The honey-bee: its nature, homes and products

by William Hetherington Harris

"Thus in these nine experiments, out of the ninety-seven bees which came out first, no less than seventy-one were marked ones."

Many interesting questions connected with the workers remain for future investigation: such, for instance, as whether the same bee returns to the same part of the hive after each foraging expedition; whether the same bees go out in search of stores day after day, or sometimes take holidays or rest from out-door fatigues, by applying themselves to some of the internal labours of the hive; whether those who become more or less exhausted from long-continued flights die, for the most part, on their journeys, or come back home to end their lives.

One point not known to general readers is, that a bee on each separate going out for stores confines herself to one particular kind of flower for that expedition. That is to say, a worker who begins on violets, will not visit any other flowers than violets before returning to the hive. If lime-blossoms are chosen, they will be adhered to. If a bee searching white-clover heads be watched, she will be seen to go only to similar sources of supply. This fact may be verified by any one who will take the trouble to notice in field or garden the customs of the hive-bee. It does not seem to be the habit of wild bees thus to confine themselves to particular flowers for each journey they make. The importance of this circumstance in the case of our domesticated species, and its influence on the vegetable world, will be noted in a later chapter, when we discuss the relation of bees to flowers.

We have before alluded to the very remarkable phenomenon occasionally occurring to the great annoyance of the bee-keeper, namely, the development in a worker of the power of laying eggs, which eggs will produce nothing but drones, so that the population of the hive dwindles, and becomes extinct. Various suggestions have been made as to the reason of this faculty appearing. A very plausible idea is that some of the "royal jelly" is occasionally, and possibly by mistake, given to a larva in the neighbourhood of a queen-cell, and this stimulating food produces a partial development of laying power. A second possibility is that sometimes a worker-larva in too forward a condition is transferred to a queen-cell, and owing to the difference of treatment not having been begun early enough, an imperfect and nondescript kind of bee results. Some corroboration of this may perhaps be found in a curious fact, which has been several times noted, and published in the British Bee-Journal, viz., the finding of workers hatched in queen-cells. It would be difficult to imagine such an abnormal event, unless unusual circumstances had occurred to the young larva.

The birth of a fertile worker in a hive is a great misfortune; for, not merely will the population diminish, and at length altogether fail, from the production of drone-brood only, but, as it is impossible to distinguish the offending worker, it is difficult to get rid of her. It has been recommended, on the discovery that she exists, to amalgamate the stock with another having a queen. This may answer, but there is a danger that when the battle comes to be fought between the actual sovereign and the fertile worker, who will try to maintain her prerogative, the latter, as the more active, and as possessed of a more formidable sting, may prove victorious. A safer plan, therefore, is to turn out the whole stock from their hive, comb by comb, if the bar-frame system is used, and allow them to return to the old place where the cleared combs may be put to receive them. The fertile worker, never having left the colony, will not know her way back, and so will be happily got rid of, and will probably perish. Her place must, of course, be supplied by an introduced queen, or the stock must be united with another.

The age to which the workers live varies according to the amount of labour they undergo. During the winter and the early spring, when little or no work is done, there is small drain on their vital force, and they may live for six or seven months. In the height of summer, when long days and abundant supplies invite them to many hours of continuous toil, the industrious insects are believed to exhaust themselves very rapidly, and to perish, as if prematurely old, in about five or six weeks. It is quite evident that the mortality during the middle of the year must be very great, seeing that egg-laying and hatching go on at the rate of several hundreds a day, and during weeks and months in succession: and yet it frequently happens, where room sufficient for the growing stores is provided, no swarm will be thrown off, from which we infer that a period is reached when the birth-rate and death-rate pretty closely approach each other.

The older workers are distinguishable from the younger by their deeper and more glossy colour. The grey bloom of youth has been worn off, and frequently their wings, notched or broken in places, betray the veterans in the battle of life, who, amidst rains, hail, and wind, have suffered more or less severely.

Some observers have called attention to certain individuals in the community, which have been spoken of as "black bees,"[1] and which have been supposed to possess special functions. Von Berlepsch ascertained from his countryman Leuckart that no anatomical differences existed between these and ordinary workers; and, from subsequent experiments, came to the conclusion that the difference in colour was due to the accidental absence or the loss of the hairs or down with which bees are ordinarily covered. This loss may have occurred through getting smeared with honey, or from stifling, or fright, or creeping constantly through apertures too small to admit their bodies readily. Dzierzon, another great authority, corroborates the above explanation, and further adds, "as a rule, the glossy black bees are robbers, which have been pursuing their trade for some time."

[1] This term is also used for all English bees, in distinction from the Ligurian, Cyprian, and other varieties with yellow bands.

A similar difference in size and colour has been often noticed in the case of drones; and the explanation of their occurrence seems to be that such smaller individuals have been hatched in the cells intermediate between the normal drone and worker varieties, a tier or two of such intermediate cells being frequently made, to shade off the difference of size between the two kinds.