BEES. THEIR HABITS AND MANAGEMENT. THREE CLASSES OF BEES.-The Queen Bee is the sovereign, and literally the prolific parent of all her subjects. She is the sole monarch. Her body is longer, larger, and more pointed than that of the others, and her wings are much shorter than theirs, hardly reaching beyond her middle, whereas those of the others cover the entire body; her belly and legs are of a deep golden color, and the latter are not furnished with the little brushes which those of the workers have, to help them in collecting the floury matter which they require for making honey. Anecdote of two Queen Bees.-The queen bears no rival authority. If there should be a second queen, she is either sent forth with an attendant swarm of colonists, or put to death by the other bees. Huber gives an account of a duel between two queens, who, issuing from their nurseries in the same hive, rushed into deadly conflict, catching each other with the teeth. As if they dreaded the fatal consequences to themselves, which would follow from unsheathing their darts, they had the prudence to separate at the height of their fury and fly away. But the other bees compelled them to decide the point of sovereignty on the spot, and then forced them to the contest again. This was done repeatedly, after intervals of breathing-time, until the stronger of the two, seizing the other by the wing, stabbed her to death. The queen-bee commences depositing her eggs when about five days old; during the heat of the season she lays from one hundred and fifty to two hundred eggs per day, and lays with little or no intermission from early spring to the middle of autumn. Drones.-The second class of bees are the drones. They are bulkier in the body than either the queen or the working-bee. Their head is rounder, proboscis shorter, eyes fuller, an additional articulation to the antennæ, and no sting. They also make more noise in flying than the other bees. The drones are the males of the hive; by them the royal mother is impregnated and her eggs fertilized. How or when this intercourse takes place has long furnished philosophers with a subject for controversy and inquiry; and it has not even yet been set at rest in such a manner as to admit being proved to a positive demonstration. The drones form about a tenth part of the population of a hive. They are certainly idle and lazy, as are the husbands of other queens; yet they fulfill the objects of their creation. They cannot collect honey, for they have not the necessary organs for the purpose; their teeth are too little and too short for breaking off the capsules, their mouths are not well formed for sucking the sweets of flowers; and their legs have not those brushes or powder-puffs which enable the other to bring home the farina wanted for making wax. During the summer they find food for themselves, and pass their time in lounging from flower to flower, and they are not found in the hive during the winter. By an extraordinary instinct, they are massacred without pity by the females before this period, in order to save the winter stock of honey, until they have departed voluntarily to some nook where they may rest until wanted in the next spring. These poor things have no weapons of defense. Working Bee. The third class is the working bee. The working bee is considerably less than either the queen bee or the drone. It is about half an inch in length, of a blackish brown color, covered with closely set hairs all over the body, which aid it in carrying the farina it gathers from the flowers; and on the tibia, or forearm, as it were, of the hind leg, is a cavity of cup-like form, for the reception of the kneaded little ball of pollen. It is the working bee which collects honey and pollen, and which forms the cells, cleans out the hive, protects the queen, looks after the condition of the young brood, destroys or expels the drones, when these are no longer necessary to the well-being of the community; who, in short, performs all the offices connected with the hive and its contents, save only those which have reference to the reproduction of the species. The working bees are of no sex, and are furnished with a horny and hollow sting, through which poison is ejected into the wound it makes; this poison is of an acrid character, and of great power in its effects, proving fatal to any insect, and instances are on record of its proving so to horses and cattle, nay, even to human beings: when human beings, however, are stung (an accident that will happen very seldom, if they use the precautions in manipulating with their bees, that shall be detailed in the course of this volume), they can instantaneously obtain relief by pressing upon the point stung with the tube of a key; this will extract the sting and relieve the pain, and the application of common spirits of hartshorn will instantaneously remove it; the poison being of an acid nature, and being thus at once neutralized by the application of this penetrating and volatile alkali. WONDERFUL INSTINCTS AND CONTRIVANCES OF BEES.-The contrivances of bees in the construction of their combs are amongst the most wonderful works of God, as regards insect creation. "The form of the comb is in every country the same, the proportions accurately alike, the size the same, to the fraction of a line-go where you will, and the form is proved to be that which the most refined analysis has enabled mathematicians to discover, as of all others the best adapted for the purpose of saving room, work, and materials. This discovery was only made about a century ago; nay, the instrument that enabled us to find it out was unknown for half a century before that application of its powers. And yet the bee has been for thousands of years, in all countries, unerringly working according to a fixed rule, which no one had discovered until the eighteenth century." We may instance among other surprising illustrations of the ingenuity of these wonderful creatures, that they lay the foundations of their cities at the top of the hive, and build downward. They have straight passages, or lanes, across their different dwelling-places, wide enough for two bees to pass. ADVANTAGES OF KEEPING BEES.-It is strange, that though the expense of establishing stocks of bees, where there is a garden, is so trivial, and the possible gain so great, few people take the trouble of keeping them. Country cottagers too generally neglect to take advantage even of an adjoining common or lonely garden, which specially invite to beekeeping. Where cottage gardens are very small and crowded, and multitudes of children swarm, it is certainly difficult, if not dangerous, to introduce tens of thousands of bees, with their formidable stings; but in numberless instances where bee-husbandry is neglected, it might be pursued with some profit. No farmer, nor even humble cottager, who has a patch of garden, and lives near commons, heath-covered hills, or woods, should be without hives, as the great supply of bees' food is obtained by their own exertions. It is not the rarest and most beautiful flowers which afford the best honey, but those which abound in the open fields as well as in the garden; the flowers of mountain heath, clover, trefoil, beans, vetches, wild thyme, turnips and cabbages, privet, elder, bramble, rue, and, above all, the blossoms of the common furze, are among the best materials for honey. The cost of food is scarcely any thing, and the return may be considered clear gain. The trouble of rearing bees, compared with the pleasure or the profit, is nothing. MANAGEMENT OF BEES.-To him who is about engaging in bee-keeping, the first question of interest is, how to select his stock. As a rule, the spring is the best season to purchase a stock of bees, as they have then passed the casualties of the winter; and the question of profit, so far as the first year is concerned, is quite clear, if the swarms are judiciously chosen. Their value depends upon the health and number of bees, and the time they have occupied the hive. The number in a colony can be judged of with comparative accuracy by raising the hives and examining them, or by the hum produced on giving them slight taps; and by the weight, as shown either by lifting or weighing. The age of a swarm is told by the color of the comb; in new swarms the color being white, and varying from that to nearly black, in very old swarms. The brood combs grow thicker with age, and the cells and the bees hatched in them are therefore smaller, and the latter feebler. It is poor economy to purchase a colony more than two years old. Transporting Bees.-Let the hive be placed on a cloth, the ends of which must be carefully tied over the top; if it is to be taken to a distance, the hive so tied up may be swung on a pole fastened across a cart from side to side; this prevents the jolting to which it might otherwise be subject, which would disturb the bees, and probably shake down the comb. When arrived at its destination, let the hive be placed on the stand, and if any of the bees have fallen out on the cloth, place them near the entrance, and they will soon find their way in. SPRING MANAGEMENT.-As soon as the weather is fine examine your hives by lifting them carefully from the stand. Clear away all the dead bees and refuse matters which have collected during the winter. Rub |