The sting of the queen differs from that of the worker, in having its barbs curved, instead of straight. This modification makes it a much less formidable implement. Moreover, it is very seldom employed. It is, indeed, almost impossible to make a queen sting the hand, even by great provocation. Almost the only circumstances in which her majesty employs the weapon are, first, for mortal combat with a rival, and second, for murdering, if permitted by the workers, the princesses before they emerge from the cells in which they have developed.
The drone is without a sting, and, indeed, seems never to show fight at all. Its jaws might furnish no despicable weapons, but the insect seems to lack spirit to use them, even in self-defence, and when attacked by the mandibles only of the workers, manifests no inclination to employ its own against its tormentors. Struggles to escape, and haste to flee, seem to betray its absence of courage; though, possibly, an instinctive knowledge that its assailants have in reserve a more deadly piece of armour than strong jaws may make "discretion the better part of valour."
With regard to the sting of the bee, Paley aptly remarks that it "affords a beautiful example of the union of chemistry and mechanism: of chemistry in respect to the venom, which, in so small a quantity, can produce such powerful effects; of mechanism, as the sting is not a simple but a compound instrument. The machinery would have been useless, had it not been for the chemical process, by which, in the insect's body, honey is converted into poison; and, on the other hand, the poison would have been ineffectual without an instrument to wound, and a syringe to inject the fluid."
CHAPTER XV.
THE DISEASES OF BEES.
Dysentery: How Produced—Indications—Treatment. Foul-Brood: two kinds—Nature—Propagation. Mr. Cheshire's Discoveries and Treatment—Fatal Effects of Disease—Detection—Vertigo—Analogy of Human and Bee Diseases.
How far the diseases of domesticated animals are due to the conditions to which they are subjected by man, and which are always, to some extent, contrary to the natural mode of life of the creatures, we are at present unable to say. We can, however, point with some certainty to cases in which birds and quadrupeds, which are made subservient to our needs or our convenience, suffer in consequence of our treatment. In some degree, this is true with regard to bees. In a wild state their habitations may, indeed, expose them to risks they do not run in hives, but these artificial dwellings, on the other hand, tend to the development, or the extension of, at least two maladies to which their occupants are subject. These are the deadly evils of dysentery and so-called "foul-brood."
Dysentery has been known in apiaries from the time of Columella, in the first century of our era, who attributed it to the effect of food derived by the bees from the elm and the spurge. Other more recent writers have ascribed it to over-indulgence in spring-honey, wheresoever derived: others, again, to the consumption of stores which had candied in the cells during the winter. More recent investigations show that there are several means by which this trouble may be generated. In the first place, ineffective ventilation, by permitting the condensation of moisture on the combs, and its admixture with the food stores, is a prolific source of the mischief. During the winter, the low temperature is constantly reducing to a watery condition the aqueous vapour given off by respiration. This vapour, like our own perspiration, contains matter derived from impurities in the circulating fluid, and is the natural vehicle for their removal. If, then, such moisture again enters the body of the bee, it is simply a poison, whose effects become manifest by producing diarrhœa, distension of the abdomen, and more or less speedy death.
Again, if the stocks be supplied in the late autumn with syrup too watery for the bees to seal over in the cells, contact with air sets up a chemical change, and a certain amount of acid is generated, which makes the honey most prejudicial to the health of the stock, by deranging their digestive functions.
Thirdly, if during the winter time, when the insects are closely confined to their dwellings by the weather, and when they are, under ordinary conditions, very quiescent, they be disturbed and excited, they are apt to gorge themselves with food; and having no natural means of working off the extra quantity they have taken, the system is overloaded, and the stomach and intestines suffer from the too great burden thrown on them.
The occurrence of this malady is indicated by the altered appearance and odour of the excrement, which, instead of being reddish yellow, becomes of a muddy black colour, and has an intolerably foul smell. It is, moreover, deposited by the weakened insects, contrary to their cleanly habits, on the combs, the inner walls of the hives, on the floor-board, and at the entrance of their dwellings.