Part 28
"After having covered your head with a veil, if the swarm has settled in a difficult place, and you are afraid of being stung, you hold the hive under the cluster of bees and make them fall into it, either by shaking the branch to which the swarm is attached, very hard, or by means of a small broom, or even with the hand, for then they very rarely sting: it is hardly ever necessary to take any precautions in approaching them, except for swarms which have been fixed for many hours, or since the day before. When the bees have fallen in a mass to the bottom of the hive, you turn this gently over, and place it on a piece of linen stretched out on the ground near the place where the swarm was, or on a tray, or simply on the ground itself, if it is dry and clean. You will have taken care to place on this linen a little wedge, a stick or a stone, to raise the hive a little, and to leave room through which the bees may enter. A great part of the bees which fall into the hive fix themselves on to its sides; but a good number are dropped on the linen when the hive is turned. This is the manner in which you act when it is determined to lodge the swarm; but when the swarm is to be lodged in another hive, as we shall see farther on, immediately that the bees recognise the lodging which is destined for them, they set to work to beat to arms, and to enter in a compact column their new dwelling; those which are fluttering about in the air are summoned by this call, and are not long in alighting on the spot where the rest of their companions are fixed. At the end of a quarter or half an hour, at the most, all, or nearly all, have entered the hive. A few still hover about round the place where the swarm was fixed. If the number is considerable, and if many have stopped in this place, you must make them quit it by placing some offensive herb, such as celandine, horehound, field camomile, &c., on it, or project the smoke of a rag upon them, which will drive away the bees and force them to look for the colony or to return to the mother-hive. You may also project smoke, but in moderate quantities, on the bees grouped around and on the borders of the lodging which you have just given them, and which they will not be long in entering."[96]
[96] "Cours d'Apiculture," pp. 73, 74.
A good swarm weighs from four to six pounds; one pound contains about four thousand bees. The second swarm weighs rarely more than two pounds, and the third still less. You can also form artificial swarms by drawing off the bees of one hive into another, an operation which is easy with bell-shaped hives. A glance at Fig. 325, which represents the common hive of the north of France, that is to say, the _bell-shaped_, will show how easy it is to effect that drawing off, or pouring out of the bees, by joining together at their bases two hives, the one empty, the other containing a swarm. In order to have control over the bees during the operation, you must slightly stupefy them with the smoke of a smouldering rag.
Beehives are of a thousand different shapes, each of which has its particular advantage. They are made of wood and of straw; and the shapes used in different countries are very various. We give as examples, Figs. 325, 326, 327, 328, 329.
The site, that is, the place where hives stand, is not a matter of indifference. It is generally supposed that bees ought to be established in a place fully exposed to the sun, and to the greatest heat of the day. This is a mistake. M. de Frarière, in his work on bees and bee-keeping, recommends the hives to be placed under trees, in such a way that they may be kept in the shade. Fig. 330 shows the way in which M. de Frarière recommends hives to be arranged.
Dr. Monin, author of an interesting monograph of the bee, published in 1866, after treating of the different arrangements which have been recommended for hives, concludes thus:--"It is to satisfy all these requirements that experienced bee-keepers so much recommend for the hives an exposure to the ten o'clock sun; that is to say, that they should be turned in such a manner that the sun may shine on their entrances when it has already attained a certain height above the horizon, and sufficiently warmed the surrounding air for the bees, which the brightness of its rays has tempted forth, not to be seized with cold and numbed before they have been able to return home again."[97]
[97] "Physiologie de l'Abeille, suivie de l'art de soigner et d'exploiter les Abeilles d'après une methode simple et facile," p. 94. Paris, 1866.
In the month of March a gathering of wax is made by cutting away the lower part of the hives, where the cakes have grown old. The principal honey harvest takes place towards the end of May, June, or July, according to the place the hives are in. A larger or smaller gathering takes place according to the quantity of honey ready, and the state of the season. As the bees will not see the violation of their domicile and theft of their winter provisions without anger, to get possession of the honeycomb with which the hive is filled, you must put these irritable insects into such a state that they are unable to injure you. They can be rendered peaceable by smoking them. The smoke is forced into the hive with the assistance of a pair of bellows, the arrangement of which is shown in Fig. 331. If the fumigation is prolonged, the bees are very soon heard to beat their wings in a peculiar manner; they are then in what is called in French _l'état de bruissement_, or the roaring state. When they stand up on their hind legs and agitate their wings, you can do with them almost anything you like--cut away the honeycomb, abstract the eggs, or take out the honey--without their troubling themselves about it. But this state of things must not last too long, or you may suffocate your bees. It is a sort of anæsthesis into which the bees have been thrown; and, as with men, this must not be prolonged.
Some bee-keepers, in order to collect the honey harvest, suffocate their bees by burning sulphur matches. This is a bad practice. "Those authors who recommend us to suffocate the bees," says M. Hamet, "under the pretext that their colonies will become too numerous, and who add, 'You cannot eat beef without killing the ox,' are more stupid than the animal they have chosen for their comparison." A hive often produces from twelve to twenty pounds of honey each year, and a proportional quantity of wax. It may, then, furnish to the bee-keeper an important revenue, especially as the rearing of bees gives scarcely any trouble, and involves scarcely any labour, as it is only necessary to select a spot with a proper exposure and well supplied with flowers.
THE HUMBLE OR BUMBLE BEES.
If in the month of March one passes through the fields, which are beginning to get green, or through the woods, still deprived of their leaves, there may be seen, hovering hither and thither, great hairy insects, resembling gigantic bees. These are the females of a species of bee, called by the French "bourdons," from the buzzing noise they produce; and by us "humble bees," probably from their German name "hummel," given for the same reason. These females have been awakened by the spring sun. They examine the cavities of stones, the heaps of moss, and the holes in banks, &c., seeking for a suitable spot to construct a nest for their progeny.
The humble bees are of the same family as the bees, whom they resemble in their organisation. Like them, they are divided into males, females, and neuters, or workers. But their companies only last a year. At the end of autumn the whole population has become extinct, with the exception of the pregnant females, which pass the winter in a state of torpor at the bottom of some hole, where they wait till the spring to perpetuate their race. Their societies comprise generally only a small number of individuals, from fifty to three hundred. They are of peaceful habits, their ephemeral existence beginning and ending with the flower season.
The humble bees are known by their great size, their short, robust body, encircled by bands of very bright colours, and by the noise they make in flying. Their hind legs are armed with two spurs. The females and the workers have the same organisation for plundering flowers as the bees have: they have similar trunks, and their legs are fitted with brushes and baskets for gathering pollen. The males, like the males of hive bees, have no sting. The greater number have their dwelling-places underground; others make their nests on the surface of the soil, in the cracks of walls, in heaps of stones, &c. The former establish themselves in cavities situated as far as half a yard underground, and approached by a long narrow gallery. It is almost always a solitary female who has been the architect of the nest. She cleans out the cavity she has chosen, makes it as smooth as possible, and lines it with leaves and moss, to embellish the subterranean house in which she is to pass nearly all her existence.
The Moss Humble Bee (_Bombus muscorum_), called also the _Carding Bee_, chooses an excavation of very little depth in which to make its nest, or else itself undertakes the hollowing out of a hole in the ground. It covers this with a dome of moss or dry herbs. But it does not fly when transporting the moss, it drags it along the ground, with its back turned towards the nest. Having seized a packet of the moss, it sets to work to draw out the bits with its mandibles, and then pushing them under its body, throws them in the direction of the nest by a sort of kick from its hind legs. Sometimes, towards the end of the season, many humble bees are to be seen working in line. The first seizes the moss, and after having carded it, passes it under its body, and throws it to the second, which throws it on to the third, and so on, up to the nest. When the materials are ready, the insect makes use of them to manufacture a sort of hemispherical lid, or covering, resembling felt, which shuts the nest in, and is lined with wax. If you lift up this covering, or small dome, which it is not dangerous to do, for humble bees are not very aggressive, you find beneath it a nest composed of a coarse comb.
The cells which compose the nest, and which are to receive the larvæ of the insect, are of an oval shape, and of a pale yellow or even of a blackish colour. Fig. 334 represents these cells. The wax of which they are composed has none of the qualities of that of hive bees, but is soft, sticky, and brownish.
When the mother humble bee--which at first was alone and built her house single-handed--has made a certain number of cells, she seeks for honey and pollen, and prepares a paste, which she deposits in the future cradles. She then lays six or seven eggs in each. The larvæ which come from them live in common, at the same table, under the same tent. The cell is at first only the size of a pea; it soon becomes too narrow, splits and cracks, and requires to be enlarged and repaired many times, a work of which our industrious insects acquit themselves with a good deal of care and attention. Before passing into the pupa state each larva spins for itself a shell or cocoon of very fine white silk. It ceases to eat, remains at first rolled up, then expands itself little by little, and changes its skin after three days. It passes fifteen days in the pupa state in a quiescent condition. After the normal time has elapsed for it to remain in its hiding-place, it delivers itself from its mummy-like covering, with the help of the mother or the workers. The humble bee then appears, robust, and its body covered with a greyish down.
When the successive hatchings have furnished to the mother the reinforcement she is waiting for, the workers she has raised occupy themselves in building new cells, and in raising the wall of enclosure which is to protect the nest. This wall, formed of wax, starts from the base, and raises itself, like a vertical rampart, from every point in the circumference. They then surmount this by the first roof, which is flat, supported by some pillars, and in which they have left one or two irregular openings. The whole is finally protected by a hemispherical covering of moss, made into a sort of felt and lined with wax. Fig. 335 represents, in its entirety, a nest of this humble bee.
The workers also take their part in rearing the eggs. They bring the paste, which they slip into the cells to the larvæ by a small hole, which is shut immediately afterwards. Later, they again give their assistance in disengaging the pupæ from their envelopes. In short, they make themselves generally useful; but they have one bad fault: they are very fond of eating the eggs laid by the mother. They try to seize them as she deposits them, or drag them from the cells, and suck their contents. And so the mother is obliged to be incessantly defending her eggs against the voracity of the workers, and to be constantly on her guard, so as to be ready to drive away these marauders from cells newly filled.
We owe to an English naturalist, Newport, the knowledge of another curious fact relating to the laying of humble bees, which is the expedient the females and the males have recourse to for hastening the hatching of the eggs. They place themselves, like fowls sitting on their eggs, over the cocoons containing the pupæ almost hatched. By breathing quickly, these industrious insects raise the temperature of their bodies, and consequently that of the air in the cells. Thanks to this supplementary heat, the metamorphosis of the pupæ is much hastened. Newport, by slipping miniature thermometers between the cocoons of the nymphs and the sitting humble bees, ascertained that the temperature of the latter was about 34° C., whilst the temperature of the cocoons left to themselves was only 27° C.; that of the air in the rest of the nest being only from 21° to 24° C. After many hours of incubation, at the same time natural and artificial, in which Art and Nature are so closely allied, after the sitting insects have many times relieved one another, the young humble bees come out of their cells. They are at first soft, greyish, moist, and very susceptible to cold. But after a few hours they become stronger, and the yellow and black bands with which their abdomens are surrounded begin to be marked out. The spring laying produces exclusively workers. The greatest abundance of eggs are laid in August and September. The laying of the female eggs begins in July; that of the males follows soon after.
Until autumn the humble bees are incessantly enlarging their nests, and multiplying their little pots of honey. Without accumulating a great stock of provisions, for which they have no occasion, they always keep in reserve a quantity of pollen and honey for their daily wants. The cells in which the honey is stored differ very much in shape. Some species of humble bees give them long and narrow necks; others, less _recherché_ in their style of construction, simply make cylindrical vases. There are among the humble bees races of artists and races of simple builders; the one construct with taste, the other only seek the useful.
During the day the humble bees cull honey from the flowers. At night they enter their home; but a certain number take the liberty of sleeping out. Surprised by the arrival of night in the bottom of the calyx of a sweetly-scented flower, they philosophically determine to sleep in the open air, lying on this perfumed bed, with the heaven as their canopy.
The coupling of the humble bees takes place towards the end of September. It costs the males their life, as it does with the hive bees. The impregnated females do not lay till the following spring; it is they who, after the winter is passed, will become the mothers of new generations. They will take the reins of the family when the mother who founded the colony, the males, as also the workers, shall, according to the laws of Nature, have passed away. There are often, on the other hand, some workers which, born in the spring, become fruitful, and lay the same year, but only the eggs of males. These become a butt for the jealousy of the reigning mother, who pursues them with fury, and devours their eggs. These, however, have themselves cruel hearts. Animated by a profound jealousy, they dispute the occupancy of the cells savagely, so as to be able to lay a few eggs in them, which are no sooner laid than they are destroyed by their savage sisters. However, they never make use of their stings in any of these attacks. The humble bee population is peaceful, even in its combats. After the first cold weather in autumn, all these insects, as we have said, perish, except the pregnant females. These privileged depositaries of the race, _spes altera domûs_, look for a place of retreat, and there sleep till the following spring. Then they wake up and found new colonies, which continue the race.
For a long while were confounded with the humble bees certain insects which have the same appearance, that is to say, a hairy body, with bands of various colours, but whose hind legs are adapted neither for gathering honey nor for building. These are the genus _Psithyrus_: it was Lepelletier de Saint-Fargeau who discovered their true position. These are parasites, and only consist of males and fertile females, without workers. They lay their eggs in the nest of the humble bee. They are, indeed, so like their hosts, that they can introduce themselves into their dwellings without raising any suspicion. The humble bees admit them freely, and receive them as if they belonged to the family; so much so, indeed, that the poor humble bees themselves bring up the larvæ of these impudent guests. In the Order Hymenoptera one meets with many examples of these sorts of parasites, which instal their progeny in the nest of another insect, as the cuckoo does in the nests of other birds.
SOLITARY BEES.
We have up till now found the insects of the great family of bees collected together in perfectly organised societies. But there are a great number of species of this family which live alone. We will briefly mention the most interesting of them.
The females of the solitary bees are impregnated like those of the humble bees, and lay in spring, after having passed the winter asleep. They build a nest divided into cells, fill it with eggs, and with a honied paste shut it up, and die, without having seen their progeny hatched.
The _Anthophoras_ (Figs. 336, 337, 338) resemble bees, but they are more hairy, and of greyish colour. Their nest, composed of earth tempered and agglutinated with their saliva, is made in the cracks of old walls or in the ground. It has the form of a twisted tube, and is divided, by partitions, into compartments, each of which is to receive a larva. Each insect, when hatched, pierces its own wall, and profits by the hole of exit of the brother which preceded it.