The honey is always best in those countries where it is to be found deposited in the calix of the most exquisite flowers, such, for instance, as the districts of Hymettus in Attica, and Hybla in Sicily, and after them the island of Calydna. At first, honey is thin, like water, after which it effervesces for some days, and purifies itself like must. On the twentieth day it begins to thicken, and soon after becomes covered with a thin membrane, which gradually increases through the scum which is thrown up by the heat. The honey of the very finest flavor, and the least tainted by the leaves of trees, is that gathered from the foliage of the oak and the linden, and from reeds.
In some countries we find the honey-comb remarkable for the goodness of the wax, as in Sicily and the country of the Peligni; in other places the honey itself is found in greater abundance, as in Crete, Cyprus, and Africa; and in others, again, the comb is remarkable for its size; in Germany a comb has been known to be as much as eight feet in length.
In taking the combs the greatest care is always requisite, for the bees become desperate when stinted for food, and either pine to death, or wing their flight to other places: on the other hand, over-abundance will entail idleness, and they will feed upon the honey, and not the bee bread. The most careful breeders take care to leave the bees a fifteenth part of this gathering.
The crop of honey is most abundant if gathered at full moon, and is richest when the weather is fine. The summer honey is the most esteemed of all, from the fact of its being made when the weather is dryest: it is best when made from thyme; it is then of a golden color, and of a most delicious flavor. Thyme honey does not coagulate, and on being touched will draw out into thin viscous threads, the proof of its heaviness. When honey shows no tenacity, and the drops immediately part from one another, it is looked upon as a sign of its worthlessness.
CHAPTER V.
THE MODE OF GOVERNMENT OF THE BEES.
Let a man employ himself, forsooth, in the enquiry whether there has been only one Hercules, how many Bacchuses there have been, and all the other questions which are buried deep in the mould of antiquity! Here behold a tiny object, one to be met with at most of our country retreats, and numbers of which are always at hand, and yet, after all, it is not agreed among authors whether or not the king[194] is the only one among them that is provided with no sting, and is possessed of no other arms than those afforded him by his majestic office, or whether Nature has granted him a sting, and has only denied him the power of making use of it; it being a well-known fact, that the ruling bee never does use a sting. The obedience which his subjects manifest in his presence is quite surprising. When he goes forth, the whole swarm attends him, throngs about him, surrounds him, protects him, and will not allow him to be seen. At other times, when the swarm is at work within, the king is seen to visit the works, and appears to be giving his encouragement, being himself the only one that is exempt from work: around him are certain other bees which act as body-guards and lictors, the careful guardians of his authority. The king never quits the hive except when the swarm is about to depart; a thing which may be known a long time beforehand, as for some days a peculiar buzzing noise is to be heard within, which denotes that the bees are waiting for a favorable day, and making all due preparations for their departure. On such an occasion, if care is taken to deprive the king of one of his wings, the swarm will not fly away. When they are on the wing, every one is anxious to be near him, and takes a pleasure in being seen in the performance of its duty. When he is weary, they support him on their shoulders; and when he is quite tired, they carry him outright. If one of them falls in the rear from weariness, or happens to go astray, it is able to follow the others by the aid of its acuteness of smell. Wherever the king bee happens to settle, that becomes the encampment of all.
Happy omens are sometimes afforded by the swarming of bees, clustering, as they do, like a bunch of grapes, upon houses or temples; presages often of great events. Bees settled upon the lips of Plato when still an infant, announcing thereby the sweetness of that persuasive eloquence for which he was so noted. Bees settled in the camp of the chieftain Drusus when he gained the brilliant victory at Arbalo; a proof that the conjectures of soothsayers are not by any means infallible, for they consider this always of evil augury. When their leader is withheld from them, the swarm can always be detained; when lost, it will disperse and take its departure to find other kings. Without a king, they cannot exist.
If food fail the inhabitants of any particular hive, the swarm makes a concerted attack upon a neighboring one, with the view of plundering it. The swarm attacked at once ranges itself in battle array, and if the bee-keeper should happen to be present, that side which perceives itself favored by him will refrain from attacking him. They often fight, for other reasons, and the two generals are to be seen drawing up their ranks in battle array against their opponents. The battle is immediately ended by throwing dust among them, or raising a smoke; and if milk or honey mixed with water is placed before them, they speedily become reconciled.
CHAPTER VI.
WASPS AND HORNETS.
Wasps build their nests of mud in lofty places, and make wax: hornets, on the other hand, build in holes or in the hollows of trees. With these two kinds the cells are also hexagonal, but, in other respects, though made of the bark of trees, they strongly resemble the substance of a spider’s web. Their young are found at irregular intervals, and are of unshapely appearance; while one is able to fly, another is still a mere pupa, and a third only in the maggot state. The wasp which is known as the ichneumon, a smaller kind than the others, kills one kind of spider in particular, known as the phalangium; after which it carries the body to its nest, covers it over with a sort of gluey substance, and then sits and hatches from it its young.[195] In addition to this, they are all of them carnivorous, while bees will touch no animal substance whatever. Wasps particularly pursue the larger flies, and after catching them cut off the head and carry away the remaining portion of the body.