Bee-eater

“ Its beak is slightly curved and black; a bar of the same hue runs through the eye. The throat is a beautiful turquoise blue. The wings are tinted with bronze, so that the bird, when it flies, looks golden rather than green. The most distinctive feature of the bee-eater is the middle pair of tail feathers, which are blackish and project beyond the others as sharp bristles.
Bee-eaters feed upon insects which they catch on the wing. The larger species live up to their name by devouring bees and wasps. ”

“ Their cries, while they skim through the air on rapid wing, are constant. The name of Bee-eaters they receive from their principal food, which consists of large bees and wasps. They seize their prey either on the wing, like the Swallows, or secrete themselves at the entrance to a hive, and catch the inmates that enter or depart, whose stings they are skilful in avoiding. Living together in numerous flocks, they rapidly clear a district of wasps and bees. ”

“ The insectivorous animals, birds, among which there is one especially their arch-enemy—the bee-eater; those reptiles which can reach them; many insects in a variety 52of ways, as the cuckoo-bees, whose foster-young starve the legitimate offspring by consuming its sustenance; and personal parasites, whose abnormal and eccentric structure required an Order to be established for their admission. ”

“ The flight of Bee-eaters is rapid and Swallow-like, and they have a habit of sitting on dead branches or even upright sticks, from which they dart in pursuit of their prey, to return again promptly after the manner of Flycatchers. They skim actively over the surface of the earth, sail aloft in circles, or float with slightly upturned wings in the air ”

“ Bee-eaters working at the nest present a pleasing spectacle. The sexes excavate turn about. The site chosen may be a bunker on the golf links, the butts on the rifle range, a low mud boundary between two fields, or any kind of bank. The sharp claws of the bee-eaters enable the birds to obtain a foothold on an almost vertical surface; this foothold is strengthened by the tail which, being stiff, acts as a third leg. In a surprisingly short time a cavity large enough to conceal the bird completely is formed. ”

“ When Fish are scarce they feed upon aquatic Insects, which they seize on the wing. They build their nests in the steep banks of rivers, either in the natural crevices, or in holes hollowed out by Water-rats; and these dwelling places are generally littered by the fragments of their food. Father and mother sit alternately, and when the young are hatched they feed them with the produce of their fishing. The Bird has a shrill and piercing note, which it utters on the wing.
THE BEE-EATERS. The Bee-eaters have the beak long, thin, slightly curved and pointed; the wings are long and pointed ”

“ His eye moves restlessly around him, traces the flight of an insect for a moment or two, then that of a second, and even a third, until he perceives one to his liking, when with a shrill sweep he pursues, seizes it, and returns to the same spot to look out for more. This habit is so conspicuous, when he is watching the bee-hives, that several intelligent farmers of my acquaintance are of opinion, that he picks out only the drones, and never injures the working-bees. Be that as it may, he certainly gives a preference to one bee, and one species of insect over another. ”

“ He took a quiet whiff or two, enjoying the effect of this seeming paradox, then went on to explain.
“What the bees gather from the flowers,” said he, “is no more honey than barley and hops are beer. Honey has to be manufactured, first in the body of the bee, and then in the comb-cells. It must stand to brew in the heat of the hive, just as the wort stands in the gyle-tun; and when it is ready to be bunged down, before the bee adds the last little plate of wax to the cell-capping, she turns herself about and, as I believe, injects a drop of the poison from her sting—or seems to do so. ”

“ Kingbirds were for a long time believed to eat bees and therefore were in disfavor. They were called Bee-birds or Bee-Martins and were shot by bee-keepers who did not understand their great value. Professor Beal and other investigators in the Biological Department at Washington have discovered that ninety per cent. of kingbirds’ food consists of insects, mostly injurious beetles that prey upon grain and fruit. They occasionally eat bees, but examination of many stomachs reveals a marked preference for drones over workers, and for wasps, wild bees, and ants over hive bees. ”

“ A hundred times it flutters, secures its insect prey, and takes up its old position on the stump. Bronze fly, bluebottle, and droning bee are secured alike, for all serve as food to the loveable pied fly-catcher. ”

“ 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. ”

“ And so they keep the hive always at the right temperature for honey-making, and for hatching out the young bees.”
“Who was it,” he asked ruminatively, as the gate of the bee-farm closed at last behind us, and we were walking homeward through the glimmering dusk of the lane—“who was it first spoke of the ‘busy bee’? Busy! ’Tis not the word for it! Why, from the moment she is born to the day she dies the bee never rests nor sleeps! It is hard work night and day, from the cradle-cell to the grave; and in the honey-season she dies of it after a month or so. It is only the drone that rests. ”

“ Here is a chance for you to exercise your ingenuity in so arranging a glass sash, as to secure these conditions, and yet not trouble the bees by having them bump against the glass by mistake. If they don’t notice the meal, as some complain they will not, start them by giving a piece of comb honey laid in the midst of the meal; get a few bees on the comb from several hives until they have got a taste, if you cannot start them otherwise. When they begin on natural pollen they will take little notice of the meal. Equal parts of oats and rye ground fine seems to please our bees best. ”

“ The stout and bustling humble-bee leads with a deep bass rumble as it blunders from blossom to blossom on the bramble or stirs the dust amidst the tree roots as it searches for something, the bee alone knows what. ”

“ When drones are observed in a hive late in autumn, it is usually a sign that the stock is poor.—Working bees compose the most numerous body of the state. They have the care of the hive, collect the wax and honey, fabricate the wax into combs, feed the young, keep the hive clean, expel all strangers, and employ themselves in promoting the general prosperity. The working bee has two stomachs, one to contain the honey, and another for the crude wax. ”

“ Amongst birds, that little marauder the blue titmouse (parus major of Linneus) stands the foremost as their enemy, for, says Purchas, "she will eat ten or twelve Bees at a time, and by and by be ready for more; she feeds her young ones also with them. She eats not the whole Bee, but divides it in the middle, pulls out the bagge of honey, litting drop the skinny outside; in the spring she watches for them in the willow and sallow trees, and takes them when they are at their work." ”

“ They stay with us all winter, and hunt out sleeping flies, and the eggs and chrysalids of moths and beetles. The king-bird is called the bee-martin, and has been accused of eating honey bees. It has been found that it eats only drone bees. Drones have white faces, and no stingers. And it catches the robber-fly that destroys bees. King-birds protect poultry yards and other song birds by driving away hawks, crows and jaybirds. They eat such wild fruits as elder berries. Hawks and owls live mostly on mice, moles and other small rodents. ”

“ No sight is more exciting than that of a swarm of bees. The air is clouded with the circling bees—vocal with their united music, while the eyes of the bee-master quietly watch their descent. As soon as the queen settles, the bees cluster around her and hang from the branch on which she has settled. As soon as the great mass has settled, take your bee-box or hive, hold it with one hand, mouth or bottom upward, beneath the swarm, enclosing as many of the pendent bees as the situation will allow. ”

“ Thus, again, we are struck with the fact that the more closely we examine the organs of any segment of the body of the insect, the more reason do we find to admire the skill, and the care for His creatures, manifested by the infinitely wise and the infinitely good Maker of them all. Beauty, adaptation, perfection, are the words which are continually suggested to our minds by the contemplation of the structure of the bee. ”

“ That the bees of a fairly large apiary should produce a considerable volume of sound in their passage to and fro between the hives and the honey-pastures is in no way remarkable. In the heyday of the year—the brief six weeks’ honey-flow of the English summer—probably each normal colony of bees would send out an army of foragers at least twenty thousand strong. What really seems matter for wonder is the way in which bees appear to concentrate their movements to certain well-defined tracks in the atmosphere. ”

“ He runs the gauntlet every time he enters. Through my glass observatory windows I watch the conflict. One bee, half his size, seizes him by the throat, another gives him a taste of his sting, and two or three watchers seize him by the legs and drag him out. I have hit on an admirable plan of keeping him off, well worth disclosing to every bee-master. I place at the entrance of the hive a stick of barley-sugar a couple of inches long. This brings to the entrance a dozen of bees, who thankfully feed on it. ”

“ There was, no doubt, a time of old that tradition could tell about, before all this sweat-shop business was afoot, when a bee might have some individuality and some kind of family life for himself, some sort of pleasure of his own; when he could stretch his sticky legs comfortably of an evening and in a pair of loose pantouffles, unfold his newspaper leisurely, and read under his carefully adjusted spectacles, the latest doings in the bee and blossom world ”

“ THE BEES’ ENEMIES BEES have many enemies, apart from robber bees, who try to steal their honey. In winter-time, when pressed by hunger, certain birds come to a bee-hive and commence tapping on the alighting-board. Of course some of the bees come to the door to see what is the matter, and no sooner do they appear on the threshold than the sharp little birds grab them in their beaks, and so make a meal. Birds often catch the bees as they are gathering nectar in the fields, and no one knows how many perish in this way. ”

“ The former observes also, that bees never sting but in the neighbourhood of their property, unless hurt; that they never contend with each other for honey, unless it be placed within the boundary of their own right,—but that what they have collected they defend. The indisposition of bees to attack or be angry at a distance has been confirmed by Mr. Knight, who says, that, though the most irritable of animals near home, he has seen them suffer themselves to be patiently robbed of their loads by other bees, and that he has witnessed this in the same bee three times in succession. ”

“ When she finds the place she wants she puts some honey and pollen there, and lays an egg on the little pile. After a while the larvas come out of the eggs. When they have eaten what they want they make a cocoon, and curl up for a rest while they are being made into little workers. You know, the bee family is made up of the mother bee, who is called the queen, and many fathers, who are called drones; all the rest are workers. ”

“ The active life of bees is divided between collecting food and rearing young. We shall therefore consider these two functions separately.
The food collected consists of two kinds, honey (which, although stored in the 'crop' for the purpose of carriage from the flowers to the cells, appears to be but the condensed nectar of flowers) and so-called 'bee-bread.' This consists of the pollen of flowers, which is worked into a kind of paste by the bees and stored in their cells till it is required to serve as food for their larvæ. ”

“ In many of the modern structures held out for imitation, the bee-house, or apiary, is an expensive, pretentious affair, got up in an ambitious way, with efforts at style, in the semblance of a temple, a pagoda, or other absurdity, the very appearance of which frightens the simple bee from its propriety, and in which we never yet knew a colony of them to become, and remain successful. The insect is, as we have observed, wild and untamable—a savage in its habits, and rude in its temper. ”

“ And how does the preponderance of butterflies in the upper regions of the air affect the colour and brilliancy of the flowers? Simply thus. Bees, as we are all aware on the authority of the great Dr. Watts, are industrious creatures which employ each shining hour (well-chosen epithet, 'shining') for the good of the community, and to the best purpose. The bee, in fact, is the bon bourgeois of the insect world: he attends strictly to business, loses no time in wild or reckless excursions, and flies by the straightest path from flower to flower of the same species with mathematical precision. ”