The following brief but comprehensive epitome of the principal facts in
the natural history of the Honey Bee is from the pen of Mr. Woodbury,
of Exeter, better known to the readers of The Journal of Horticulture
as "A Devonshire Bee-keeper."
"The Queen.--There is in every prosperous colony of Bees a queen, or
mother Bee, whose peculiar office is to lay the eggs from which the
future Bees proceed. Her fecundity is amazing, it being computed that
she is capable of laying from 1500 to 2000 eggs a-day.[1] She receives
the greatest attention and respect from the other Bees; none of them
appear willing to turn their backs upon her, but all are watchful to
offer food and anticipate her every want. The cells in which queens are
reared differ very considerably from those of the workers or drones,
being much larger, and hanging in nearly a perpendicular position,
generally from the edges of the combs. Queen Bees occupy about sixteen
days from the laying of the egg to the evolution of the perfect insect,
and take wing when a few days old, in order to pair with a male Bee or
drone. When once fecundated, a queen Bee continues fertile during the
remainder of her life. According to Huber, fecundation is imperfect
when delayed beyond twenty days, and drone eggs only are laid ever
afterwards; but the observations and experiments of Dzierzon and
Berlepsch, which have been confirmed by Yon Siebold, the distinguished
German naturalist, prove that this phenomenon is rather to be ascribed
to parthenogenesis, and that a drone-breeding queen is in reality a
virgin queen. I have myself succeeded in repeating and verifying the
microscopical investigations of Von Siebold, which establish this
remarkable fact beyond the possibility of a doubt. Queen Bees are
readily distinguished by their larger size, being fully one-third
longer than the common Bees, and are armed with a sting, which,
however, they rarely use, except in combat with one another.
[Footnote 1: Queen Bees of the Ligurian species are stated to lay as
many as 2000 to 3000 eggs per diem.]
"The Workers are imperfect females. There is no doubt that every worker
egg or grub not more than a few days old is capable, by appropriate
treatment, of becoming developed into a perfect female or mother Bee.
If the queen is removed from a hive the Bees avail themselves of this
power by enlarging certain worker cells, and raising therefrom queens
which differ in no respect from those bred in the usual manner.[2] When
this interruption of the ordinary course of things has taken place,
it is occasionally found that the ovaries of some of the workers have
become sufficiently developed to admit of their depositing drone eggs,
although Yon Siebold declares them to be perfectly incapable of pairing
with the male. The workers constitute the great majority in every
healthy colony, and upon them devolves the labour of collecting honey
for the subsistence of all, pollen for feeding the young, and propolis
for stopping any crevice which might harbour an enemy. They are also
occupied in secreting wax,[3] building combs, feeding the young and the
queen, as well as guarding and ventilating the hive. Huber noticed two
kinds of working Bees, which he denominated respectively nurses and
wax-workers. This division of the workers into two classes has evoked
ridicule from some, and has been regarded with incredulity by many. My
own observations prove, however, that there really is a division of
labour among Bees, and that whilst the younger portion of the community
devote themselves to the home duties of the hive, their elders are
employed in ranging the woods and fields to provide sustenance for the
entire family. Workers arrive at maturity in about twenty-one days from
the laying of the egg.
[Footnote 2: Advantage is taken of this remarkable fact in the
formation of artificial swarms, c.]
[Footnote 3: Wax is a secretion from the body of the Bee, and not a
material conveyed into the hive. In order to form wax Bees must have
access hitherto honey or some other saccharine substance.]
"The Drones are males which take no part in the duties of the hive, and
whose use appears to be that of fecundation. They are allowed to exist
only during summer, when they are very numerous, apparently out of all
proportion to the perfect females. But this apparent disproportion is
only a means to secure the important end, that when a queen takes her
wedding flights she may have a good chance of attaining her object.
Although the drones are much larger and stronger than the workers, they
have no stings wherewith to defend themselves, and are thrust out of
the hive to perish when their office is accomplished. They mature in
about twenty-four days after the egg is laid and are bred in larger
cells than the workers."