[8] Pictures by Courtesy of E. R. Root Co.
Of all the insect associations there are none that have more excited
the admiration of men of every age or that have been more universally
interesting than the colonies of the common honey-bee.
The ancients held many absurd views concerning the generation and
propagation of bees, believing that they arose from decaying animals,
from the flowers of certain plants, and other views equally ridiculous
from our present point of view.
Where Does Honey Come From?
Honey is a sticky fluid collected from flowers by several kinds of
insects, particularly the honey bee; and the common honey bee from the
earliest period has been kept by people in hives for the advantage
and enjoyment which its honey and wax gives. It is found wild in
North America in great numbers, storing its honey in hollow trees and
other suitable locations, but not native to this country, having been
introduced in North America by European colonists.
The story of the honey bee is one of the most interesting of all
stories of the living things found on the earth. The busy bee is the
ideal example of hard and persistent work and has for a long time been
the subject of interesting study for young and old. The bee is one of
the busiest of all of the world’s workers, and it is from the honey bee
that we get our expression “as busy as a bee”; such other expressions
as “to have a bee in one’s bonnet”; also such others as “quilting
bees” and “husking bees” are founded on the known activities of the
honey bee. The first expression means “to be flighty or full of whims
or uneasy motions” which comes from the restless habits of bees, and
“quilting bee” or “husking bee” originated from the knowledge that
bees work together for the queen. In a quilting bee or husking bee a
number of people get together and work together for a time for the
benefit of one individual.
[Illustration: WORKER-BEE.]
[Illustration: QUEEN-BEE, MAGNIFIED.]
[Illustration: DRONE-BEE.]
Honey Is Produced by Bees which Live in Colonies.
~HOW A BEE MAKES HONEY~
A colony of bees consists of one female, capable of laying eggs,
called the queen; some thousands of undeveloped females that normally
never lay eggs, the workers; and, at certain seasons of the year, many
males, the drones, whose only duty is to mate with the young queens.
These different kinds of individuals can readily be recognized by the
difference in size of various parts of the body, so that even the
novice at bee-keeping can soon recognize each with ease. This colony
makes its home in nature in a hollow tree or cave; but it thrives
perhaps even better in the hives provided for it by man. In a modern
hive, sheets of comb are placed in wooden frames which are hung in the
hive-box in such a way that they can be removed at the pleasure of the
bee-keeper. A sheet of comb is made up of small cells in which honey is
stored by the bees, and in which eggs are laid, and young bees develop.
[Illustration: BEES LIVING ON COMBS BUILT IN THE OPEN AIR.]
How Does a Bee Make Honey from Flower Nectar?
In the spring of the year the colony consists of a queen and workers,
there being no drones present at this time. During the winter the
bees remain quiet, and the queen lays no eggs, so that there are no
developing bees in the hive. The supply of honey is also low, for they
have eaten honey all winter, and none has been collected and placed
in the cells. As soon as the days are warm enough the bees begin to
fly from the hive in search of the earliest spring flowers. From these
flowers they collect the nectar, which is transformed into honey, and
pollen, which they carry to the hive on the pollen-baskets on the third
pair of legs.
[Illustration: CUCUMBER-BLOSSOM WITH A BEE ON IT; CAUGHT IN THE ACT.]
The nectar is taken by the bee into its mouth, and then passes to an
enlargement of the alimentary canal known as the honey-stomach, where
it is acted upon by certain juices secreted by the bee. The true
stomach lies just behind the honey-stomach; and if the bee needs food
for its own immediate use it passes on through the opening between the
two stomachs. On its arrival in the hive the bee places its head in one
of the cells of the comb and deposits there the nectar which it has
carried in. By this time the nectar has been partly transformed into
honey, and the process is completed by the bees by fanning the cells to
evaporate the excess of moisture which still remains. When a cell has
been filled with the thick honey the workers cover it with a thin sheet
of wax unless it is to be eaten at once. The pollen is also deposited
in cells, but is rarely mixed with honey. The little pellets which the
bees carry in are packed tightly into cells until the cell is nearly
full. If a cell of pollen be dug out of the comb, one can often see the
layers made by the different pellets. This collecting of nectar and
pollen continues throughout the summer whenever there are flowers in
bloom, and ceases only with the death of the last flowers in the autumn.
What Does the Queen Bee Do?
Almost as soon as the honey and pollen begin to come in, the queen of
the colony begins to lay eggs in the cells of the center combs. The
title of queen has been given to the female bee which normally lays
all the eggs of the colony, under the supposition that she governs the
colony and directs its activities. This we now know to be an error, but
the name still remains. Her one duty in life is that of egg-laying.
She is most carefully watched over by the workers, and is constantly
surrounded by a circle of attendants who feed her and touch her with
their antennæ; but she in no way dictates what shall take place in the
hive. The eggs are laid in the bottom of the hexagonal cells, being
attached by one end to the center of the cell. The first eggs laid
develop into workers, and are deposited in cells one-fifth of an inch
across. As the colony increases in size by the hatching-out of these
workers, and as the stores of honey and pollen increase, the queen
begins to lay in larger cells measuring one-fourth of an inch, and
from the eggs laid in these cells drones (or males) develop.
[Illustration: HOW HONEY DEVELOPS IN A COMB