking, depend on having stronger swarms, and a greater quantity of honey than he would have procured from double the number of seconds. There is but one way of preventing second swarms, and that is, by giving them more room, and destroying all the remaining royal cells, as soon as it is ascertained that a young Queen has been hatched, to preside over the community. A first swarm departs only on a fine day, when the sky is clear, and the sun shines; a second, or cast, is not so scrupulous. ”

“ On the Formation of Swarms.—The swarming season is to the amateur in Bee-economy, a most interesting period in the life and operations of these extraordinary insects, and affords, perhaps, fully as much gratification as any other part of their proceedings. By the mere practical Bee-master, who looks almost exclusively to the return of profit arising from their culture, the honey-harvest will, of course, be regarded as the period of most interest. ”

“ The collection of pollen by the bees is made in greatest quantity in the earlier part of the day, before the heat of the sun has dried up the moisture which renders it more easily packed into the little masses which adhere to their legs. After they are fully loaded, they return to their hive, and deposit their burden in cells in which there is neither honey nor brood. ”