"On one occasion he observed from twenty to thirty bees paying daily
visits to some decayed trees, about a mile distant from his garden;
the bees appeared to be busily employed in examining the hollow parts,
and particularly the dead knots around them, as if apprehensive of
the knots admitting moisture. In about fourteen days these seeming
surveyors were followed by a large swarm from his apiary, which was
watched the whole way, till it alighted in one of these cavities. It
was observed to journey nearly in a direct line from the apiary to the
tree. On several similar occasions the bees selected that cavity which
Mr. Knight thought best adapted to their use."
"Insects give proofs without number of the possession of the faculty
of memory, without which it would be impossible to turn to account the
results of experience. Thus, for example, each bee, on returning from
its excursions, never fails to recognise its own hive, even though
that hive should be surrounded by various others in all respects
similar to it.
"This recognition of home is so much the more marked by traces of
intelligence rather than by those of instinct, inasmuch as it depends
not on any character merely connected with the hive itself, whether
external or internal, but from its relation to surrounding objects;
just as we are guided to our own dwellings by the recollection of
the particular features of the locality and neighbourhood. Nor is
this faculty in the bee inferred from mere analogies; it has been
established by direct experiment and observation. A hive being removed
from a locality to which its inhabitants have become familiar, they
are observed, upon the next day, before leaving for their usual
labours, to fly around the hive in every direction, as if to observe
the surrounding objects, and obtain a general acquaintance with their
new neighbourhood.
"The queen in like manner adopts the same precaution before she rises
into the air, attended by her numerous admirers, for the purpose of
fecundation."--_Lardner_.
"The attention," says Lord Brougham,[B] "which has been paid at
various times to the structure and habits of the bee, is one of
the most remarkable circumstances in the history of science. The
ancients studied it with unusual minuteness, although being, generally
speaking, indifferent observers of fact, they made but little progress
in discovering the singular economy of this insect Of the observations
of Aristomachus, who spent sixty years, it is said, in studying the
subject, we know nothing; nor of those which were made by Philissus,
who passed his life in the woods, for the purpose of examining this
insect's habits; but Pliny informs us that both of them wrote works
upon it. Aristotle's three chapters on bees and wasps[C] contain
little more than the ordinary observations, mixed up with an unusual
portion of vulgar and even gross errors. How much he attended to
the subject is, however, manifest from the extent of the first of
these chapters, which is of great length. Some mathematical writers,
particularly Pappus, studied the form of the cells, and established
one or two of the fundamental propositions respecting the economy
of labour and wax resulting from the plan of the structure. The
application of modern naturalists to the inquiry is to be dated from
the beginning of the eighteenth century, when Maraldi examined it
with his accustomed care; and Reaumur afterwards, as we have seen,
carried his investigations much farther. The interest of the subject
seemed to increase with the progress made in their inquiries; and
about the year 1765 a society was formed at Little Bautzen in Upper
Lusatia, whose sole object was the study of bees. It was formed under
the patronage of the Elector of Saxony. The celebrated Schirach was
one of its original members; and soon after its establishment he
made his famous discovery of the power which the bees have to supply
the loss of their queen, by forming a large cell out of three common
ones, and feeding the grub of a worker upon royal jelly; a discovery
so startling to naturalists, that Bonnet, in 1769, earnestly urged
the society not to lower its credit by countenancing such a wild
error, which he regarded as repugnant to all we know of the habits of
insects; admitting, however, that he should not be so incredulous of
any observations tending to prove the propagation of the race of the
queen-bee without any co-operation of a male,[D] a notion since shown
by Huber to be wholly chimerical. In 1771 a second institution, with
the same limited object, was founded at Lauter, under the Elector
Palatine's patronage, and of this Riem, scarcely less known in this
branch of science than Schirach, was a member.
[Footnote B: Vol. i. pp. 333-36.]
[Footnote C: Hist. An., lib. ix., cap. 40, 41, 42.]
[Footnote D: Œuvres x., 101, 104.]
"The greatest progress, however, was afterwards made by Huber, whose
discoveries, especially of the queen-bee's mode of impregnation,
the slaughter of the drones or males, and the mode of working, have
justly gained him a very high place among naturalists. Nor are his
discoveries of the secretion of wax from saccharine matter, the
nature of propolis, and the preparation of wax for building, to be
reckoned less important. To these truths the way had been led by John
Hunter, whose vigorous and original genius never was directed to the
cultivation of any subject without reaping a harvest of discovery."
Bee Industry.
"The industry of the bee may be estimated by the average number of
its daily excursions from the hive to collect provisions. According
to Reaumur, if the total number of excursions be divided by the total
number of bees in a hive, the average number daily made by each bee
would be from five to six. But as one-half of the bees are occupied
exclusively with the domestic business of the society, either in
nursing and tending the young, packing and storing the provisions,
or constructing the combs, the total number of excursions must be
divided, not between the whole, but between only half the total
number of bees, which would give ten excursions to each individual of
the collecting class; and if the average length of each excursion
be taken at three-quarters of a mile, this would give the average
distance travelled by each collector as fifteen miles! It is estimated
by Kirby that the quantity of ponderable matter thus transported
exceeds a hundred pounds."
The Rev. Mr. Wood, in his little manual--the most sensible of its size
that has yet appeared--writes:--
"No noticeable capital is required to commence; no noticeable amount
of time is necessarily consumed in their management, and they may be
kept almost anywhere, though not with equal profit. One apiarian,
whose authority may be depended upon, gives the profits of eight
stocks only as averaging about 20_l._ in three successive years.
Another, who was regularly engaged from six to six daily in other
avocations, cleared nearly 100_l._ in one year by his bees. The
quantity of honey that may be obtained from a hive is exceedingly
variable, but offering, therefore, only the greater assurance of
due rewards for able management. Fifty or sixty pounds have not
unfrequently been obtained from a single hive in a season, and
occasionally as much as 100 lbs.; whilst from a set of collateral
boxes, 100 lbs. is mentioned; and Cotton states that as much as 210
lbs. have really been stored in a single season, by a single stock
similarly situated in a roomy trebled habitation. The prices of honey
in London are stated to be generally as follows:--
_s._ _d._
Minorca, which is the best per lb. 2 6
Narbonne " 2 0
Pure native honey in the comb " 1 0
Other native honey " 0 8
"But pure native honey in the comb, obtained in glasses, is sought
for the table, and therefore often sells for double the price
above-mentioned. We shall only add, that Mr. Smart, a well-known
apiarian, considers hundreds of stocks may be kept where only tens are
now to be found, so far as regards the capabilities of support, the
main point to be considered. To that subject, therefore, we now turn."
A rather exaggerated account of the excellence of honey is given by
Butler:--
"Honey cutteth and casteth up phlegmatic matter, and therefore
sharpeneth the stomachs of them which by reason thereof have little
appetite; it purgeth those things which hurt the clearness of the
eyes; it nourisheth very much; it breedeth good blood; it stirreth up
and preserveth natural heat, and prolongeth old age; it keepeth all
things uncorrupt which are put into it; and therefore physicians do
temper therewith such medicines as they mean to keep long."