The duties undertaken by the workers constitute a series of operations indicating marvellous skill and apparent reasoning power. It is true that what we call "instinct"—a word which merely covers our ignorance—seems to play a large part in the direction of the doings of bees; but the readiness with which they adapt themselves to circumstances, the expedients they adopt to remedy defects in their dwellings or surroundings, the efforts they make to repair losses and to provide for the continuance of the race, appear to transcend the limits of a power actuated by blind impulse alone.
We have spoken of the brooding over and feeding of the larvæ, the sealing of the pupæ, the cleansing of the newly-hatched young, as the special duties of the workers. All these offices are performed by the most juvenile members of the family, who thus become gradually initiated into the responsibilities of bee-life, and daily gather strength for the next and more extended duties of citizenship. These consist of the gathering of supplies of honey, pollen, and propolis, the elaboration of wax, the making of the combs, the storing and sealing up of produce, the cleansing and ventilation of the hive, the guarding of the entrance, and the driving off or slaughter of intruders of various kinds.
These various operations are worthy of separate notice, and we will proceed to give some details relating to each.
CHAPTER VI.
HONEY.
Origin—How Collected and Stored—Constitution—Poisonous Honey—Best varieties of Honey—Distances traversed by Bees in search of Honey—Uses.
Honey is mainly derived from the nectar of flowers. We say mainly, because bees are able to make use of many sweet liquids, such as the juices of ripe fruits, the substances constituting what is called "honey-dew," the syrup of sugar, and the solid material of sweetmeats. Still, by far the larger proportion of honey is derived from flowers. By means of its long flexible tongue the bee sucks from the nectaries of various plants the sweet liquid they contain. In an expansion of the gullet, which somewhat resembles the crop of birds, some slight, but important, chemical changes appear to take place, and while a portion of the fluid passes into the true stomach for the nourishment of the insect, the rest is regurgitated into a cell of one of the combs. At first the honey thus deposited is very thin, but by evaporation under the warmth of the hive, a portion of the water passes off, and a process of what apiarians call "ripening" goes on, after which the remaining liquid is less liable to fermentation, when extracted from the comb.
Honey appears to consist mainly of two kinds of sugar, one of which is closely allied to that contained in the grape, and which by spontaneous change is apt to crystallise in contact with air. The other is uncrystallisable, like the purest treacle, and mingled with it are slight quantities of colouring matter and mucilage. These sugars are somewhat apt to undergo a vinous fermentation, of which advantage has been taken in the manufacture of mead—a drink much used by the inhabitants of these islands in ancient times as a stimulant, and even intoxicant.
The taste of honey varies according to the flowers or other sources from which it has been chiefly derived. That procured from flowers, especially those of the labiate family—from the clovers, the lime-blossoms, and the heaths—is most esteemed. That which has been derived from sugar-syrup differs but slightly from the liquid of its origin. That procured from what is called honey-dew, or the secretion of various sorts of aphides, is very worthless in quality, though bees are extremely fond of the liquid.
It is a remarkable and unfortunate fact, that the honey collected from certain flowers is, though innocuous to bees, more or less injurious to the human body. Xenophon tells us in his Anabasis that his soldiers found many hives in the neighbourhood of Trebizonde, and, after eating of the contents, the men were seized with violent purging and vomiting, stupefaction, and inability to stand. Those who ate little became like men very drunk, and those who ate much, like madmen, and some like dying persons. In this condition great numbers lay upon the ground, as if there had been a defeat. None of them died, and in about twenty-four hours they recovered consciousness. On the third or fourth day after the seizure they got up, but were like men who had taken powerful physic.
Tournefort, when travelling in Asia Minor, recollecting these historical circumstances, made careful investigations as to the probabilities of the case. Two kinds of shrubs were pointed out to him as bearing flowers, the honey from which was deleterious, and the very odour of which is still said to produce headache. These plants were the rhododendron Ponticum, and azalea Pontica, nearly allied species, growing abundantly in that part of the world. Father Lamberti corroborates Xenophon's description, by stating that similar effects have been produced by the honey of Colchis, where these shrubs are common.