To the bee we are indebted for two valuable articles of commerce, honey and wax: since the introduction of sugar, honey has become less an article of general use, and more one of luxury; but wax is still extensively consumed throughout the civilized world. Honey is collected from flowers, is swallowed by the bees, and afterwards regurgitated the bee, laden with honey, returns to the hive, enters a cell, pierces a hole in the crust on the surface of the honey already therein, disgorges the honey in large drops from its mouth, new models the crust, and closes up the hole; this mode of proceeding is regularly adopted by * Authority:-Huber's History of the Hive Bee, as copied by Dr. Bevan, &c. D every bee that contributes to the general store. Wax is secreted, as occasion may require, from small sacs, situated between the segments of the body of the bee, on the under side; it is used for constructing the combs in which the family provision of honey and the young brood are deposited: the wax of commerce is produced by melting down these combs. A bee-hive contains three kinds of individuals, a queen, drones, and workers; the queen is a female, and not only the ruler, but, in great part, the mother of the community; the drones are males, and the workers are abortive females. The sole office of the queen appears to be the laying of eggs, and this occupies her almost incessantly, as a single one only is deposited in each cell, thus causing her to be in continual motion: she is slow and majestic in her movements, and differs from the workers in being larger, having a longer body, shorter wings, and a curved sting. The queen is accompanied by a guard of twelve workers, an office which is taken in turn, but never intermitted: in whatever direction she wishes to travel, these guards clear the way before her, always with the utmost courtesy turning their faces towards her, and when she rests from her labours, approaching her with humility, licking her face, mouth, and eyes, and fondling her with their antennæ. The drones are all males; they are less than the queen, but larger than the workers; they live on the honey of flowers, but bring none home, and are wholly useless, except as being the fathers of the future progeny; when this office is accomplished, they are destroyed by the workers. A buzzing commences in the hive; the drones and the workers sally forth together, grapple each other in the air, hug and scuffle for a minute, during which operation the stings of the workers are plunged into the sides of the drones, who, overpowered by the poison, almost instantly die. The workers are the smallest bees in the hive, and by far the most numerous; they have a longer lip for sucking honey than either of the others; their thighs are furnished with a brush for the reception of the pollen of flowers, and their sting is straight. The workers do the entire work of the community; they build the cells, guard the hive and the queen, collect and store the honey, elaborate the wax, feed the young, kill the drones, &c. The average number of these three kinds of bees in a hive is one queen, 2,000 drones, and 20,000 workers. The eggs are long, slightly curved, and of a blueish colour; when laid, they are covered with a glutinous matter, which instantly dries, attaching them to the bottom of the cell. For eleven months the queen lays only workers' eggs; afterwards, those which produce drones: as soon as this change has taken place, the workers begin to construct royal cells, in which, without discontinuing to lay the drones' eggs, the queen deposits here and there, about once in three days, an egg which is destined to produce a queen. The workers' eggs hatch in a few days, and produce little white maggots, which immediately open their mouths to be fed; these the workers attend to with untiring assiduity: in six days each maggot fills up its cell; it is then roofed in by the workers, spins a silken cocoon, and becomes a chrysalis and on the twenty-first day it comes forth a perfect bee. The drones emerge on the twenty-fifth day, and the queens on the sixteenth. : It has been already stated, that the queen, for nearly a year, lays no eggs that are destined to produce queens; it therefore follows, that if any evil befall her, the hive is left without a queen: it sometimes happens that she dies, or is taken away by the owner of the hive, to observe the result. For twelve hours little notice is taken of the loss; it appears not to be known, and the workers labour as usual: after that period, a hubbub commences; work is abandoned; the whole hive is in an uproar; every bee traverses the hive at random, and with the most evident want of purpose. This state of anarchy sometimes continues for two days; then the bees gather in clusters of a dozen or so, as though engaged in consultation, the result of which seems to be a fixed resolution to supply the loss. A few of the workers repair to the cells in which are deposited the eggs of workers; three of these cells are quickly broken into one, the edges polished, and the sides smoothed and rounded, a single egg being allowed to remain at the bottom. When this egg hatches, the maggot is fed with a peculiarly nutritive food, called royal bee-bread, which is never given to any maggots but such as are to produce queens; work is now resumed over the whole hive, and goes on as briskly as before: on the sixteenth day the egg produces a queen, whose appearance is hailed with every demonstration of delight, and who at once assumes sovereignty over the hive. When, under ordinary circumstances, a young queen emerges from the chrysalis, the old one frequently quits the hive, heading the first swarm for the season, and flying to some neighbouring resting-place is observed by the owner, captured, placed under a new hive, and a new colony is immediately commenced. Before a swarm leaves the hive, sure indications are given of the intended movement; the workers leave their various occupations and collect in groups, especially near the door of the hive, as though in consultation on the important event about to take place. As the summer advances many queens are hatched; but the workers do not allow them instant liberty, as severe battles would take place between them and the reigning queen, in which one would be killed: the workers, there fore, make a small hole in the ceiling of the royal cell, through which the captive queen thrusts her tongue, and receives food from the workers. In this state of confinement the young queen utters a low querulous note, which has been compared to singing. When the reigning, or a newly-created queen, finds one of these captives, she uses every effort to tear open the cell and destroy her rival: to prevent this, the workers often interpose, pulling her away by the legs and wings; to this she submits for a short time, when, uttering a peculiar cry, called her voice of sovereignty, she commands instant attention and obedience, and is at once freed from her assailants. The cocoon spun by the maggots of the workers and drones completely envelopes the chrysalis; but that spun by the maggot of the queen appears imperfect, covering only the upper end of the chrysalis: it has been supposed that they are thus designedly exposed to the attacks of other queens, and their destruction, before emerging, facilitated. When the chrysalis of the queen is about to change to a perfect insect, the bees make the cover of the cell thinner by gnawing away part of the wax; and with so much nicety do they perform this operation, that the cover at last becomes pellucid, owing to its extreme thinness. The combs of a bee-hive comprise a congeries of hexagonal cells, built by the bees as a receptacle for honey, and for the nurseries of their young: each comb in a hive is composed of two ranges of cells, backed against each other the base or partition between this double row of cells is so disposed as to form a pyramidal cavity at the bottom of each. There is a continued series of these double combs in every well-filled hive; the spaces between them being just sufficient to allow two bees, one on the surface of each comb, to pass without touching. Each cell is hexagonal, the six sides being perfectly equal. This |