Transcriber Note
Text emphasis denoted as _Italics_. Whole and fractional parts of
numbers as 123-4/5. The ERRATA and ADDENDA (p. xvii) have been applied.
THE HONEY-BEE:
ITS NATURE, HOMES, AND PRODUCTS.
[Illustration: Comb, Showing Different Kinds of Cells.]
THE HONEY-BEE
ITS NATURE, HOMES, AND PRODUCTS.
BY
W. H. HARRIS, B.A., B.Sc.
LONDON:
THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY,
56, Paternoster Row; 65, St. Paul's Churchyard,
and 164, Piccadilly.
LONDON:
R. Clay, Sons, and Taylor, Printers,
BREAD STREET HILL.
CONTENTS.
PAGES
INTRODUCTION.
1-3
CHAPTER I.
HISTORIC SKETCH.
Holy Scriptures--Vedas--Egyptian Monuments--The Koran--
Etymological Considerations--Literature of Subject--
Aristotle--Philiscus--Pliny--Vergil--Columella--Other
Classical Authors--Shakespeare--Modern Writers.
4-9
CHAPTER II.
NATURAL HISTORY.
Orders of Insects--Stages of Development--Egg, Larva, Pupa,
Imago or Perfect Insect--Three Classes of Bees: Queen,
Drones, Workers.
10-16
CHAPTER III.
THE QUEEN-BEE.
Early Errors as to Sex--The "Mother Bee"--Distinguishing
Characteristics--Functions--Attentions paid her--Effects
of Loss; how Repaired by Bees--Enmity to Rivals--Length of
Life--Egg-laying.
17-28
CHAPTER IV.
THE DRONES.
Distinguishing Characteristics--Time of Hatching--Numbers--
Purposes served by them--Destruction by Workers or other
means--Unusual Survival.
29-34
CHAPTER V.
THE WORKERS.
Distinguishing Characteristics--Supposed Differences of
Function among them--Sir John Lubbock's Experiments--
Fertile Workers--Length of Life--"Black Bees"--Duties
of Workers.
35-43
CHAPTER VI.
HONEY.
Origin--How Collected and Stored--Constitution--Poisonous
Honey--Best varieties of Honey--Distances traversed by
Bees in search of Honey--Uses
44-48
CHAPTER VII.
MEAD.
Nature--Method of Manufacture--Metheglin and Mead--Estimation
in former times--Queen Elizabeth's Recipe--Scandinavian
liking for Mead.
49-52
CHAPTER VIII.
WAX.
Origin--Production--Chemical Constitution--Comb-Building--
Detailed Description--Amount of Wax in Hives--Commercial
Value--Properties.
53-71
CHAPTER IX.
POLLEN, OR BEE-BREAD.
Origin--Collection--Conveyance--Deposition--Quantity
Stored--Uses--Artificial Substitutes.
72-75
CHAPTER X.
PROPOLIS.
Derivation of Word--Sources--Nature--Purposes--Quantity
Collected--Adaptation of Materials to Wants of Bees.
76-79
CHAPTER XI.
PHYSIOLOGY OF THE BEE.
Nervous System--The Head--Eyes--Compound and Simple--Uses
and Powers--Sir John Lubbock's Experiments--The Antennæ
--Structure and Uses--Mouth--Detailed Description.
80-100
CHAPTER XII.
HEARING, TASTE, AND SMELLING.
Hearing--Sir John Lubbock's Experiments--Sounds uttered by
Queen--Effects produced by them--Smell-Organs--Purposes
--Liking for, and Antipathy to, certain Effluvia--
Discovery by Bees of Nectar and Honey
101-108
CHAPTER XIII.
THE THORAX.
Detailed Description--Legs--Wings--How used in Flight--
Hooking together--Employed for Ventilating.
109-114
CHAPTER XIV.
THE ABDOMEN.
Respiratory Organs--Circulation of Nutritive Fluid--
Digestion and Nutrition--Secretion of Wax--Reproductive
Organs--Detailed description of Sting--Effects of
Poison--Queen's Sting.
115-128
CHAPTER XV.
THE DISEASES OF BEES.
Dysentery: How Produced--Indications--Treatment.
Foul-Brood: two kinds--Nature--Propagation. Mr.
Cheshire's Discoveries and Treatment--Fatal Effects of
Disease--Detection--Vertigo--Analogy of Human and Bee
Diseases.
129-138
CHAPTER XVI.
THE ENEMIES OF BEES.
Birds--Mice--Moths--_Braula cœca_--Hornets and Wasps--
Spiders--Toads--"Robber Bees"--Prevention of robbing.
139-147
CHAPTER XVII.
HIVES.
Natural Abodes of Wild Bees--Taking Honey from Roof of
House--Straw Skeps--Cottager's Hive--Supering--Nutt's
Collateral Hive--Village Hive--Woodbury Hive--
Abbott's Hives--Sectional Supering--Stewarton Hive--
Carr-Stewarton Hive--Observatory Hives--Bee-houses.
148-170
CHAPTER XVIII.
NATURAL SWARMING.
General Facts connected with Swarming--Reconnoitring--
Settling--Hiving--Curious Incidents--Transferring
Swarms to Bar-Frame Hives--Division of Swarms--Placing
Swarm in Permanent Position-Number of Bees in Swarming
--"Casts" and Later Swarms--Prevention of Swarming--
Feeding of Swarms.
171-186
CHAPTER XIX.
ARTIFICIAL SWARMING.
Advantages--Driving: Close and Open--Transfer to
Bar-Frame Hive--Conditions of Successful Driving--
Various Methods of Artificial Swarming with
Bar-Frame Hives.
187-195
CHAPTER XX.
QUEEN REARING.
Protection of Queen-cells--Nucleus Hives--Various Methods
of Queen Rearing--American Plan--Introduction of
Stranger Queens--Difficulties.
196-200
CHAPTER XXI.
FEEDING.
Troughs--Dangers of this Method--Bottle Feeders--Cheshire's
Feeding Stage--Neighbour's Can Feeder--The "Round Feeder"
--Autumn Feeding--Spring Feeding--Uses of Precautions--
Summer Feeding of Swarms--Flour-cake--Barley-sugar or
Sugar-cake--Mr. Hunter's Recipe.
201-213
CHAPTER XXII.
WINTERING BEES.
False and True Hybernation--Temperature of Hive in
Winter--Necessity for Quiet during Winter--Structure and
Winter-packing of Bar-Frame Hives--Prevention of Draught
and Condensation of Vapour--Supply of Water.
214-220
CHAPTER XXIII.
BEE-STINGS.
Gentleness necessary in Manipulation--Causes of Irritation
of Bees--Examination of Stocks--Treatment of Stings--
Remedies--Effects of Stings--Inoculation--Bee Dress--
Smoke and its Uses.
221-228
CHAPTER XXIV.
PASSIONS AND EMOTIONS OF BEES.
Affection for Queen and Brood--Recognition of Friends and
Strangers--Fear--Anger--Covetousness--Benevolence--
Remorse--Hope--Instinctive or Sense-action.
229-233
CHAPTER XXV.
INTELLECT AND INSTINCT IN BEES.
Intellect in Man and Animals as Related to Immortality--
Memory--Judgment--Instances of Attention--Prevision--
Provision--Instinct--Manifestations--Bearing on
Evolution.
234-243
CHAPTER XXVI.
BEES IN RELATION TO FLOWERS.
Connection of Plant-life and Insect-life--Reproduction of
Flowers--Intervention of Insects--Hermaphrodite Flowers
--Cross-fertilisation--Cucumbers, Melons, &c.--Poplars
--Firs--Epilobium or Willow Herb--Cincerarias--Darwin's
Experiments--Nasturtium--Foxglove--Figwort--Salvia--
Heath--Strawberry, Raspberry, and Blackberry--Apple and
Pear--Altruism of Bees.
244-258
CHAPTER XXVII.
SUPERSTITIONS CONNECTED WITH BEES.
Superstitions likely to gather around Bees--Unlucky to Buy
Bees--Ill Omen for a Swarm to Settle on a Dry Stick--
"Have the Bees been told?"--Turning Hives on the Death
of the Owner--Probable Origin of these Errors.
259-267
CHAPTER XXVIII.
THE PROFITS OF BEE-KEEPING.
Methods of Honey-taking--Straw Caps--Bell-Glasses--
Sections--Frames--Extractors--Run Honey--Average
Returns of Hives.
268-272
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
Fig. PAGE
Comb, Showing Different Kinds of Cells _Frontispiece_
1. Eggs and Larva of Bees 12
2. Larvæ 13
3. Sealed Cells 14
4. _a_, Larva full grown, viewed sideways,
_b_, Larva preparing for Pupa state 15
5. Worker Larva and Pupa in Comb 16
6. The Queen of the Hive 19
7. Queen Surrounded by Attendants 20
8. A Drone 29
9. A Worker Bee 35
10. A Worker Bee, showing the Scales of Wax 53
11. Festoons of Bees Suspended from the Roof of the Hive 55
12. Cluster of Bees 58
13. Wax-Worker commencing a Comb 59
14. Diagram of Cells 63
15. Supposed Circular Cells 63
16. Arrangement of Cells 64
17. Diagram showing Slope of Cells 66
18. Arrangement of Combs in a Bell-Glass 68
19. The Queen Cell 69
20. Queen Cells in situ 70
21. Hind-leg of a Bee 73
22. Nervous System of Privet Hawk Moth 81
23. Nervous System of Larva of Bee 82
24. Nervous System of Perfect Insect 83
25. Eyes of a Bee (greatly magnified) 85
26. Facets of Eye of a Bee 86
27. Head of Bee, With Antennæ 98
28. Lower Segments of Hind-leg of Bee, considerably enlarged 110
29. Complete Hind-leg of Bee 110
30. Wing of Bee 112
31. Hooklets of a Bee's Wing 113
32. Abdomen of Bee, showing Respiratory Organs 116
33. Air-sacs of Worker 117
34. _a_, Air-sacs; _b_, Ovaries, of the Queen 118
35. _a_, Tracheæ; _b_, Elastic Spiral of Tracheæ 119
36. Under Side of Abdomen, showing Wax Scales 121
37. Bee, showing the Wax Scales 121
38. Scales 121
39. Ovaries and Spermatheca of Queen 123
40. Sting of a Bee (greatly magnified) 125
41. Barbs of a Bee's Sting (very highly magnified) 126
42. The Enemies of Bees 141
43. Straw Skep 150
44. Flat-topped Hive and Straw Super 151
45. Neighbour's Improved Cottager's Hive 152
46. " " " 153
47. Modern Hives. Nutt's Collateral Hive in the Foreground 155
48. The Woodbury Hive 157
49. Woodbury Straw Bar-frame Hive 157
50. Cheshire's Bar-frame Hive 159
51. Cheshire's Bar-frame Hive (sectional view) 160
52. Abbott's Standard Frame 161
53. " " (top view) 161
54. Neighbour's Sectional Super (open) 162
55. Frame Super 162
56. Glass Frame Hive, with Super 163
57. Stewarton Hive 165
58. The Carr-Stewarton Hive 167
59. Unicomb Observatory Hive 168
60. A Swarm 173
61. "Tanging" 174
62. Hiving a Swarm 179
63. Swarming Board 192
64. Queen Cage over Sealed Cell 197
65. Inserted Queen Cell 198
66. Bottle Feeder 202
67. Cheshire's Feeding Stage 203
68. Can Feeder 205
69. Round Tin Feeder 205
70. Epilobium Angustifolium. (Young Bloom) 248
71. " " (Old Bloom) 248
72. Cineraria (magnified) 250
73. Tropœolum Majus. (Young Bloom) 252
74. " " (Old Bloom) 252
75. Section of Scrophularia Nodosa 254
76. Scrophularia Nodosa. (Young Bloom) 254
77. " " (Old Bloom) 254
78. Salvia Officinalis. (New Bloom) 255
79. " " (Old Bloom) 255
80. _a_, Erica Tetralix. _b_, Anther of Tetralix 255
81. Section of Strawberry Bloom 256
82. Section of Apple Bloom 257
THE HONEY-BEE.
ERRATA.
p. 22, ten lines from bottom, for "not full grown" read "not more
than two or three days old."
p. 30, last line but one from the bottom, for "neuters" read
"strange workers."
p. 55, line 10 from bottom, for "hind feet" read "pincers on the
hind legs."
p. 110, bottom line, for "four anterior tarsi" read "in the hind
legs."
p. 111, line 3, for "leg" read "hind leg."
" line 6, for "This pocket" read "Above this, on the outside
of the tibia, is a pocket, lined, &c."
p. 136, line 12, for "foul-breeding" read "foul-broody."
ADDENDA.
p. 126, three lines from bottom, add
"The most remarkable function of the sting-apparatus
has, in modern times, been discovered to be the insertion of
a minute drop of the poison in each honey-cell when filled.
This acts as an anti-septic, and prevents fermentation in
the sweet liquid."
p. 136, after first paragraph, add
"It is now known that this treatment is by no means
always successful when the _bacilli_ have reached the
"resting" or "spore" stage."
[Note: All above corrections and additions have been applied!]
THE HONEY-BEE:
ITS NATURE, HOMES, AND PRODUCTS.
INTRODUCTION.
In these days of intense business-pressure, it is a good thing for
men to cultivate hobbies. We say this, notwithstanding the fact
that men with hobbies are likely to become bores, from thinking and
talking too incessantly of their pet occupations, or are apt to run
into extravagant expenditure of time and money, which could be better
utilised. Now, in recommending apiculture, or bee-keeping, as a
recreation from more serious pursuits, we feel that we incur little
risk of increasing the number of bores in society, or of inducing an
undue outlay of hours or pounds on the part of those who follow our
suggestions. For, on the one hand, the facts likely to be spoken of by
enthusiastic apiarians to casual hearers could not fail to interest;
while the practical results of bee-keeping will certainly, to say the
least, repay in hard cash all reasonable outlay on the part of any one
who is possessed of ordinary good sense, and who learns to manage his
hives according to modern methods.
In the following pages we hope to make good both these statements. We
are sure that comparatively few people know what marvellous creatures
bees are; what constant pleasure may be found in watching their work;
what opportunities for skilful use of brain and hand are afforded by
an apiary; what a wide field of study and information is displayed
by these domesticated insects: and though we shall not hold out
dazzling prospects of a large return of money from the pursuit we are
commending, we shall show by facts that, in ordinary seasons, the yield
of honey should amply cover the cost of the bees, their homes, and
their requirements.
Nor would we be understood to limit our recommendation of bee-keeping
to men alone. It is an occupation eminently suited to women. It has
none of the manifest drawbacks of poultry or rabbit-rearing. The needs
of the hives are usually not so pressing as to involve a disregard of
weather or important engagements. Many operations in apiculture call
for female dexterity of hand and finger. It is true that a little
courage, in which few ladies are deficient, is necessary in making a
beginning of skilful bee-management. But, duly protected by veil and
gloves, even the timid need have no fear of being stung or seriously
incommoded.
Intelligent boys and girls of fifteen years and upwards will find a
hive or two of bees quite within their power of management, and the
clever and industrious insects will afford them a surprising amount of
interest, and, it may be, some not unimportant moral lessons.
In the hope of enlarging popular knowledge of these wonderful insects,
and so of increasing apiculture, we have written this book. It does not
profess to go exhaustively into the practical part of bee-keeping; but
enough information is given for ordinary apiarian purposes.
The excellent publications of Langstroth, Cowan, Cheshire, Neighbour,
Hunter, Taylor and Wood will supply all details intentionally omitted
from the present treatise. To several of the above writers, and to
some others mentioned at the end of Chapter I., the author desires to
express his obligations for numerous facts.
Many of the most important illustrations in Chapters XI. and XIV., and
the whole of those in Chapter XXVI. have been taken, by permission,
from the diagrams published by the British Bee-keepers' Association.
These diagrams are reductions from drawings made by Mr. Frank Cheshire,
who is so well known as having devoted many years to the study of
apiculture, especially on its scientific side. To the same gentleman is
also due the discovery of many of the physiological marvels given in
Chapters XI. and XIV., and of the chief facts embodied in the chapter on
"Bees in relation to Flowers."
CHAPTER I.
HISTORIC SKETCH.
Holy Scriptures--Vedas--Egyptian Monuments--The
Koran--Etymological Considerations--Literature of
Subject--Aristotle--Philiscus--Pliny--Virgil--Columella--Other
Classical Authors--Shakespeare--Modern Writers.
Far back in historic time there are records that man had learnt
the value of the bee. The book of Job--probably the oldest of our
sacred Scriptures--contains a reference to honey. The Pentateuch,
the Chronicles of the Israelites, the Psalms, the works of Solomon,
and nearly all the later books of the Old Testament, speak of these
wonderful insects or their produce. They are referred to in the Vedas
of Hindostan, the monuments of Egypt, the poems of Homer and Euripides,
and the narrative of Xenophon's expedition into Persia.
Throughout the ancient civilised world the virtues of honey were
celebrated, and the habits of the bee served to point a moral for
human conduct. It is remarkable that in the Koran we find Mahomet
representing the Almighty as addressing this insect alone of all the
creatures He had made: "The Lord spake by inspiration unto the bee,
saying, 'Provide thee houses in the mountains and in the trees, and
of those materials wherewith men build hives for thee; then eat of
every kind of fruit, and walk in the beaten paths of thy Lord.' There
proceedeth from their bellies a liquor of various colours, wherein is a
medicine for men. Verily, herein is a sign unto people who consider."
The ancient Egyptians must have known much of the domestic economy of
the hive, for they took the figure of the insect to symbolise a people
governed by a sovereign, and this so far back as the twelfth dynasty,
or 2080-1920 B.C.
It has been argued on etymological grounds that in a much remoter
period still, the human race had domesticated the bee; for in Sanskrit
_ma_ means honey, _madhupa_ honey drinker, and _madhukara_ honey
maker. _Madhu_ is evidently the origin of our word mead. Again, _mih_
or _mat_, in Chinese, signifies honey; and it can hardly be a mere
coincidence which has brought about so close a resemblance between the
Turanian and the Indo-European terms above mentioned. We have rather
the indication of the survival of a name in two branches of a still
older language than either of the Asiatic tongues, from which so large
a proportion of modern speech has flowed, thus carrying us back to an
enormously remote period in the history of man. The Latin _mel_, and
French _miel_, both meaning honey, are, of course, the offspring of the
Greek; and all the above words, according to some authorities, point
to the circumstance of the constructive power of the insect having
impressed the minds of men emphatically.
In the Teutonic languages _biene_, _bee_, &c., are evidently connected
with _by_--a termination met with in many English towns, and signifying
"a dwelling"; and so we see that it was not so much the sweet liquid
procured and stored by the insects, as the skill and beauty with which
they fashioned their combs, which struck their human observers; and
though we cannot with certainty affirm that men domesticated them
in these remote times, it seems probable that races who, before the
historic period, had learnt to make use of most of the animals now
under immediate subjection to the wants and purposes of man, saw the
convenience and wisdom of turning to account the nectar-collecting
habits of the bee. Jacob, seventeen centuries before Christ, told his
sons to take "a little honey" among their presents to the lord of
Egypt. Again, the land of Canaan was pictured by God to Moses as "a
land flowing with milk and honey." We should, therefore, probably be
justified in inferring that, as the one liquid was derived from herds
under the people's control, so, too, the other came from domesticated
insects. It may be that no hives were used at so early a period as
the sixteenth century before Christ, and the reference in Ps. lxxxi.
16--"with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee"--would
seem to indicate that, at a much later date, the bees were left at
large in their native haunts. Still, the numerous references of the
earlier Scriptures make it plain that honey was an article of common
use, and was obtainable at the discretion of those in Palestine who
wished for it.
With regard to the ancient literature of our subject, the first
treatise on the bee now extant is that of Aristotle in his _History of
Animals_, written about 330 B.C. Observations of a scientific kind
had, however, been made with regard to these insects by a philosopher
of Asia Minor, who is said to have devoted a long lifetime to watching
their habits. Unfortunately, the records of his studies in this
department of entomology have not survived to our day. We have also to
regret that later ages lost the benefit of the labours of Philiscus of
Thasos, who is said to have abandoned the abodes of men for a forest
life, that he might learn all that was possible of the nature and
work of these creatures, which seemed to him so marvellous in their
structure and their doings. It is Pliny the Elder--the well-known Roman
man of science, who lived near the beginning of the Christian era--to
whom we are indebted for notices of the workers in natural history just
mentioned, while he himself devotes some considerable space in his own
book to a description of the bee.
Nearly a century earlier, Vergil, the poet of rural life, as well as
of loftier themes, wrote a charming book--his _Fourth Georgic_--on the
subject of these our winged friends. We may smile at his wondrous plan
for securing a prodigious swarm, and modern methods may claim far more
reasonableness and success than those he advocates in apiculture; but
we may rejoice to see how bewitching was the pursuit of bee-keeping
nearly two millenniums ago, and how true it has been through all the
centuries, as the French writer Gelieu says, "_Beaucoup de gens aiment
les abeilles; je n'ai vu personne qui les aima médiocrement: on se
passionne pour elles._"
The orator Cicero makes frequent reference to them in his charming
treatise on _Old Age_, and other classical writers allude not
unfrequently to these insects.
Columella, who lived in the first century of the Christian era, gave,
in his work _De re rusticâ_, many directions for apiarians; and though,
of course, abounding, like Vergil's work, in errors on certain points,
his book shows a decided advance beyond the knowledge of preceding
writers.
We might speak of Theophrastus, Celsus, and Varro as contributing
to the literature of bee-lore, but it would be beyond the scope of
our design to detail what they have written on the subject. Coming,
however, down to much more recent times, and to our own country, we
cannot resist the temptation to quote the well-known lines of our most
marvellous poet Shakespeare, whose comprehensive intellect almost
rivalled that of Solomon, for "he spake of trees, from the cedar-tree
that is in Lebanon, even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the
wall: he spake also of beasts and of fowl and of creeping things and of
fishes." The passage to which we now especially refer is to be found in
his play of Henry F., act i. sc. 2:--
"Therefore doth heaven divide
The state of man in divers functions,
Setting endeavour in continual motion;
To which is fixed, as an aim or butt,
Obedience: for so work the honey-bees;
Creatures, that, by a rule in nature, teach
The act of order to a peopled kingdom.
They have a king and officers of sorts:
Where some, like magistrates, correct at home:
Others, like merchants, venture trade abroad;
Others, like soldiers, armed in their stings
Make boot upon the summer's velvet buds;
Which pillage, they, with merry march, bring home
To the tent-royal of their emperor:
Who, busied in his majesty, surveys
The singing masons building roofs of gold;
The civil citizens kneading up the honey;
The poor mechanic-porters crowding in
Their heavy burdens at his narrow gate;
The sad-eyed justice, with his surly hum,
Delivering o'er to executors pale
The lazy yawning drone."
Of more recent writers we may mention the French Réaumur; the Swiss,
Bonnet; and Huber, of Geneva, who, with his assistant Burnens, gave
the world so many wondrous details of bee-life and habits. In our
own country, Dr. John Hunter, Dr. John Evans, who has been called
the "poet-laureate of bees," Shuckard, Sir John Lubbock, Cowan, John
Hunter, Taylor, Cheshire, Alfred Neighbour, Pettigrew, Abbott, and
many writers in the _British Bee Journal_, have largely added to our
apiarian knowledge. Not only in America, but universally, the Rev. L.
L. Langstroth, of Ohio, has a well-earned reputation for his researches
and his practical instructions with regard to apiculture. In Germany,
Dr. Dzierzon of Carlsmarkt, in Silesia, and Baron von Berlepsch, of
Coburg, stand at the very head of authorities on all that relates to
bees and bee-keeping.