The honey-bee: its nature, homes and products

The workers are by far the most numerous, and, in some sense, the most important party in the commonwealth of bees. They are smaller in size than either queens or drones. Microscopic examination, and the fact of their occasionally developing the power of laying eggs, prove that they are really undeveloped females. It is hardly correct, therefore, to call them, as has been so often done, neuters. The chief structural differences to be noted in them, as compared with the other two classes in the hive, are, the possession of a long proboscis for gathering honey, of receptacles for carrying pollen, of a very formidable straight and barbed sting, and brushes on the legs for clearing different parts of the body from the farina of flowers or from dust.

The worker-eggs are deposited by the queen in the smaller-sized cells of the combs, and are the first laid in a new colony, or in the spring of the year.

Certain observers have thought they noticed differences in the size of the full-grown workers, and supposed that these variations were connected with diversity of occupations and duties. But as all have their several organs and their whole structure precisely alike, and as little direct evidence of special functions has been adduced, it is tolerably certain that any peculiarities in regard to size must be otherwise explained. Nor is it difficult to discover how these may have been brought about. For, since each pupa leaves behind it some portion of the silken cocoon it had spun, it is clear that after a succession of young bees from the same cells, these must become sensibly contracted in extent, so that the later progeny will not have had as much space in which to grow as their elder-born sisters had, and hence are, at least when they emerge, smaller in size.

Huber, without reference to the above-mentioned fact, supposed that separate duties were undertaken by special bees, at least so far as the gathering of stores and the care of the young were concerned. Subsequent observations, however, tend to show that the latter office is undertaken by the most recently born young, till they themselves have become strong enough to fly abroad in search of honey and pollen. It is said they also see to the making of wax, the building of comb, and the cleansing of the hive, during the first two or three weeks of their life. Some corroboration of this idea is given by the circumstance that, if there be not sufficient room for the extension of a very strong population in their abode, and the conditions for swarming are not satisfactory, the older bees will remain idle in clusters, often outside the hive, leaving to the younger ones the execution of the internal work.

Sir John Lubbock has recorded a series of observations which seem to indicate that certain individuals are stationed near the entrances as sentinels. In his most interesting work on Ants, Bees, and Wasps, he says:—

"On October 5th I called out the bees by placing some eau-de-Cologne in the entrance, and marked the first three bees that came out. At 5 P.M. I called them out again. About twenty came, including the three marked ones. I marked three more.

"October 6. Called them out again. Out of the first twelve, five were marked ones. I marked three more.

"October 7. Called them out at 7.30 A.M. as before. Out of the first nine seven were marked ones. At 5.30 P.M. called them out again. Out of six, five were marked ones.

"Octobers. Called them out at 7.15. Six came out, all marked ones.

"October 9. Called them out at 6.40. Out of the first ten, eight were marked ones. Called them out at 11.30 A.M. Out of six, three were marked. I marked other three. Called them out at 1.30 P.M. Out of ten, six were marked. Called them out at 4.30. Out often, seven were marked.

"October 10. Called them out at 6.5 A.M. Out of six, five were marked. Shortly afterwards I did the same again, when out of eleven, seven were marked ones. 5.30 P.M. called them out again. Out of seven, five were marked.

"October 11. 6.30 A.M. called them out again. Out of nine, seven were marked. 5 P.M. called them out again. Out of seven, five were marked. After this they took hardly any notice of the scents.

"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."

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.

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.