IX.—BEE-THINGS IN GENERAL.
AS this work does not profess to be an entomological essay but a practical bee-master's directory, I have omitted those erudite questions about which apiarians wrangle, and unfortunately lose their temper and employ their stings.
But there are some interesting bits of instruction scattered over bee-books which it may interest the reader to lay before him. If they contribute nothing to the amount of the honey harvest, they may increase the pleasure of the bee-master in the long winter evenings.
THE INSTINCT OR INTELLIGENCE OF BEES.
Huber relates:—
"He put under a bell-glass about a dozen humble-bees, without any store of wax, along with a comb of about ten silken cocoons, so unequal in height that it was impossible the mass should stand firmly. Its unsteadiness disquieted the humble-bees extremely. Their affection for their young led them to mount upon the cocoons for the sake of imparting warmth to the inclosed little ones, but in attempting this the comb tottered so violently that the scheme was almost impracticable. To remedy this inconvenience, and to make the comb steady, they had recourse to a most ingenious expedient. Two or three bees got upon the comb, stretched themselves over its edge, and with their heads downwards fixed their fore-feet on the table upon which it stood, whilst with their hind-feet they kept it from falling. In this constrained and painful posture, fresh bees relieving their comrades when weary, did these affectionate little insects support the comb for nearly three days. At the end of this period they had prepared a sufficiency of wax, with which they built pillars that kept it in a firm position; but, by some accident afterwards, these got displaced, when they had again recourse to their former manœuvre for supplying their place; and this operation they perseveringly continued, until M. Huber, pitying their hard task, relieved them by fixing the object of their attention firmly on the table."
Lardner quotes from Kirby the following curious illustration of the habits of the clothier-bee:—
"Kirby mentions the example of nests of this kind found by himself and others, constructed in the inside of the lock of a garden-gate.
"A proceeding has been ascertained on the part of these insects in such cases, which it is extremely difficult to ascribe to mere instinct, independent of some intelligence. Wherever the nest may be constructed, the due preservation of the young requires that until they attain the perfect state, their temperature should be maintained at a certain point So long as the material surrounding their nest is a very imperfect conductor of heat, as earth or the pith of wood is, the heat developed by the insect, being confined, is sufficient to maintain its temperature at the requisite point. But if, perchance, the mother-bee select for her nest any such locality as that of the lock of the gate, the metal, being a good conductor of heat, would speedily dissipate the animal heat developed by the insect and thus reduce its temperature to a point incompatible with the continuance of its existence. How then does the tender mother, foreseeing this, and consequently informed by some power of the physical quality peculiar to the metal surrounding the nest, provide against it? How, we may ask, would a scientific human architect prevent such an eventuality? He would seek for a suitable material which is a non-conductor of heat, and would surround the nest with it. In fact, the very thing has occurred in a like case in relation to steam-engine boilers. The economy of fuel there rendered it quite as necessary to confine the heat developed in the furnace, as it is to confine that which is developed in the natural economy of the pupa of the bee. The expedient, therefore, resorted to is to invest the boiler in a thick coating of a sort of felt, made for the purpose, which is almost a non-conductor of heat. A casing of sawdust is also used in Cornwall for a like purpose. By these expedients the escape of heat from the external surface of the boiler is prevented.