Chapter VI: on the four substances which bees collect or secrete, as

well as (though in a less degree) to those headed "Pasturage" and "General Remarks." Those who will favour our book with a consecutive reading will, we trust, find at the conclusion that all the more important and interesting facts of this class are in one or other of these places tolerably though briefly described.

The service that bees perform to flowers is a subject that has attracted much attention of late years. As every one knows, or should know, a flower has its stamens and pistils, which are respectively its male and female organs, and the pollen contained in the anthers, or little knobs on the summits of the stamens, must be conveyed to the pistils, or no seed will be produced. When the anthers burst; the pollen might happen to fall partly on the pistils, or it might not; but the visits of bees (though they do not roll about in the flower, in the manner that some have stated) are found by experience to be efficacious in conveying this dust to the right spot. Owners of fruit trees have noticed, in a season generally unfavourable to the orchard, that if during only one fine forenoon the bees had spread freely amongst the blossoms of a particular tree, that tree would prove more fruitful than its fellows. On this account the orchard is a good place for the apiary, for it seems that the more abundant the honey the better will be the crop of fruit. The whole subject is scientifically treated in Mr. Darwin's remarkable book, "The Fertilisation of Orchids," but we must add to the foregoing how much more urgent are the services of bees in the case of what are termed monœcious and diœcious plants, the former of which have the stamens and pistils _in different flowers_, and the latter have these flowers _upon different roots_. A familiar example of the former is found in the nut tree, whose long catkins, hanging like caterpillars in the early spring, are assemblages of male flowers; while the females, from which the nuts develop, may be detected by their crimson pistil-tips (stigmas), and grow in stalkless clusters of two or three in the openings of remote scaly buds. But for the visits or bees, our autumn nutting rambles would thus have but little prospect of success. In the second case, often very considerable distances intervene between the two flowers; for instance, with the common dog mercury (_Mercurialis perennis_), a botanist may find plantation after plantation containing male flowers by thousands, but not a single female; and at length in some far-off spot he may succeed in finding the females, equally by themselves, yet in full seed. In these cases there is nothing but the visits of pollen-gathering insects which can convey the fertilising dust to the flower for which it is designed. And according to Mr. Darwin _all_ plants are practically diœcious, for he states that the pollen, to have a fertilising effect, must be brought to the pistils of one flower from the stamens of one on another root. Whether this be considered established or not, there remains the fact of the existence of diœcious plants as explaining the admirable design of the provision that a bee in the course of one flight shall gather pollen solely from _one species_. As far as honey-gathering is concerned the bee is not governed by this rule; but for this other important function it becomes absolutely essential that the right pollen, and that only, should be conveyed to the right flower. The careful observer may note how the dust on the bodies of bees varies from yellow to red and brown according to the kind of flowers from which it has been gathered, and the "socks," as the Germans call them, on the two hind legs will be found always of the same colour.

To no scientific man are we probably more indebted for observations and deductions upon this branch than to Sir John Lubbock. Whilst this edition was in course of preparation it was the writer's privilege to listen to a lecture upon "Relations of Plants and Insects" delivered by this able investigator before the Society of Arts; and the lecture has since been published as a paper in the _Fortnightly Review_ of April 1877. In the course of his remarks Sir John cited many interesting particulars of the ways in which flowers are protected from the incursions of ants, whose visits would be harmful, both from their rifling the stores from the bees, by whom alone they are likely to be fertilised, and from the liability of the latter to desert any species in which their tender probosces were in danger of being seized by ants--it being the nature of an ant to grapple any pointed thing directed towards her. Kerner was referred to as having observed some of the modes by which such results are obviated. In some cases there are _chevaux de frise_ around the flower, in the form of hairs pointing downwards, or other barriers which the ant cannot penetrate or surmount: notably in the corn bluebottle, which is smooth all over except just beneath the flower, and in the thicket heads of some thistles. In others there are glutinous parts which the ant cannot traverse, as was noticed in the _Polygonum amphibium_, which, when it grows on land, has sticky glands at the extremities of certain hairs, while when in the water, where it is safe already, it is perfectly smooth. Again, there are pendulous flowers, like the snowdrop, which are so slippery on the surface that an ant would immediately slide off, as was humorously illustrated by a sketch prepared with several others by the lecturer's daughter. Facts were also stated showing how the pollen is sometimes preserved by the closing of certain flowers at times when winged insects were not on the move, and the exclusion thereby of such as would not aid in the work of fructification. "It is not too much to say," as Sir John elsewhere expresses himself ("British Wild Flowers in Relation to Insects "), "that if on the one hand flowers are in many cases necessary to insects, insects on the other hand are still more necessary to the very existence of flowers; that if insects have been in many cases modified and adapted with a view to obtain honey and pollen from flowers, flowers in their turn owe their scent and colour, their honey, and even their distinctive forms, to the action of insects."

"And plains sad Chloris how these spoilers steal
From her ripe crests the vivifying meal,
Pare the thin films that shield her anthered reign,
And all her nectared cells insatiate drain?
No! kind intruders; all reserved for you
She pours through honeyed horn her luscious dew,
While, grateful for the rich repast, ye shed
Fresh showers prolific round her genial bed."

Evans.

§ VIII. EGGS AND TRANSFORMATIONS.

It is necessary that some explanation should be given, as to the existence of the bee before it emerges from the cell.

The eggs (Plate II. Fig. 7) of all the three kinds of bees, when first deposited, are of an oval shape, slightly curved, and of a bluish-white colour. They are glutinous on the surface when laid, which causes them to adhere to the bases of the cells where the queen deposits them. In three or four days the egg changes to a small white worm, and in this stage is known by the names of larva or grub (Plate II. Fig. 8), in which state it remains four to six days more--a drone six and a half; its dimensions enlarge during this period till it appears as a ring at the base of the cell. While in this stage it is fed by the nurse bees with a mixture of farina and honey, a transparent white fluid in which the larva floats, and the supply of which is so exactly apportioned that not a drop remains on its ceasing to be required.

The next transformation is to the nymph or pupa form. The nurse bees now seal up the cells with a preparation similar to wax, leaving them with coverings which, by their greater convexity and darker colour, distinguish them readily from honey cells. The pupa then spins round itself a film or cocoon, just as a silkworm does in its chrysalis state: workers and drones occupy thirty-six hours with this process; princesses, which spin only half-cocoons, finish them in twenty-four. The microscope shows that this cradle-curtain is perforated with very minute holes, through which the baby bee is duly supplied with air. No farther attention on the part of the bees is now requisite, except a proper degree of heat, which they take care to keep up--a position for the breeding cells being selected in the centre of the hive, where the temperature is likely to be most congenial. The cells destined for the rearing of drones are larger than those from which workers will proceed, the former standing nineteen to the square inch against twenty-seven of the latter: the former are also one-third as deep again as the latter, and are made slightly more convex when sealed over. But between the eggs themselves there is externally no difference whatever.

In from nineteen to twenty-one days after the egg is first laid (unless cold weather should have retarded it) the bee quits the pupa state, and, nibbling its way through the waxen covering that has enclosed it, comes forth a winged insect. The eggs of drones require twenty-four or twenty-five days, and those of queens sixteen or seventeen, to arrive at maturity. In the unicomb observatory hives the young bees may distinctly be seen as they literally fight their way into the world, for the other bees do not take the slightest notice, nor afford them any assistance. We have frequently been amused in watching the eager little new comer, now obtruding its head, and anon compelled to withdraw into the cell to escape being trampled on by the apparently unfeeling throng, until at last it has succeeded in making its exit. The little grey creature, after brushing and shaking itself, enters upon its duties in the hive, and after a while issues forth to the more laborious occupation of gathering honey in the fields--thus early illustrating that character for industry which has been proverbial at least since the days of Aristotle, and which has in our day been rendered familiar even to infant minds through the nursery rhymes of Dr. Watts.

§ IX. REPRODUCTIVE ECONOMY.

The fertilisation of the queen and the determination of the sexes of her progeny are two subjects of so much interest that we must make room for some exposition of the discoveries of the past thirty years in relation thereto. What has been already stated on the former of these under the section on "The Drone" consists of facts which were mainly established by Huber; but within the present generation the great German apiarians have returned to the question, and Dzierzon has set forth some most marvellous deductions, which Baron von Berlepsch has followed up with amplification and further proof. It was found that the queen while in a virgin condition was often capable of depositing eggs, and that these eggs, unlike those of poultry laid under somewhat similar conditions, would hatch equally with others, but they _all produced drones_. From this arose the question. Whence come the drones _after_ the queen has been fertilised? A fact known from the days of Huber and Riem was by some supposed to settle the difficulty. In many hives there exist what are called "fertile workers"--bees having the female organs sufficiently developed to deposit eggs, but not sufficiently so to receive fecundation; and as it was found that the eggs of these fulfilled the conditions required, and invariably produced drone bees, the theory was erected that these fertile workers were the regular producers of that sex. But this plausible solution of the problem did not stand examination. Every fertile queen does habitually lay eggs in drone cells, and from those eggs drones are uniformly developed. Dissection and microscopic analysis had therefore to be resorted to, and the course of investigation commenced by Swammerdam and pursued by Mlle. Jurine was now pushed to a much further extent.

Proceeding from the two ovaries of the queen there are two canals, called oviducts, which presently unite, and immediately beyond their point of juncture is a small globular receptacle which is called the spermatheca. With fertile queens it was found that this appendage is permanently occupied by a fluid identical with that in the reproductive organs of the drones, and that as such it abounds in spermatozoa; while with a virgin queen the fluid is totally destitute of these, and is wholly different in appearance, being thin and transparent. From this discovery the conclusion followed that each egg, as it passes down the oviduct and over the mouth of the spermatheca, may either receive fecundation or not, according as the queen's own will or some other circumstance shall determine. Dzierzon accordingly propounded as the apparent, though still only hypothetical, solution of the enigma, what is known as the doctrine of parthenogenesis or virgin breeding--the law that life is imparted by the mother independently, and that every egg as originally developed in her ovaries is of the male sex, but that whenever fertilised with the male fluid it becomes transformed into a female!

To convert this hypothesis into a demonstration, Von Berlepsch invited to his apiary in succession the two great comparative anatomists Professors Leuckart and Von Siebold, and furnished each with a number of both drone and worker eggs for microscopic examination. Leuckart examined the surfaces of the eggs; Von Siebold, who followed him, tried the interiors, and the latter by this means was triumphantly successful, for, after the most careful preparation of his subjects, he detected in thirty out of forty worker eggs from one to four spermatozoa apiece, while in his twenty-four drone eggs he found not a single one. The exceptions were insufficient to invalidate the results, for the ten worker eggs in which no signs of impregnation were found were only the failures of observation to be naturally expected in so delicate a scrutiny. Thus the fact was established that eggs which produce male bees are descended from the female only--in other words, that _drones have no fathers!_

Most strikingly has this law been corroborated by a discovery which we owe to the introduction of the Italian bee--a discovery, too, which any bee-keeper can make for himself. If an Italian queen is crossed with an English drone, or _vice versa_, the _workers only_ of her progeny will be mongrels--the drones will invariably retain the pure blood of the queen, thus proving to demonstration that they owe their origin to her alone. Should a mongrel drone be then observed, it will be a sure sign that a fertile worker is in the hive: the queen will not be its mother. Dr. Dönhoff, we are told, confirmed the same law by a converse method, having in 1855 obtained a worker bee from a drone egg which he had artificially impregnated with the male fluid.

The queen, as we have observed, is capable before fertilisation of becoming the mother of drones, but it is believed by some that if she has once commenced drone-laying it is impossible for her to become subsequently fertilised. Mr. Langstroth, however, mentions an instance to the contrary, where a queen of his, after persistently laying drone eggs for a week or two, became after that the happy mother of a thriving colony of workers. Von Berlepsch alludes to this case (with others like it), but is unconvinced, being suspicious that here again it was a fertile worker and not the queen who laid the drone eggs. But looking to the fact that many _permanently_ unfertile queens lay drone eggs, while others lay no eggs at all, does it not seem reasonable that a similar difference may subsist _previous_ to fecundation? Thus, while the Baron is on firm ground as to the general rule, we incline to a belief that as to the exception the American observer is quite correct.

Dzierzon thus writes: "In general, so long as the young queen continues her wedding flights--which in the warm summer she does at the very most for four weeks, but in the cool spring or autumn, when life and development are slower in the hive, she still pursues for even five or six weeks--she is capable of becoming properly fertile." But some queens continue to fly long after it is hopeless, cases being recorded in which they have gone on for ten or twelve weeks. The same observer speaks of having had several young queens which were either lame in their wings or born in a continued cold season, so that they were prevented from leaving the hive, and thus developed into confirmed drone-breeders. The queen leaves the hive _every_ fine day till her purpose is accomplished, and this led Bevan and others to surmise that she met successively with several drones till one Of them lost his life in consequence; but we do not find in later authorities any confirmation nor even mention of this conjecture, and it may be set down as entirely improbable. In the case observed by Von Klipstein, and referred to above (page 22), as the queen met with her death shortly after, he sent her to Leuckart, who found that from this obviously first impregnation her organs were so completely filled as to imply no need for a second. Leuckart has elsewhere stated that a queen's spermatheca is capable of containing twenty-five millions of spermatozoa, so that there need be no wonder at the fact of a single fecundation being sufficient to answer for her entire term of existence.

The fertile workers, which by their course of adding to the drone stock may prove a terrible nuisance in a hive, were ascertained by Huber to be always hatched in close proximity to the queen cells, whence he conjectured that they obtained by accident a portion of the royal jelly designed for the rearing of princesses. Von Berlepsch and Langstroth prefer the theory that such jelly was purposely given them, and the conversion of their own cells into royal ones commenced, but that the intention was afterwards abandoned, as it is known that bees often, start more of such cells than they ultimately proceed with. They are of only exceptional occurrence in hives in a normal condition, but in a queenless stock they very often appear, sometimes even in considerable numbers, having been probably fostered with the jelly, but at too late a period to convert them into queens. They usually deposit their eggs correctly in drone cells, though drone-breeding queens lay in those of workers and even in royal cells--thus evincing a presence of the will though an absence of the power. To get rid of a fertile worker it has been recommended by Mr. Rorl to "drive" the bees (Chap. V. § iv.) to an empty hive, and place this in a near spot; all will return to their old home except the one to be got rid of, she having probably never flown before, and therefore not knowing her way.

§ X. RELATION OF SEX TO CELLS.

There remains the very interesting question of the connection between sex and cells, which, if it be not paradoxical to say so, is as a general rule invariable; that is to say, when both the queen and the hive are in a normal condition, the eggs laid in each class of cells produce respectively workers and drones without failure or exception. But in abnormal circumstances, as with a drone-breeding queen, the law does not hold, and drones of a diminished size are hatched from worker cells, though the bees, on discovering the state of things, do their best by subsequent elongation to adapt the cradles to their unexpected occupants. Such is the explanation of the existence of "small drones;" but workers hatched in drone cells do not appear to be in any way peculiar. In regard then to the main fact we are confronted with the question, Has the queen a knowledge, at the moment of laying, of the gender of each particular egg? Rather, it would seem, she has the power of making it what gender she pleases by compressing her spermatheca or not at the instant of its passing down her oviduct. We must however refer to an ingenious theory to the contrary, quoted by Langstroth as started by his friend the late Mr. Wagner of Philadelphia, and which has been approved by many in this country and Germany also. It is to the effect that not the queen's own will, but the narrow limits of the worker cells, administer the above compression, while the more spacious drone cells allow her body to be inserted without such effect. Von Berlepsch however, it is safe to say, has absolutely demolished this mechanical explanation; and as some recent writers have quoted the "Wagner theory" with approval, it may be best to give the German observer's principal objections in his own words:--

"This explanation is thoroughly untenable; for--(_a_) perfectly new worker cells are fully as wide as very old drone cells in which breeding has taken place many times, and yet, as found by experience, female bees come from the former and males from the latter, (_b_) Many queens are of a strikingly slender form, some of them occasionally so small that they can scarcely be distinguished from workers, and yet they have no proclivity to drone-laying--which must however have been the case if the narrow cell effected the fertilisation of the egg by pressure.... (_c_) A queen lays even in cells that are scarcely begun, with which, therefore, the proportion of the diameter to the thickness of her body can exercise no influence at all, and yet drones come forth from the drone cells and workers from the worker cells. (_d_) If there are no drone cells at her command, and the stock is in want of drones, the queen lays male eggs in worker cells, and drones hatch from them.... (_i_) A fertile queen, if introduced with her colony into a hive containing nothing but drone comb, would naturally [on such hypothesis] furnish the drone cells with eggs as she would worker cells, and make no difficulty about it. But she does make a very great difficulty--for a long time she lays no eggs in the cells at all, but lets them drop, or tries to escape abroad with her entire colony. But at last she does lay in the drone cells, and what ensues? _Ordinary worker bees come forth._" Instances follow of experiments decisively proving this. It is only fair, however, to add that Mr. Wagner's theory does not necessarily degrade the monarch of the hive into "a mere egg-laying machine," as Von Berlepsch regards it in some of his arguments, for she might still exhibit intelligence in deciding which cells to lay in, even if the determination of the sex of the egg rested finally with the cell which she had chosen.

The queen then exercises a personal control over each egg as she deposits it, but, unless interfered with by irregular circumstances, she _adapts_ her will to the cells and _chooses_ the cells according to the requirements of the hive. But when both drones and workers are in requisition she lays her eggs in each class of cells just as she comes to them, as to which fact the Baron gives abundant evidence, having in one instance observed a queen make no fewer than five changes in a day from worker to drone cells or _vice versa_ without any intermission. Inconsistent as it may appear, she also herself deposits in royal cells the eggs which are to hatch into her rivals--that is, when these cells have been prepared with a view to swarming;--for the preponderance of argument goes against the belief that eggs are ever removed into these by the workers.[13] In addition to determining the sex she is further capable of regulating to a large extent the total number of eggs she lays, and thus of modifying the growth of the population with the character of the season and the condition of the colony; thus a queen that has been transferred from a weak to a strong hive has been know to vary in two or three days from no eggs at all to two thousand a day. She lays during some ten months of the year, suspending the process in November and December. For her first season she lays almost exclusively worker eggs.

[Footnote 13: The eggs when once deposited adhere to the cells and could not be removed without ruining them; but occasionally when fresh laid they stick to the body of the queen, or even of a worker. Queenless stocks sometimes in their temporary insanity start new queen cells without thinking where the eggs are to come from; but these will remain empty unless some fertile worker' tries her skill.]

We are told of the occasional occurrence of hermaphrodite bees, half workers and half drones, and the explanation of their existence is given by Von Berlepsch as an incomplete penetration of the shell of the egg, in the act of fertilising, by the spermatozoa. Yet another order of individuals has been supposed to exist by some, and they have termed them "black bees,"[14] also "drone mothers;" they are not, however, the veritable "fertile workers" named above, but owe their distinction solely to misconception. They are blacker than the rest, and often with fewer and shorter hairs: but the above author, after ascertaining from Leuckart that there was no anatomical difference, proved by experiments that their colour was caused simply by smearing with honey, or else was the effect of stifling or of fright, and that the loss of hairs was owing to nothing more than having crept repeatedly through confined entrance-holes! Similarly Dzierzon: "The black colour is one purely accidental, produced through heating, rubbing against sides, biting, smearing, licking, and the like. As a rule, the glossy black bees are _robbers_ which have been pursuing their trade for some considerable time."

[Footnote 14: This term is also sometimes applied to English bees generally in distinction from the Italians.]

§ XI. THE RATIONALE OF SWARMING.

Under this heading we purpose to describe such matters as belong chiefly to the natural history of the bee, thus reserving for its proper position at the beginning of our fifth chapter all which strictly belongs to the subject of "Manipulation," and which it is to the convenience of the inexperienced bee-keeper to find brief and ready to his hand at any moment of emergency. A leisurely digesting of the interesting facts stated in the present section will, however, greatly assist him in the intelligent following of his pursuit.

In May, when the preceding part of the spring has been fine, the queen bee is very active in the deposition of eggs, and the increase in a strong healthy hive is so prodigious that emigration is necessary, or work would soon cease. The bees, on arriving at a conviction of this fact, commence preparations by the building of royal cells, thus putting matters straight for the after government and progress of the hive. The queen, _nolens volens_, falls in with the general resolution, and makes off with the swarm on the first pleasant day after one of these cells has been sealed over, that is to say, some six or seven days before her first rival is likely to emerge. If delayed by the weather till within two days of the hatching of this, the bees usually destroy all the princesses, and either start fresh cells or give up swarming altogether for the season. It is now a well-established fact that the old queen goes forth with the first swarm, and thus the sovereignty of the old hive devolves upon a young queen. Dzierzon, however, once met with a case in which the old queen refused to stir, and three strong swarms were led forth by young princesses in the course of five days. By the bye, it should be added that swarms are never "led" forth except by young queens, in the sense of having these at their head; fruitful mothers usually follow in the midst.

As soon as the swarm builds combs in its new abode, the emigrant queen begins laying eggs in the cells, and thereby speedily multiplies the labourers of the new colony. Although there is now amongst apiarians no doubt that the old queen quits her home, there is no rule as to the composition of the swarm: old and young alike depart. Some show unmistakable signs of age by their ragged wings, others their extreme youth by their lighter colour. We do not, however, use the term "young" in reference to those youngest inhabitants of the hive whose engagements are solely within doors, for these cannot go till their proper time for flying has arrived. Von Berlepsch says that all the adult bees which are at home at the time of starting go with the swarm; and sometimes this results in none but the brood bees being left--or only one-fourth of the population. In preparation for flight, bees commence filling their honey-bags, taking sufficient, it is said, for three days' sustenance. This store is needful, not only for food, but to enable them to commence the secretion of wax and the building of combs in their new domicile.

On the day of emigration the weather must be fine, warm, and clear, with but little wind stirring; for the old queen, like a prudent matron, will not venture out unless the day is in every way favourable. Whilst her majesty hesitates, either for the reasons we have mentioned or because the internal arrangements are not sufficiently matured, the bees will often fly about or hang in clusters at the entrance of the hive for two or three days and nights together, all labour meanwhile being apparently suspended. When this cluster is formed in the morning hours, and grows constantly larger in spite of the sun, it may be taken as the sign of a very speedy start. The busy flitting of other bees around this cluster, or their sporting in numbers before the hive, are also reliable signs, and some have included the appearance of drones at ten in the morning. At the last, when the time is quite fixed, the bees in the cluster suddenly return to the hive to fill themselves with honey for the flight. The agitation of the little folk is well described by Evans:--

"See where, with hurried step, the impassioned throng
Pace o'er the hive, and seem, with plaintive song,
To invite their loitering queen; now range the floor,
And hang in clustered columns from the door;
Or now in restless rings around they fly,
Nor spoil they sip, nor load the hollowed thigh;
E'en the dull drone his wonted ease gives o'er,
Flaps the unwieldy wing, and longs to soar."

But when all is ready, a scene of the most violent agitation takes place; the bees rush out in vast numbers, forming quite a dark cloud as they traverse the air.

The time selected for the departure of the emigrants is generally between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m.; most swarms come off within an hour of noon. In very sultry weather they have been known to be as early as 7 a.m., and on the other hand as late as 5 p.m., though this last probably only occurs when a _young_ queen leads the detachment. As a rule, says Von Berlepsch, first swarms start in the morning and after-swarms in the afternoon. It is a very general remark that bees choose a Sunday for swarming, and probably this is because then greater stillness reigns around. It will not be difficult to imagine that the careful bee-keeper is anxious to keep a strict watch, lest he should lose such a treasure when once it takes wing. The exciting scene at a bee-swarming has been well described by the apiarian laureate:--

"Mounts the glad chief! and, to the cheated eye,
Ten thousand shuttles dart along the sky,
As swift through ether rise the rushing swarms,
Gay dancing to the beam their sun-bright forms,
And each thin form, still lingering on the sight,
Trails, as it shoots, a line of silver light.
* * * * *
High poised on buoyant wing, the thoughtful queen
In gaze attentive views the varied scene,
And soon her far-stretched ken discerns below
The light laburnum lift her polished brow,
Wave her green leafy ringlets o'er the glade,
And seem to beckon to her friendly shade.
Swift as the falcon's sweep, the monarch bends
Her flight abrupt: the following host descends;
Round the fine twig, like clustered grapes, they close
In thickening wreaths, and court a short repose."

As it often happens with after-swarms that more than one young queen is hatched before the start is made, the presence of these may cause irregular and puzzling behaviour in the bees. Langstroth mentions a case in which no less than eight queens must have started thus together, and Von Berlepsch once met with the same number; while Spitzner found a swarm with so many as twenty-one, but this happened fourteen days after the return to the hive of the first swarm, which had lost its queen. As mentioned in the section on "The Queen," it is not altogether a rare occurrence, though certainly the exception, for more than one monarch to settle down together. In one American case no fewer than five colonies once took up their quarters in a single large box, and remained there through a season "united yet divided."

If, on the contrary, the queen is not in the swarm at all, the bees sometimes return at once to the hive, and sometimes they first institute a search for her majesty. In the famous but cruel experiment of Dr. Warder a whole swarm was starved to death by alternate deprivations and restorations of their queen repeated at intervals during five days. Of course in his day this devotion was attributed to personal regard.

Exceptional cases of another kind are also not uncommon, in which a colony has made no preparation for swarming (by the formation of royal cells), but on the sudden arrival of warm weather it is enticed--Dzierzon says by the heat itself. Von Berlepsch by the contagious example of neighbouring hives--to carry out in a hurry that which ought to have received some ten days' preliminary care. "An internal revolution is made," says the Baron, "and they rush forth for the swarm. The queen, as becomes the pseudo-sovereign of a democratic monarchy, hastens to prove to her people their most obedient servant, and there the swarm is, hanging on the first convenient tree." On the following morning it will in such case be found that worker cells have been transformed into royal ones.

An instance illustrating the way in which bees sometimes make provision beforehand of a place to fly to when about to swarm came under our own notice a few years since. A lady who lived about a quarter of a mile from our apiary sent to us to say that a swarm had gone in at a hole over her stable, and to ask us to come and hive them. On our going to do so her gardener told us that he had seen three days previous two or three bees as if reconnoitring; next day several came, and about eleven o'clock on the third day the whole swarm went in and took up their position between the rafters under the flooring. The difficulty was now to get at them. A carpenter was sent for, the boards were taken up, a hive was set over, with a brood comb placed in it to attract them, and by dint of smoke and brushing with a feather, the queen and her retinue were coaxed to ascend into the hive. Some of the bees had already gone out to forage, and there were many flying about that had not settled; so to secure these and make it easy for them, we brought the hive out, and erected a sort of platform on a pair of steps close to the hole, which we stopped. By nighttime all the out-flying bees had joined the swarm and were easily removed.

We ought to mention that we recognised this swarm from the appearance of the bees as those from the Carniolan hive left under our care by the Rev. W. C. Cotton (page 45), and as the queen with the swarm was the original, we had to ask that we might be allowed to take the bees back if we provided a swarm of the ordinary English bees, which offer was accepted. Mr. Cotton eventually took this colony to his residence at Frodsham near Chester, and we kept the stock, which of course had a new queen. The bees did not long retain their distinctive features.

A swarm of bees, in a natural state, contains from 10,000 to 20,000 insects. "On an average," says Dzierzon, "we may call 20,000 a strong swarm, 12,000 to 15,000 a moderate one, and 6,000 to 8,000 a weak one." Von Berlepsch by a very careful experiment estimated that there were 5,600 unloaded bees in a pound, so that when loaded for swarming there would certainly not be more than 4,000. A good swarm will therefore weigh from three to five pounds. We have known swarms not heavier than two pounds and a half that were in very excellent condition in August as regards store for the winter; though the Baron's experiments showed with remarkable conformity that for a new swarm _six_ pounds was proportionally more profitable than any other weight, larger or smaller. For a fully furnished hive, he states, there seems really no limit but that of space--the more bees the better.

Hitherto our remarks have had reference to first or "prime" swarms; these are the best, and when a swarm is purchased, such should be bargained for. But there are also second swarms, known amongst cottage bee-keepers as "casts," one of which is often found to issue from the hive nine or ten days after the first has departed; in very rare cases such has been known as early as the third or as late as the seventeenth day. It is not always that a second swarm issues, as so much depends on the strength of the stock, the weather, and other causes; but should the bees determine to throw out another, the first hatched queen in the stock hive is prevented by her subjects from destroying the other royal princesses, as she would do if left to her own will. She in consequence becomes highly indignant; and, when thwarted in her purpose, utters, in quick succession, shrill angry sounds, much resembling _Peep, peep_,[15] commonly called "piping," but which more courtly apiarians have styled the _vox regalis_. The princesses answer her in a somewhat different note--these being, it must be understood, by this time perfectly developed queens, but afraid to quit their cells, where accordingly the brood bees feed them.

[Footnote 15: So all English writers. Bees in Germany evidently speak a different language, for there the reigning queen cries, _Tüh, tüh_, while her imprisoned rival answers, _Quah, quah_.]

This royal wailing continues during the evening, and is sometimes so loud as to be distinctly audible many yards from the hive. When this is the case, a swarm may usually be expected either on the next day or at latest within three days, unless the weather causes a longer postponement. This sound, when persevered in, is a sure sign of the issuing of an after-swarm, but it is in such case almost the _only_ sign, and it must be noted that even when the bees do not intend to swarm it may sometimes be heard a day or two after a second swarm has left. If not heard it may be concluded that swarming is at an end. The second swarm is not quite so chary of weather as the first; it was the _old_ lady who exercised so much caution, disliking to leave home except in the best of summer weather.

In some instances, owing to favourable breeding sea sons and prolific queens, a third swarm issues from the hive (usually after intervals of two or three days), which is termed a "colt;" and in remarkable instances even a fourth (after another day's interval), which in rustic phrase is designated a "filly." Mr. Langstroth says that he once had a fifth, and all five in the course of a fortnight. A swarm from a swarm is called a "maiden" swarm, and, according to bee theory, will again have the old queen for its leader: if such does occur it will probably be at about a month after the hiving. The original colony, of one or more years' duration, is known as a "stock."

When swarming is over for the season any princesses remaining in cells are torn out and destroyed as before stated, or else left to the tender mercies of the reigning sovereign. But now and then one of them slips past her assailants, "and then," says Von Berlepsch, "there ensues a regular hunt, which I have several times observed through the hive window. The queen, well knowing the fate that is in store for her, rushes away, and the bees pursue; when seized by the feet or the wings she cries out pitiably, and one queen so moved my compassion that I liberated her, put her in a queen cage, supplied her with workers and comb on a following day, and, as she became successfully fertilised, brought her through the winter."

§ XII. INCREASE OF BEES.

In the section upon "The Queen" we have given (page 10) some particulars as to the rate of breeding with bees. The needful expansion for this rapid development is found in the above process of "swarming," by which they provide themselves with fresh space, and plant new colonies. But the object of the bee-master is to train and educate his bees, and in so doing he avoids much of the risk and trouble which is incurred by allowing the busy folk to follow their own devices. The various methods for this end adopted by apiarians all come under the term of the "depriving" system, and they form part of the great object of humane and economical bee-keeping, which is to save the bees alive instead of slaughtering them as under the old clumsy _régime_. A very natural question is often asked: How is it that, upon the depriving system, where our object is to prevent swarming, the increase of numbers is not so great as upon the old plan? It will be seen that the laying of eggs is performed by the queen only, and that there is but one queen to each hive; so that where swarming is prevented there remains only one hive or stock, as the superfluous princesses are not allowed to come to maturity. If all those princesses were to become monarchs, or mother bees, and to emigrate with a proportionate number of workers, increase would be going on more rapidly; but the old stock would be so impoverished thereby as possibly to yield no surplus honey, whilst the swarms might come off too late for them to collect sufficient store whereon to grow populous enough to withstand the winter.

With bees, as with men, "union is strength;" and it is often better to induce them to remain as one family, rather than to part numbers at a late period of the honey-gathering season, without a prospect of supporting themselves, and so perish from cold and hunger during the ordeal of the winter season. This is one of the great secrets of successful bee-keeping. Mr. Langstroth's recommendation is that none "but the most experienced apiarians" should attempt "at the furthest to do more than treble their stocks in one year." Even doubling them, he says, is often too rapid an increase for obtaining spare honey.

Our plan of giving additional storage-room will, generally speaking, prevent swarming. This stay-at-home policy, we contend, is an advantage; for instead of the loss of time consequent upon a swarm hanging out preparatory to flight, all the bees are engaged in collecting honey, and that at a time when the weather is most favourable and the food most abundant. Upon the old system the swarm leaves the hive simply because the dwelling has not been enlarged at the time when the bees are increasing. Upon the antiquated and inhuman plan where so great a destruction takes place by the brimstone match, breeding must, of course, be allowed to go on to its full extent to make up for such sacrifices. Our chief object under the new system is to obtain honey free from all extraneous matter. _No one can depend upon gathering pure honey from combs where storing and breeding are performed in the same compartment._ For fuller explanations on this point we refer to the various descriptions of our improved hives in a subsequent chapter of this work.

We often receive from Scotland magnificent boxes of honey; and though the fine quality is no doubt to be in part attributed to good pasturage, it is largely owing to keeping the stocks strong, and thus having hives well stored and well populated early in the season. A weakly hive will take some weeks, if not months, to grow populous; and as soon as the strength of the hive has recovered, the honey season will have advanced, if not ended, whilst the strong stocks have been able to take full advantage of the supplies, having an abundance of labourers to collect the honey and store it in supers for their master.

There can now be scarcely two opinions as to the uselessness of the rustic plan of immolating the poor bees after they have striven through the summer so to "improve each shining hour." The ancients in Greece and Italy took the surplus honey and spared the bees, and now for every intelligent bee-keeper there are ample appliances wherewith to attain the same results. Mr. Langstroth quotes from the German the following epitaph, which, he says, "might be properly placed over every pit of brimstoned bees:"--

Here Rests,

CUT OFF FROM USEFUL LABOUR,

A COLONY OF

INDUSTRIOUS BEES,

BASELY MURDERED

BY ITS

=UNGRATEFUL AND IGNORANT OWNER=.

And Thomson, the poet of "The Seasons," has recorded an eloquent poetic protest against the barbarous practice, for which, however, in his day there was no alternative:--

"Ah! see, where, robbed and murdered, in that pit
Lies the still-heaving hive! at evening snatched,
Beneath the cloud of guilt-concealing night,
And fixed o'er sulphur; while, not dreaming ill,
The happy people, in their waxen cells,
Sat tending public cares, and planning schemes
Of temperance, for winter poor; rejoiced
To mark, full flowing round, their copious stores.
Sudden, the dark, oppressive steam ascends;
And, used to milder scents, the tender race
By thousands tumble from their honeyed domes,
Convolved and agonising in the dust."

It will be our pleasing task, in subsequent chapters; to show "a more excellent way."