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BEE (Sanskrit blza, AS. ben, Lat. apis)

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Originally appearing in Volume V03, Page 638 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BEE (See also:Sanskrit blza, AS. See also:ben, See also:Lat. See also:apis)  , a large and natural See also:family of the zoological See also:order See also:Hymenoptera, characterized by the plumose See also:form of many of their hairs, by the large See also:size of a the basal segment of the See also:foot, which is always elongate and in the hindmost See also:limb sometimes as broad as the shin, and by the development of a " See also:tongue " for sucking liquid See also:food; this See also:organ has been variously interpreted as the true insectan tongue (hypo-pharynx) or as a ligula formed by fused portions of the second maxillae (probably the latter) . Bees are specialized in See also:correspondence with the See also:flowers from which they draw the bulk of their food See also:supply, the flexible tongue being used for sucking See also:nectar, the plumed hairs and the modified legs (fig . 7) for gathering See also:pollen . These floral See also:pro-ducts which form the food of bees and of their larvae, are in most cases collected and stored by the industrious See also:insects; but some genera of (After See also:Benton, See also:Bull. r (n. s.) Div . Ent., U.S . Dept . Agr.) bees See also:act as inquilines or " See also:cuckoo-parasites," laying their eggs in the nests of other bees, so that their larvae may feed at the expense of the rightful owners of the See also:nest . In a few cases, the parasitic See also:bee- See also:grub devours not only the food-supply, but also the larva of its See also:host . Solitary and Social Bees.—Many genera of bees are represented, like most other insects, by See also:ordinary See also:males and See also:females, each See also:female constructing a nest formed of several See also:chambers (" cells ") and storing in each chamber a supply of food for the grub to be hatched from the See also:egg that she See also:lays therein . Such bees, although a number of individuals often make their nests See also:close together, are termed " solitary," their communities differing in nature from those of the " social " bees, among which there are two kinds of females—the normal fertile females or " queens," and those specially modified females with undeveloped ovaries (see fig . 6) that are called " workers " (fig . 1) .

The workers a, Antenna or feeler. mx, 1st maxilla . g, Epipharynx . 1p, Labial palp . mxp, Maxillary palp . 1, Ligula or " tongue." pg, Opposite to galeae of 2nd b, Bouton or See also:

spoon of the maxillae (labium). ligula . (From See also:Frank R . See also:Cheshire's Bee and Bee-keeping.) are the earliest See also:developed offspring of the See also:queen, and it is their associated See also:work which renders possible the rise of an See also:insect See also:state—a state which evidently has its origin in the family . It is interesting to trace various stages in the elaboration of the bee-society . Among the humble-bees (Bombes) the workers help the queen, who takes her See also:share in the duties of the nest; the distinction between queen and workers is therefore less See also:absolute than in the hive-bees (See also:Apis), whose queen, relieved of all See also:nursing and See also:building cares by the workers, devotes her whole energies a c to egg-laying . The See also:division of labour among the two castes of female becomes therefore most See also:complete in the most highly organized society . Structure.—Details of the structure of bees are given in the See also:article HYMENOPTERA . The feelers (fig .

2, a) are divided into " scape " and " flagellum " as in the ants, and the mandibles vary greatly in size and sharpness in different genera . The See also:

proboscis or " tongue " (fig . 2, 1) is a hollow organ enclosing an outgrowth of the See also:body-cavity which is filled with fluid, and with its flexible under-See also:surface capable of invagination or protrusion . Along this surface stretches a groove which is surrounded by thickened cuticle and practically formed into a See also:tube by numerous See also:fine hairs . Along this channel the nectar is See also:drawn into the pharynx and passes, mixed with saliva, into the See also:crop or " See also:honey-bag "; the See also:action of the saliva changes the saccharose into dextrose and levulose, and the nectar becomes honey, which the bee regurgitates for storage in the cells or for the feeding of the grubs . The sting (fig . 6, pg, st.) of female bees is usually highly specialized, but in a few genera it is reduced and useless . Many modifications in details of structure may be observed within the family . The tongue is bifid at the tip in a few genera; usually it is pointed and varies greatly in length, being comparatively See also:short in Andrena, See also:long in the humble-bees(Bombus), and longest in Euglossa, a tropical See also:American genus of solitary bees . The legs, which are so highly modified as pollen-See also:carriers in the higher bees, are comparatively See also:simple in certain See also:primitive genera . The hairy covering, so notable in the hive-bee and especially in humble-bees, is greatly reduced among bees that follow a parasitic mode of See also:life . See also:Early stages.—As is usual where an abundant food supply is provided for the See also:young insects, the larvae of bees (fig .

3, SL.) SL, See also:

Spinning larva. sp, Spiracles. w, Wing . N, Pupa. t, " Tongue." ce, See also:Compound See also:Eye . FL, Feeding larva. m, Mandible. e, Excrement . co, Cocoon. an, Antenna. ex, Exuvium . (From Cheshire's Bees and Bee-keeping.) are degraded maggots; they have no legs, but possess fairly well-developed heads . The successive cuticles that are See also:cast as growth proceeds are delicate in texture and sometimes See also:separate from the underlying cuticle without being stripped off . The maggots may pass no excrement from the See also:intestine until they have eaten all their See also:store of food . When ft:.11y grown the final larval cuticle is See also:shed, and the " See also:free " pupa (fig . 3, N) revealed . The larvae of some bees spin cocoons (fig . 3, co) before pupation . Nests of Solitary' Bees.—Bees of different genera vary consider-ably in the site and arrangement of their nests .

Many—like the See also:

common " solitary " bees Halictus and Andrena—burrow in the ground; the holes of See also:species of Andrena are commonly seen in springtime opening on sandy See also:banks, grassy lawns or See also:gravel paths . Our knowledge of such bees is due to the observations of F . See also:Smith, H . Friese, C . Verhoeff and others . The nest may be simple, or, more frequently, a complex excavation, cells opening off from the entrance or from a See also:main passage . Some-times the passage is the conjoint work of many bees whose cells are grouped along it at convenient distances apart . Other bees, the species of Osmia for example, choose the hollow See also:stem of a bramble or other See also:shrub, the female forming a linear See also:series of cellsin each of which an egg is laid and a supply of food stored up . J . H . See also:Fabre has found that in the nests of some species of Osmia the young bee developed in the first-formed See also:cell, if (as often happens) she emerges from her cocoon before the inmates of the later cells, will try to work her way See also:round these or to bite a lateral hole through the bramble shoot; should she fail to do this, she will wait for the emergence of her sisters and not make her See also:escape at the See also:price of injury to them . But when Fabre substituted dead individuals of her own species or live larvae of another genus, the Osmia had no See also:scruple in destroying them, so as to bite her way out to See also:air and See also:liberty .

The See also:

leaf-cutter bees (Megachile)—which differ from Andrena and Halictus and agree with Osmia, A pis and Bombus in having elongate See also:tongues—cut neat circular disks from leaves, using them for lining the cells of their underground nests . The See also:carpenter-bees (Xylocopa and allied genera), unrepresented in the See also:British Islands, though widely distributed in warmer countries, make their nests in dry See also:wood . The habits of X. violacea, the commonest See also:European species, were minutely described in the 18th See also:century in one of R . A . F. de See also:Reaumur's See also:memoirs . This bee excavates several parallel galleries to which See also:access is .gained by a cylindrical hole . In the galleries are situated the cells, separated from one another by transverse partitions, which are formed of chips of wood, cemented by 'the saliva of the bee . Among the solitary bees none has more remarkable nesting habits than the See also:mason bee (Chalicodoma) represented in the See also:south of See also:France and described at length by Fabre . The female constructs on a See also:stone a series of cells, built of See also:cement, which she compounds of particles of See also:earth, See also:minute stones and her own saliva . Each cell is provided with a store of honey and pollen beside which an egg is laid; and after eight or nine cells have been successively built and stored, the whole is covered by a See also:dome-like See also:mass of cement . Fabre found That a Chalicodoma removed to a distance of 4 kilometres from the nest that she was building, found her way back without difficulty to the exact spot . But if the nest were removed but a few yards from its former position, the bee seemed no longer able to recognize it, sometimes passing over it, or even into the unfinished cell, and then leaving it to visit again uselessly the See also:place whence it had been moved .

She would accept willingly, however, another nest placed in the exact spot where her own had been . If the unfinished cell in the old nest had been only just begun, while that in the substituted nest were nearly completed, the bee would add so much material as to make the cell much larger than the normal size, her See also:

instinct evidently being to do a certain amount of building work before filling the cell with food . The food, too, is always placed in the cell after a fixed routine—first honey disgorged from the mouth, then pollen brushed off the hairs beneath the body (fig . 7, c) after which the two substances are mixed into a See also:paste . Inquilines and Parasites.—The working bees, such as have been mentioned, are victimized by bees of other genera, which throw upon the industrious the task of providing for the young of the idle . The nests of Andrena, for example, are haunted by the See also:black and yellow species of Nomada, whose females See also:lay their eggs in the food provided for the larva of the Andrena . According to H . Friese, the relations between the host and the inquiline are quite friendly, and the insects if they meet in the nest-galleries courteously get out of each other's way . D . See also:Sharp, in commenting on this See also:strange behaviour, points out that the host can have no See also:idea why the inquiline haunts her nest . Why then should the Andrena feel alarm ? If the species of Nomada attack the species of Andrena too much, it brings about the destruction of its own species more certainly than that of the Andrena." More violent in its methods is the larva of a Stelis, whose operations in the nest of Osmia leucomelana have been studied by Verhoeff .

The female Stelis lays her eggs earlier than the Osmia, and towards the bottom of the food-mass; the egg of the Osmia is laid later, and on the surface of the food . Hence the two eggs are at opposite ends of the food, and both larvae feed for a See also:

time without conflict, but the Stelis, being the older, is the larger of the two . Finally the parasitic larva attacks the Osmia, and digging its mandibles into its victim's See also:head kills and eats it, taking from one to two days for the completion of the repast . Social Bees.—The bees hitherto described are " solitary, all the individuals being either males or unmodified females . The most highly developed of the long-tongued bees are " social " species, in which the females are differentiated into egg - laying queens and (usually) infer-See also:tile " workers " (fig . 6) . Verhoeff has discussed the rise of the " social " from the " solitary " See also:condition, and points out that for the formation of an insect community three conditions are necessary—a nest large enough for a number of individuals, a close grouping of the cells, and an association between See also:mother and daughters in the winged state . For the fulfilment of this last condition, the older insects of the new See also:generation must emerge from the cells while the mother is still occupied with the younger eggs or larvae . One species of Halictus nearly reaches the desired See also:stage; but the first young bees to appear in the perfect state are males, and when the females emerge the mother See also:dies . Among the social bees the mother and daughter-insects co-operate, and they differ from the " solitary " See also:groups in the nature of their nest, the cells (fig . 25) of which are formed of See also:wax secreted by See also:special glands (fig . 5) in the bee's See also:abdomen, the wax being pressed out between the segmental sclerites in the form of plates (fig .

4), which are worked by the legs (fig . 7) and jaws into the requisite shape . In our well-known hive-bee (Apis) and humble-bees (Bombus) the wax glands are ventral (From Cheshire's Bees and Bee-keeping.) in position, but in the " stingless " bees of the tropics (Trigona and Melipona) they are dorsal . A See also:

colony of humble-bees is started in See also:spring by a female " queen " which has survived the See also:winter . She starts her nest underground or in a surface depression, forming a number of waxen cells, roughly globular in shape and arranged irregularly . The young females (" workers ") that develop from the eggs laid in these early cells assist the queen by building fresh cells and gathering food for storage therein . The queen may be altogether relieved of the work of the nest as the See also:season advances, so that she can devote all her energies to egg-laying, and the colony grows rapidly . The distinction between queen and worker is not always clear among humble-bees, the female insects varying in size and in the development of their ovaries . If any mishap befall the queen, the workers can sometimes keep the community from dying out . In autumn males are produced, as well as young queens . The community is broken up on the approach of winter, the males and workers perish, and the young queens after See also:hibernation start fresh nests in the succeeding See also:year . The See also:appearance of the heavy-bodied hairy Bombi is well known .

They are closely " mimicked " by bees of the genus Psithyrus, which often share their nests . These Psithyri have no pollen-carrying structures on the legs and their grubs are dependent for their food-supply on the labours of the Bombi, though, according to E . Hoffer's observations, it seems that the femalePsithyrus builds her own cells . The colonies of Bombus illustrate the rise of the inquiline See also:

habit . Many of the species are very variable and have been differentiated into races or varieties . F . W . L . Sladen states that a queen belonging to the virginalis form of Bombus terrestris often invades a nest belonging to the lucorum form, kills the rightful queen, andtakespossession of the nest, getting the lucorum workers to See also:rear her young . In the nests of Bombi are found various See also:beetle larvae that live as inquilines or parasites, and also maggots of See also:drone-flies (Volucella), which act as scavengers; the Volucella-See also:fly is usually a " mimic " of the Bombus, whose nest she invades . The " stingless " bees (Trigona) of the tropics have the parts of the sting reduced and useless for piercing . As though to compensate for the loss of this means of See also:defence, the mandibles are very powerful, and some of the bees construct tubular entrances to the nest with a series of constrictions easy to hold against an enemy .

The habits of the Brazilian species of these bees have been described in detail by H. von See also:

Jhering, who points out that their wax glands are dorsal in position, not ventral as in Bombus and Apis . With Apis, the genus of the hive-bee, we come to the most highly-specialized members of the family—better known,perhaps, than any other insects, on See also:account of the long domestication of many of the species or races . In A pis the workers differ structurally from the queen, who neither builds cells, gathers food, nor tends brood, and is therefore without the special See also:organs adapted (From Cheshire's Bees and Bee-keeping.) A, Abdomen of queen, under See also:side . P, Petiole . o, o, Ovaries . hs, Position filled by honey-See also:sack. ds, Position through which See also:digestive sp, See also:system passes. od, Oviduct . co.d, Vagina . E, Egg-passing ovi- duct. sp, s, Spermatheca . i, Intestine . (From Cheshire's Bees and Bee-keeping.) and Workers (A pis) . pb, See also:Poison bag . pg, Poison gland. st, Sting .

p, "Palps" or feelers " of sting . B, Rudimentary ovaries of ordinary worker . Rudimentary spermatheca . C, Partiallydeveloped ovaries of fertile worker . Rudimentary spermatheca . , for those functions which are possessed in perfection by the workers . The differentiation of queen and workers is correlated with the habit of storing food supplies, and the consequent permanence of the community, which finds See also:

relief for its surplus See also:population by sending off a swarm, consisting of a queen and a number of workers, so that the new community is already specialized both for See also:reproduction and for labour . The workers of Apis may be capable (fig . 6, C) of laying eggs —necessarily unfertilized—which always give rise to males (" drones "), and, since the researches of J . Dzierzon (1811--1906) in 1848, it has been believed that the queen bee lays fertilized eggs in cells appropriate for the rearing of queens or Hive-bee (Apis) . notch in tarsal segment for Stingless bee (Melipona) . cleaning feeler .

Humble-bee (Bombus). e, Tip of intermediate shin with See also:

Outer view of See also:hind-See also:leg . See also:spur . Inner view. c, Feathered hairs with pollen Fore-leg of Apis showing grains, magnified . workers, and unfertilized eggs in " drone-cells," virgin reproduction or parthenogenesis being therefore a normal See also:factor in the life of these insects . F . Dickel and others have lately claimed that fertilized eggs can give rise to either queens, workers or males, according to the food supplied to the larvae and the See also:influence of supposed " See also:sex-producing glands " possessed by the See also:nurse-workers . Dickel states that a See also:German male bee mated with a female of the See also:Italian See also:race transmits distinct paternal characters to hybrid male offspring . A . See also:Weismann, however,- doubts these conclusions, and having found a sperm-See also:aster in every one of the eggs that he examined from worker-cells, and in only one out of 272 eggs taken from drone-cells, he supports Dzierzon's view, explaining the single exception mentioned above as a See also:mistake of the queen, she having laid inadvertently this single fertilized egg in a drone instead of in a worker cell . The cells of the See also:honeycomb of Apis are usually hexagonal in form, and arranged in two series back to back (See also:figs . 3, 25) . Some of these cells are used for storage, others for the rearing of brood .

The cells in which workers are reared are smaller than those appropriate for the rearing of drones, while the " royal cells," in which the young queens are developed, are large in size and of an irregular See also:

oval in form (fig . 25) . It is believed that from the nature of the cell in which she is ovipositing, the queen derives a reflex impulse to lay the appropriate egg—fertilized in the queen or worker cell, unfertilized in the drone cell, as previously mentioned . Whether the fertilized egg shall develop into a queen or a worker depends upon the nature of the food . All young grubs are at first fed with a specially nutritious food, discharged from the worker's See also:stomach, to which is added a digestive secretion derived from special salivary glands in the worker's head . If this " royal jelly " continue to be given to the grub throughout its life, it will grow into a queen; if the ordinary mixture of honey and digested pollen be substituted, as is usually the See also:case from the See also:fourth See also:day, the grub will become a worker . The workers, who See also:control the polity of the hive (the " queen " being exceedingly " limited " in her See also:monarchy), arrange if possible that young queens shall develop only when the population of the hive has become so congested that it is desirable to send off a swarm . When a young queen has emerged, she stings her royal sisters (still in the pupal stage) to See also:death . Previous to the emergence of the young queen, the old queen, prevented by the workers from attacking her daughters, has led off a swarm to find a new See also:home elsewhere . The young queen, See also:left in the old home, mounts high into the air for her nuptial See also:flight, and then returns to the hive and her duties of egg-laying . The number of workers increases largely during the summer, and so hard do the insects work that the life of an individual may last only a few See also:weeks . On the approach of winter the males, having no further See also:function to perform for the community, are refused food-supplies by the workers, and are either excluded or banished from the hive to perish .

Such ruthless habits of the bee-See also:

commonwealth, no less than the altruistic labours of the workers, are adapted for the survival and dominance of the species . The struggle for life may See also:deal hardly with the individual, but it results—to quote See also:Darwin's well-known See also:title—in " the preservation of favoured races." BEE-KEEPING Bee-keeping, or the cultivation of the honey-bee as a source of income to those who practise it, is known to have existed from the most See also:ancient times . Poets, philosophers, historians and naturalists (among whom may be mentioned See also:Virgil, See also:Aristotle, See also:Cicero and See also:Pliny) have eulogized the bee as unique among insects, endowed by nature with wondrous gifts beneficial to A. a-d, B. f-g, C. h-i, a, f, h, b, g, s, d, (After See also:Riley, Insect Life (U.S . Dept . Agr.), vol . 6.) mankind in a greater degree than any other creature of the insect See also:world . We are told that some of these ancient scientists passed years of their lives studying the wonders of bee-life, and left accurate records of their observations, which on many points agree with the investigations of later observers . As a forcible See also:illustration of the manner in which a colony of bees was recognized as the embodiment of See also:government by a See also:chief or ruler, in the earliest times of which there is any existing See also:record, it may be mentioned that on the See also:sarcophagus containing the mummified remains of Mykerinos (now in the British Museum and dating back 3633 years B.C.) will be found a hieroglyphic bee,(fig . 8) representing the See also:king of See also:Lower See also:Egypt . In dealing with the See also:practical side of bee- keeping as now understood, it may be said that, compared with the methods in See also:vogue during the first See also:decade of the r9th century, or even within the memory of men still living at the beginning of the 20th, it is as the See also:modern See also:locomotive to the stage- See also:coach of a previous generation . Almost everything connected with bee-See also:craft has been revolution- ized, and See also:apiculture, instead of being classed with such homely rural occupations as that of the See also:country housewife who carries a few eggs weekly to the See also:market-See also:town in her See also:basket, is to-day regarded in many countries as a pursuit of considerable import- ance . Remarkable progress has also been made in Queen- the See also:art of queen-rearing, and in improving the common rearing .

or native bee by judicious See also:

crossing with the best See also:foreign races, selected mainly for hardiness, working qualities and the prolific capacity of their queens . American bee-breeders are conspicuous in this respect, extensive apiaries being exclusively devoted to the business of rearing queens by the thousand for See also:sale and export . On the European See also:continent queen-rearing apiaries are plentiful, but less See also:attention is paid there to hybridizing than to keeping the respective races pure . In See also:England also, some bee-keepers include queen-rearing as See also:part of their business, while one large apiary on the south See also:coast is exclusively devoted to the rearing of queen bees on the latest scientific system, and to breeding by selection from such races as are most suited to the exceptional See also:climatic conditions of the country . Extensive apiaries have been established on the American continent, some containing from 2000 to 3500 colonies of bees, and in these honey is harvested in hundreds of tons yearly . The magnitude of the bee See also:industry in the See also:United States may be judged from the fact of a single bee-See also:farmer located in See also:California having harvested from 150,000 lb of honey in one year from 2000 See also:stocks of bees, and, as an instance of the enormous See also:weight of honey obtainable from See also:good hives in that favoured region, the same farmer secured 6o,000 lb of See also:comb-honey in one season from his best 30o colonies . This is probably the maximum, and the hives were necessarily located in separate apiaries some few See also:miles apart in order to avoid the evils of overstocking, but all in the midst of thousands of acres of honey-yielding flowers . Results like the above compared with those of the skeppist bee- keeper of former days, who was well pleased with an See also:average of 20 to 25 lb per hive, may be regarded as wonderful, but they are matters of fact . The See also:consumption of honey Honey as food. as an article of food has also largely increased of See also:late years; a See also:recent computation shows that from roo to 125 million lb of honey, representing a See also:money value of from eight to ten million dollars, is consumed annually in the United States alone . Many of the larger bee-farmers of the United States of See also:America and See also:Canada See also:harvest from 50,000 to 6o,000 lb of honey in a single season, and some of them sell the whole crop See also:direct to consumers . It is a notable fact that in the United States, Canada, See also:Australia, New See also:Zealand, and indeed all See also:English-speaking countries outside the United See also:Kingdom, honey is far more extensively used than it is there as an article of daily food . The natural result of this is that the See also:trade in honey is conducted, in those countries, onentirely different lines from those followed in the British Isles, where honey See also:production as an occupation has, until quite recent years, been regarded as too insignificant for See also:official See also:notice in any form .

The value of the bee industry is now recognized, however, by the British government as worthy of state for b stateee- id aid, in the promotion of technical instruction connected keeping. with See also:

agriculture . On the American continent apiculture is officially recognized by the respective states' governments; and by the federal government at See also:Washington it is taken into account as a See also:section of the Agricultural See also:Department, with fully equipped experimental apiaries and qualified professors engaged therein for educational work . In several See also:Canadian provinces also, the public funds are used in promoting the bee industry in various ways, mainly in combating the bee-disease known as " foul brood." In New Zealand the government of the colony has displayed the most praiseworthy earnestness and vigour in promoting apiculture . State-aided apiaries have been established under the supervision of a skilled bee-keeper, who travels over the colony giving instruction in practical bee-work at the public See also:schools, and forming classes at various centres where pupils are taught bee-keeping in all its branches . In See also:Europe similar progress is observable; technical schools, with well-equipped apiaries attached, are supported by the state, and in them the See also:science and practice of modern bee-keeping is taught free by scientists and practical experts . Institutions of this See also:kind have been established in See also:Germany, See also:Russia, See also:Switzerland and elsewhere, all tending in the same direction, viz. the cultivation of the honey-bee as an appreciable source of income to the farmer, the See also:peasant See also:cultivator, and dwellers in districts where bee-See also:forage is abundant and, if unvisited by the bee, lies wasting its sweetness on the See also:desert air . It may be safely said that the value of the bee to the See also:fruit-grower and the market-gardener has been proved beyond dispute; and the technical instruction now afforded by See also:county See also:councils in the rural districts of England has an appreciable effect . In See also:proof thereof, we may quote the case of an extensive grower bees vete oP in the midland counties—sending fruit to the See also:London as fertilizers . market in tons—whose crop of gooseberries increased nearly fourfold after establishing a number of stocks of bees in close proximity to the See also:gooseberry bushes . The fruit orchards and See also:raspberry See also:fields of See also:Kent are also known to be greatly benefited by the numerous colonies of bees owned by more than 3000 bee-keepers in the county . The important part played by the bee in the See also:economy of nature as a fertilizer is shown in fig . 9 .

In the United Kingdom the prevailing conditions, climatic fertilized . B, See also:

Cross section . A, See also:Flower . B, Section through core, or See also:torus p, p, Petals . (C) and drupels (D) . a, a, Anthers. ud, Unfertilized drupel . s, Stigma. ws, Withered stigma . no, Nectary openings . nc, Nectar cells . n, Drupels . (From Cheshire's Bees and Bee-keeping, Scientific and Praclical.) and otherwise, with regard to apiculture—as well as the lack of sufficient natural bee-forage for large apiaries—are such as to preclude the possibility of establishing apiaries on a See also:scale comparable with those located in less confined lands . On the other us See also:hand, even in England the value of bee-keeping is worthy of recognition as a See also:minor industry connected with such items of agriculture as fruit-growing, market-gardening or poultry-raising .

The fact that British honey is second to none for quality, and that the British market is eagerly sought by the bee-keepers of other nationalities, has of late impressed itself on the minds of thinking men . Moreover, their views are See also:

con-firmed by the See also:constant references to bees and the profits obtain-able from bee-keeping in the leading papers on all sides . This newly-aroused See also:interest in the subject is no doubt to a large extent fostered by the grants in aid of technical instruction afforded by Bee- county councils in rural districts . The British Bee-keepers' keepers' Association (instituted in 1874) has been associa- untiring in its efforts to raise the See also:standard of efficiency bons. among those who are desirous of qualifying as experts and teachers of bee-keeping on modern methods . This body had for its first See also:president the distinguished naturalist See also:Sir See also:John Lubbock (See also:Lord See also:Avebury) . Subsequently the baroness See also:Burdett-See also:Coutts accepted the See also:office in the year 1878, and was re-elected annually until her death in 1906 . During this time she presided at its meetings and took an active part in its work, until advancing years prevented her attendance, but her interest in the welfare of the association was maintained to the last . See also:Branch See also:societies of bee-keepers were established throughout the English counties, mainly by the efforts of the See also:parent body in London, with the See also:object of securing co-operation in promoting the sale of honey, and showing the most modern methods of producing it in its most attractive form at exhibitions held for the purpose . Nearly the whole of these county societies affiliated with the central association, paying an See also:affiliation See also:fee yearly, and receiving in return the See also:silver See also:medal, See also:bronze medal and certificate of the association, to be offered as prizes for competition at the See also:annual county shows . Other ad-vantages are given in connexion with the qualifying of experts, &c., while nearly all the county associations in the United Kingdom employ qualified men who visit members in spring and autumn for the purpose of examining hives and giving See also:advice on bee management to those needing it . Another See also:advantage of membership is the use of a " county ones See also:label " for affixing to each section of honey in comb, or See also:jar of extracted honey, offered for sale by members . These labels are numbered consecutively, and thus afford a See also:guarantee of the genuineness and quality of the honey, the label enabling purchasers to trace the producer if needed .

The British Bee-keepers' Association is an entirely philanthropic body, the only object of its members being to promote all that is good in British bee-keeping, and to " See also:

teach humanity to that industrious little labourer, the honey-bee." Bee-appliance manufacturers are not eligible for membership of its See also:council, nor are those who make bee-keeping their main business; thus no professional jealousies can possibly arise . In this respect the association appears to stand alone among the bee-keepers' societies of the world . There are many equally beneficial societies, framed on different lines, existing in Germany, France, Russia and Switzerland, but they are mainly co-operative bodies instituted for the See also:general benefit of members, who are without exception either bee-keepers on a more or less extensive scale, or scientists interested in the study of insect life . The bee-keepers' associations of the United States, Canada and most of the British colonies, are—like those last mentioned above—formed for the See also:sole and laudable purpose of promoting the business interests of their members, the latter being either bee-farmers or bee-appliance manufacturers . Thus they make no pretension of any but business discussions at their conferences, and much benefit to all concerned follows as a See also:matter of course . In fact, we find enthusiastic bee-men and See also:women travelling several hundreds of miles and 'devoting time, money and labour in attending conferences of bee-keepers in America, while the proceedings usually last for several days and are largely attended . The extent of the industry compared with that of See also:Great See also:Britain is so great that it fully accounts for the difference in See also:procedure of the respective associations . As a natural consequence of this activity, the trade in bee-appliance making has assumed enormous proportions in the United States, where extensive factories have been established; one See also:firm—employing over 500 hands, The bee- and using electric-See also:power machinery of the most modern tr de.nce trade . type—being devoted entirely to the manufacture of bee-goods and apiarian requisites . From this See also:establishment alone the yearly output is about 25,000 bee-hives, and upwards of too millions of the small wooden boxes used for holding comb- honey . The most C generally approved form of 'this See also:box is known as the "1-lb section," made from a See also:strip of wood 1Z in. thick, 2 in. wide, and of such length that when folded by joining the morticed and tenoned ends A B (fig . 1o) it forms the section or FIG .

I0.-" I-lb section " wooden box for box C, measuring holding Comb-honey . 44"X44"X 2" when (Redrawn from the A B C of Bee-Culture, published by complete and holds the A . I . See also:

Root Co., See also:Medina, See also:Ohio, U . S . A.) about 1 lb of comb-honey when filled by the bees and ready for table use . The V-shaped groove D (cut across and partly through the wood) shows the See also:joint when in the See also:flat, and E the same joint when closed for use . All the section boxes used in the United Kingdom are made in the U.S.A. or in Canada from the See also:timber known as basswood, no native wood being suitable for the purpose . Development of the Movable See also:frame Hive.—The dome-shaped See also:straw skep of our forefathers may be regarded as the typical bee-hive of all time and of all civilized countries; indeed, it may with truth be said that as a healthy skeptraw and convenient home for the honey-bee it has nc equal . A swarm of bees hived in a straw skep, the picturesque little See also:domicile known the world over as the personification of industry, will furnish their home with waxen combs in form and shape so admirably adapted to their requirements as to need no improvement by See also:man . Why the circular form was chosen for the skep need not be inquired into, beyond saying that its shape conforms to that of a swarm, as the bees usually hang clustered on the branch of a neighbouring See also:tree or hush after issuing from the parent hive . Fig .

11 shows a straw skep in section, and explains fh sk, A, See also:

Vertical section. p, Pollen . B, See also:Horizontal section . fb, See also:Floor See also:board. h, Honey. sk, Skep-side, e, Entrance. fh Feeding hole. c, c, Combs . br, Brood. bs, bs,Bee spaces. sc, sc, Store combs . bs, bs, Bee spaces . (From Cheshire's Bees and Bee-keeping, Scientific and Practical.) itself as illustrating the admirable way in which the bees furnish their dwelling . The vertical section (A) shows the lower portion of the combs devoted to brood-rearing, the higher and thicker combs being reserved for honey, and midway between the brood and food is stored the pollen required for mixing with honey in feeding the larvae . It will be seen how well the upper part of the combs are fitted for bearing the weight of stores they contain, Bee and honey shows . and how the lower portion allows the bees to cluster around the See also:tender larvae and thus maintain the warmth necessary during its See also:metamorphosis from the egg to the perfect insect . The hori- zontal section (B) with equal clearness demonstrates the bee's ingenuity in economizing space, showing how the outer combs are used exclusively for stores, and, as such, may be built of varying thickness as more or less storage See also:room is required . The straw skep has, however, the irredeemable See also:fault of fixed combs, and the See also:gradual development of the movable-frame The mov- hive of to-day may be said to have first appeared in able-frame hive . 1789 with the leaf-hive of See also:Huber, so called from its opening like the leaves of a See also:book .

See also:

Prior to that date wooden box-hives of various shapes had been adopted by advanced bee-masters anxious to increase their output of honey, and by enthusiastic naturalists desirous of studying and investigating the wonders of bee-life apart from the utilitarian standpoint . Foremost among the latter was the distinguished Swiss naturalist and-bee-keeper, See also:Francois Huber, who was led to construct the leaf-hive bearing his name after experimenting with a single comb See also:observatory hive recommended by Reaumur . Huber found that although he could induce swarms to occupy the See also:glass-sided single frame advised by Reaumur, if the frame was fitted with ready-built pieces of comb patched together before hiving the swarm, the experiment was successful, while if left to themselves the bees built small combs across the space between the sheets of glass, and the desired inspection from the outside was thus rendered impossible . He also gathered that the abnormal conditions forced upon the bees by a ready-built single comb might so turn aside their natural instincts as to render his investigations less trustworthy than if conducted under perfectly natural conditions; so, in order to remove all doubt, he decided to have a series of wooden frames made, measuring 12 in. sq., each of rather more than the ordinary width allowed for brood-combs . These frames were numbered consecutively 1 to 12, and hinged together as shown in fig . 12 (h, A) . In this way the tb A, Book hive . B, Side view of frame e, e, Entrances. or leaf . C, Part of See also:bin, cross s, s, Side leaves. tb, See also:Top-See also:bar. section, lettering h, Hinges. c, Comb. as before . p, p, Pegs . (From Cheshire's Bees and Bee-keeping, Scientific and Practical.) frames of comb could be opened for inspection like a book, while when closed the bees clustered together as in an ordinary hive . Ten of these frames had a small piece of comb fixed to the top-bar in each, supported (temporarily) by a thin See also:lath wedged up with pegs at side, the latter being removed when the comb had been made secure by the bees .

When closed, the ten frames, together with the two outside ones (fitted with squares of glass for inspection), which represent the covers of the book, were tied together with, a couple of stout strings . In a subsequent form of the same hive Huber was enabled—with the help of very long thumb-screws at each side (fig . 13)-t(, raise up any frame between two sheets of glass which confined the bees and allowed him to study the See also:

process of comb-building obs better than any hive we know of to-day . By means fors hive . of the leaf-hive and using the entrances (fig . 12, e,e, A) Huber made artificial swarms by dividing and the use of division-boards, though not in quite the same See also:fashion as is practised at the See also:present day . On the other hand, it must be admitted that s s (From Cheshire's Bees and Bee-keeping, Scientific and Practical.) Huber's hive was defective- in many respects; the parting of each frame, thus letting loose the whole colony, caused much trouble at times, but it remained the only movable-comb hive till 1838, when Dr Dzierzon—whose theory of parthenogenesis has made his name famous—devised a box-hive with a loose top-bar on which the bees built their combs and a movable side or See also:door, by means of which the frames could be lifted out for inspection . This improvement was at once appreciated, and in the year 1852 See also:Baron Berlepsch added side-bars and a bottom-bar, thus completing the movable frame . About the same time the Rev . L . L . Langstroth was experimenting on the same lines in America, and in 1852 his important invention was made known, giving to the world of See also:Lang .

Phoenix-squares

bee-keepers a movable frame which in its most See also:

im- stroth's portant details will never be excelled . We refer to the hive. respective distances left between the side-bars and hive walls on each side, and between the lower edge of the bottom-bars and the floor-board . Langstroth, in his measurements, See also:hit upon the happy mean which keeps bees from propolizing or fastening the frames to the hive body, as they assuredly would do if sufficient space had not been allowed for free passage round the side-bars; it is equally certain that if too much space had been provided, they would fill it with comb and thus render the frame immovable . In addition to these benefits, Langstroth's frame and hive possessed the enormous advantage over Dzierzon's of being manipulated from above, so that any single frame could be raised for inspection without disturbing the others . Langstroth's space-measurements have remained practically unaltered notwithstanding the many improvements in hive-making, and in the various sizes of movable frames, since introduced and used in different parts of the world . In the United States of America Langstroth's frame and hive are the acknowledged " See also:standards " among the great body of bee-keepers, although about a dozen different frames, varying more or less in size, have their adherents. size of Among these may be named the American, See also:Adair, frames in fhe U.S.A . Danzenbaker, Gallup, Heddon, Langstroth and Quinby . Three of these, the American, Adair and Gallup, may i+!liNiililil1111111 I iII I I 1111111 I I 1.11 I'IiIIIIIIIIIII,11111111IN111111IIII1III111111111 1111 II ~I m 1 1111i 1111'nr ail . be termed square frames, the others being oblong, but the latter shape appears to possess the most all-round advantages to the modern bee-keeper . Amid the different climatic conditions of so vast a continent as America, variation in size, and in the capacity of frames used, is in some measure accounted for . In the British Isles, though the conditions are variable enough, they are less extreme, and, fortunately for those engaged in the pursuit, only one size of frame is acknowledged by the great See also:majority of bee-keepers, viz. the British Bee-keepers' Association " Standard " (fig . 14) .

This frame, the outside measurement of which is 14 by 81 in., was the outcome of deliberations extending over a consider- able time on the part of a See also:

committee of well-known bee-keepers, specially appointed in 1882 to consider the matter . In this way, whatever type or form of . ` hive is used, the frames are interchangeable . See also:Differences in view may, and do, exist regarding the thickness of the wood used in frame-making, but the outside measurement never varies . Notwithstanding this fact, the See also:advancement of apiculture and the continuous development of the modern frame-hive and methods of working have proceeded with such rapidity, both in England and in America, that hives and appliances used prior to 1885 are now obsolete . It may, therefore, be useful to compare the progress made in the United States of America and in Great Britain in order to show that, while the industry is incomparably larger and of more importance in America and Canada than in Great Britain, British bee-keepers have been abreast of the times in all things apicultural . The See also:original Langstroth hive was single-walled, held ten frames (size 171 by 9 in.), and had a deep roof, made to See also:cover a case of small honey boxes like the sections now in use; but the cumbersome projecting See also:porch and sides, made to support the roof, are now dispensed with, and the number of frames reduced to eight . Although various modifications have since been made in minor details—all tending to improvement— its main features are unaltered . The typical hive of America is the improved Langstroth (fig . 15), which has no other cover- See also:ing for the frame tops but a flat roof-board allowing 4 in. space between the roof and A top-bars for bees to pass from frame to frame . Consequently, on the roof being raised B the bees can take wing if not prevented from doing so . This feature C finds no favour with British bee-keepers, nevertheless the " improved Langstroth " is a useful and simple hive, moderate in price, and no doubt efficient, but not suitable for bees wintered on their summer stands, as nearly all hives are in Great Britain .

American bee-keepers, therefore, find it necessary to provide underground cellars, into which the bees are carried in the fall of each year, remaining there till work begins in the following spring . Those among them who cannot, for various reasons, adopt the cellar-wintering See also:

plan are obliged to provide what are termed " See also:chaff-covers " for protecting their bees in winter . Of late years they have also introduced, as an improvement, the plan long followed in England of using See also:double-walled chaff-packed hives . The difference here is that packing is now dispensed with, it being found that bees winter equally well with an outer case giving Iy in. of free space on all sides of the hive proper, but with no packing in between . Thus no See also:change is needed in winter or summer, the air-space protecting the bees from See also:cold in winter and See also:heat in summer . Another point of difference between the English and American hive is the roof, which being gable-shaped in the former allows warm packing to be placed directly on the frame tops, so that the bees are covered in when the roof is removed and may be examined or fed with very little disturbance . Again, the American hive is, as a general See also:rule, set close down on the ground, while stands or short legs are invariably used in Great Britain . One of the best-known hives in England is that known as the W.B.C. hive, devised in 1890 by W . See also:Broughton Carr . Figs . 16 and 17 explain its construction and, as will be seen, it is equally suit- able when working for comb or for extracted honey . Various causes have contributed to the development of the modern hive, the most important of which are the improvements in methods of extracting honey from combs, and in the manufacture of comb-See also:foundation .

Regarding the first of these, it can-not be said that the honey ex-tractor, even in its latest form, differs very much from the original See also:

machine (fig . 18) invented by See also:Major Hruschka, an officer in the Italian See also:army, who in later life became an enthusiastic apiculturist . Hruschka's extractor, first brought to public ff8 t rs.X-notice in 1865, may be said to have revolutionized the bee-industry as a business . It enabled the honey producer to in-crease his output considerably by extracting honey from the cells in most cleanly fashion without damaging the combs, and in a fraction of the time previously occupied in the draining, See also:heating and squeezing process . At the same time the combs were pre-served for refilling by the bees, in lieu of melting them down for wax . The principle of the honey extractor (throwing the liquid honey out of the cells by centrifugal force) was discovered quite by See also:accident . Major Hruschka's little son chanced to have in his hand a See also:bit of unsealed comb-honey in a basket to which was attached a piece of See also:string, and, as the boy playfully whirled the basket round in the air, his See also:father noticed a few drops of honey, British " Standard" frame . , 1111 ~I'illil;„INilf/See also:lll See also:Ili II16~IIU,'See also:IIL, IW~ ~Illlu Iiq . 41:t11 u u II Iifliniooiimiiin~'f"t 5121 u jj 11 C~ ii ~ mmum;luuu~nimiamu!m,unnumuumiinnonuug~, (Redrawn from the A B C of Bee-Culture, published by the A . I . Root Co., Medina, Ohio, U . S .

A.) Winter cellars for bees . thrown out of the comb by the centrifugal force employed to keep the basket suspended . The value of the idea at once struck him; he set to work on utilizing the principle involved, and ere long had constructed a machine admirably adapted to serve its purpose . Since that time changes, of more or less value, have been introduced to meet present-day requirements . One of the first. to take ad-vantage of Hruschka's invention was Mr A . I . Root, who in 1869 perfected a machine on similar lines to the Hruschka one but em-bodying various improvements . This appliance, known as the " Novice Honey Extractor," became very popular in the United States of America, but it had the fault (Redrawn from the .4 B C of Bee-Culture, published by the A . I . Root Co., Medina, the combs for See also:

reversing after Ohio, USA,) one side had been emptied of its contents . A simple form of machine for extracting honey by centrifugal force was brought to notice in England in 1875, and was soon improved upon, as will be seen in fig . 19, which shows a section of one of the best English See also:machines at that time .

Various plans were tried in America to improve on the " Novice " machine, and Mr T . W . Cowan, who was experimenting in the same direction in England, invented in the year 1875 a machine called the " Rapid," in which the combs were reversed without removal of the cages (fig . 20) . The framecases—wired on both sides—are hung at the angles of a revolving See also:

ring of See also:iron, and the reversing process is so simple and effective that the " Cowan " reversible frame has been adopted in all the best machines both in Great Britain and in America The latest form of honey extractor used in America is that known as the " Four-frame Cowan." Fig . 21 shows the working part or inside of the appliance . In this, and indeed in all extractors used in large apiaries, the " Cowan " or reversible frame principle is used . .9 Each of the four cages in which the combs are placed is swung FIG . 19.-See also:Diagram of the Raynor on a See also:pivot attached to the side, Extractor. and when the outer faces of the A, Section of extractor . fr, Fixing See also:rail. combs are emptied the cages are fff, Frame for cage. reversed without removal from wb, See also:Metal webbing. the machine for emptying the wn, See also:Wire netting. opposite sides of combs . The co, Comb . w, Wire bottom further development of the .

p, Pivot. honey extractor has of late c, Stiffening See also:

cone. been limited to an increase in cb, Coned bottom. the size of machine used, in gt, See also:Gutter . st, See also:Syrup tap. order to See also:save time and See also:manual C, Perpendicular section of side labour, and thus meet the re- of cage enlarged. quirements of the largest honey oc, Outer casing. producers, who See also:extract honey wb, Metal webbing. by the See also:car load . Some of the wn, Wire netting . (From Cheshire's Bees and Bee-keeping, largest machines—propelled by scientific and Practical.) motor power—are capable of taking eight or more frames at one time . It may also be claimed for the honey extractor that it does away with the objection entertained by many persons to the use of honey, by enabling the apiarist to remove his produce from the honey-combs in its purest form untainted by crushed brood and untouched by hand . Next in importance, to bee-keepers, is the enormous advance made in late years through the invention of a machine for manufacturing the impressed wax sheets known as " comb foundation," aptly so named, because upon it the bees build the cells wherein they store their food . We need not dwell upon the See also:evolution from the crude idea, which first took form in the endeavour to compel beesto build straight combs in a given direction by offering them a guiding See also:line of wax along the under side of each top-bar of the frame in which the combs were built; but we may glance at the more important improvements which gradually developed as time went on . In 1843 a German bee-keeper, Krechner by name, conceived the idea of first dipping fine See also:linen into molten wax, then pressing the sheets so made between rollers, and thus forming a waxen midrib on which the bees would build their combs . This experiment was partially successful, but the instinctive dislike of bees to anything of a fibrous nature caused them completely to spoil their work of comb-building in the endeavour to See also:tear or gnaw away the linen threads whenever they got in See also:touch with them . In 1857 Mehring (also a German) made a further advance by the use of wooden moulds for casting sheets of wax impressed with the hexagonal form of the bee-cell . These sheets were readily accepted by the bees, and afterwards plates cast from metal were employed, with so good a result as to give to the bees as perfect a midrib as that of natural comb with the deep cell walls cut away . Fig .

22 shows a portion of one of these metal plates with worker-cells of natural size, i.e. five cells to the See also:

inch . Thus Mehring is justly claimed as the originator of comb-foundation, though the value of his invention was less eagerly taken advantage of even in Germany than its merits deserved . Probably it was ahead of the times, for not until nearly twenty years later was any prominence given to it, when Sal. rael See also:Wagner, founder and editor of the American Bee See also:Journal, became impressed with lllehring's invention and warmly advocated it in his See also:paper . Mr Wagner first -conceived the idea of adding slightly raised side walls to the hexagonal outlines of the cells, by means of which the bees are supplied with the material for building out one-See also:half or more of the complete cell walls or sides . The See also:manifest advantage of this was at once realized by practical American apiarists as saving labour to the bees and money to the bee-keeper One of the first . (Redrawn from the A B C of Bee-Culture, to recognize its value was Mr published by the A . I . Root Co., Medina, A . I . Root, of Medina, Ohio, Ohio, U.S.A.) who suggested the substitution of embossed rollers in lieu of flat plates, in order to increase the output of foundation and lessen its cost to the bee-keeper . He lost no time in giving practical shape to his views, and mainly through the inventive See also:genius of a skilled machinist (Mr A . See also:Washburn) the A .

I . Root Co. constructed a See also:

roller See also:press (fig . 23) for producing foundation in sheets . This form of machine came oa Comb foundation . ' d~1hNNiuINN~ ? All !luilii!!11!l Extractor; interior . into extensive use in the United States of America and after-wards in Great Britain . The first roller press was made by the A . I . Root Co. and imported by Mr See also:William Raitt, a Scottish bee-keeper of repute in See also:Perthshire, N.B . In all roller machines used at that time the See also:plain sheets of wax were first made by the " dipping " process, i.e. by repeated dippings of damped boards in molten wax (kept in liquid condition in tanks immersed in hot See also:water) until the See also:sheet was of suitable thickness for the purpose . The prepared sheets were then passed through the rollers, and after being cut out and trimmed were ready for use .

Owing to the enor- mous demand for comb-foundation at that time various devices were tried with the view of securing (r) more rapid production, and (2) a foundation thin enough to be used in surplus chambers when working for comb-honey intended for table use . Foremost among the able men who experimented in this latter direction was Mr F . B . See also:

Weed, a skilful American machinist, who, after some years of strenuous effort, succeeded in devising and perfecting special rollers and dies, by the use of which foundation was produced with a midrib so thin as to compare favourably with natural comb built by the bees . " Dipping," however, proved not only a stumbling-See also:block to See also:speed but to the production of continuous sheets of wax; and in the end Mr Weed, acting in See also:concert with Mr A . I . Root (who (From Cheshire's Bees and Bee-keeping, Scientific and Practical.) placed the resources of his enormous factory at his disposal), devised and perfected machinery—driven by motor power—for manufacturing foundation by what is known as the "Weed " process . By this process " dipping " is abolished, and in its latest form sheets of wax of any length are produced, passed between engraved rollers 6 in. in See also:diameter, cut to given lengths, trimmed, counted and paper-tissued ready for packing, at a See also:rate of speed previously undreamt of . Practical Management of Bees.—Among the world of insectsthe honey-bee stands pre-eminent as the most serviceable to mankind; from the day on which the little labourer leaves its home for the first time in See also:search of food, its See also:mission is undoubtedly useful . Launched upon an unknown world, and guided by unerring instinct to the very flowers it seeks, the bee fertilizes fruit and flowers while winging its happy flight among the blossoms, gathering pollen for the nurslings of its own home and honey for the use of man . Nothing seems to be lost, nor can any part of the bee's work be accounted labour in vain; the very wax from which the insect builds the store-combs for its food and the cells in which its young are hatched and reared is valuable to mankind in many ways, and is regarded to-day no less than in the past ages as an important commercial product . The hive bee is, moreover, the only insect known to be capable of domestication, so far as labouring under the direct control of the bee-See also:master is concerned, its habits being admirably adapted for embodying human methods of working for profit in our present-day life .

In dealing with the practical side of apiculture it will not be necessary to do more than mention the salient points to be considered by those desirous of acquiring more complete know-ledge of the subject . Authoritative See also:

text-books specially written for the guidance of bee-keepers are numerous and cheap, and on no account should any one engage in an See also:attempt to See also:manage bees on modern lines without a careful perusal of one or more of these . Bearing this in mind the reader will understand that so much of the natural See also:history of the honey-bee as is necessary for elucidating the practical part of our subject may be comprised in (r) the life of the insect, (2) its mission in life, and (3) utilizing to the utmost the brief See also:period during which it can labour before being worn out with toil . A prosperous bee-colony managed on modern lines will in the height of summer consist of three kinds of bees: a queen or mother-bee, a certain number of drones, and from 8o,000 to roo,000 workers . With regard to sex, the sex . bees . queen is a fully-developed female, the drones are males and the workers may be termed neuters or partially developed females . These last possess ovaries like the queen, but shrunken and aborted so as to render the insect normally incapable of egg-production . The relative importance of the three kinds of bees differs greatly in degree and in somewhat curious fashion . For in- (From Cheshire's Bees and Bee-keeping, Scientific and Practical.) a b (From Cheshire's Bees and Bee-keeping, Scientific and Practical.) stance, the queen (or " king " of the hives as it was termed by our forefathers) is of See also:paramount importance at certain seasons, her death or disablement during the period when the male See also:element is absent meaning extinction of the whole colony . Fecundation would under such conditions be impossible, and without this the eggs of a resultant queen will produce nothing but drones . During the summer season, however (from May to See also:July), when drones are abundant, the loss of a queen is of comparatively little moment, as the workers can transform eggs (or young larvae not more than three days old), which would in the ordinary course produce worker bees, into fully-developed queens, capable of fulfilling all the maternal duties of a mother-bee . The value of this wonderful See also:provision of nature to the bee-keeper of to-day may be estimated from the fact that bees managed according to modern methods are necessarily subject to so much manipulating or handling, that fatal accidents are as likely to happen in bee-life as among human beings .

Authorities differ with regard to the See also:

age (luring which the queen-bee is useful to the bee-keeper who See also:works for profit . Under normal conditions the insect will live for three, four or sometimes five years, but the stimulation given, together with c Loss of queens . the high-pressure system followed in modern bee-management, exhausts the period of her greatest fecundity in two years, so that queens are usually superseded after their second season has expired and egg-production gradually decreases . This can hardly cause wonder if it is See also:borne in mind that for many weeks during the height of the season a prolific queen will See also:deposit eggs at the rate of from two to three thousand every twenty-four See also:hours . Drones (or male bees) are more or less numerous in hives according to the skill of the bee-keeper in limiting their pro- duction . It is admitted by those best able to See also:judge The drone. that the proportion of about a See also:hundred drones in each hive is conducive to the prosperity of the colony, but beyond that number they are worse than useless, being non producers and heavy consumers . Thus in times of scarcity, which are not infrequent during the early part of the season, they become a heavy tax upon the food-supply of the colony at the See also:critical period when brood-rearing is accelerated by an abundance of stores, while shortness of food means a falling-off in egg-production . The modern bee-keeper, therefore, allows just so much drone comb in the hive as will produce a sufficient number of drones to ensure queen-mating, while affording to the bees the See also:satisfaction of dwelling in a home equipped according to natural conditions, and containing all the elements necessary to bee-life . The action of the bees themselves makes this point clear, for when the season of mating is past the drone is no longer needed, the providing of winter stores taking first place in the economy of the hive . So long as honey is being gathered in plenty drones are tolerated, but no sooner does the honey harvest show signs of being over than they are mercilessly killed and cast out of the hive by the workers, after a brief idle life of about four months' duration . Thus the " lazy yawning drone," as See also:Shakespeare puts it, has a short shrift when his usefulness to the community is ended . Finally we have the aptly named worker-bee, on whom devolves the entire labour of the colony .

The worker-bee is incapable of egg-production and can therefore take no part in The the perpetuation of its species, so that individually its 6 erker- value to the community is infinitesimal . Yet it forms an See also:

item in a commonwealth, the members of which are in all respects equally well endowed . They are in turn skilled scientists, architects, builders, artisans, labourers and even scavengers; but collectively they are the rulers on whom the colony depends for the wonderful condition of See also:law and order which has made the bee-community a See also:model of good government for all mankind . Then so far as regards See also:longevity, the period of a worker-bee's existence is not measured by number- Longevity ing its days but simply by See also:wear and tear, the marvellous In bees . intricacy and wonderful perfection of its framework being so delicate in construction that after six or seven weeks of strenuous toil, such as the bee undergoes in summer time, the little creature's labour is ended by a natural death . On the other hand, worker-bees hatched in the autumn will seven months later be strong with the vigour of lusty youth; able to take their full share in the labour of the hive for six weeks or more in the early spring, which is the most critical period in the colony's existence; hence the value to the apiarist of bees hatched in the autumn . The mission of the worker-bee is work; not so much for itself as for the younger members of the community to which it belongs . We cannot claim for it the virtue of strict honesty with regard to the stranger, but for its own " kith and See also:kin " it is a model of See also:socialism in an ideal form, possessing nothing of its own yet toiling unceasingly for the good of all . The increasing warmth of each recurring spring finds the bee awake, and full of eagerness to be up and doing; its sole mission being apparently to accomplish as much work as possible while life lasts . The earliest pollen is sought out from far and near, and has its immediate effect upon the mother bee of the colony . If healthy and young she begins egg-laying at once, and brood-rearing proceeds at an ever-increasing rate as each See also:week passes, until the hive is brimming over with bees in time for the first honey flow . Thencomes the almost human foresight with which the bee prevents the inevitable See also:chaos created by an overcrowded home .

There is no cell-room either for storing the abundant supply of food constantly being brought in, or for the thousands of eggs which a prolific queen will produce daily as a consequence of general prosperity; therefore unless help comes from without an See also:

exodus is prepared for, and what is known as " swarming " takes place . It would be difficult to imagine anything more exhilarating to a beginner in bee-keeping than the sight of his first hive in the act of swarming . The little creatures are seen rushing in frantic haste from the hive like a living stream, filling the air with ever-increasing thousands of bees on the wing . The incoming workers returning pollen-laden from the fields, carried away by the prevailing excitement, do not stop to unload their burdens in the old home, but join the enthusiastic emigrants, tumbling over each other See also:pell-mell in the outrush; among them the queen of the colony will in due course have taken her place, See also:bound like her See also:children for a new home . It soon becomes apparent to the onlooker when the queen has joined the flying multitude of bees in the air, for they are seen to be closing up their ranks, and in a few moments begin to form -a solid cluster, usually on the branch of a small tree or See also:bush close to the ground . When this stage of swarming is reached the bee-keeper has but to take his hiving skep, hold it under the swarm, and shake the bees into it, preparatory to transferring them into a frame-hive already prepared for their re- ception . The process of hiving a swarm is very simple and need not occupy many moments of time under Swarmngs . ordinary conditions, but so many unlooked-for con- tingencies may arise that the apiarist would do well to prepare himself beforehand by carefully See also:reading the directions in his text-book . The illustration given in fig . 25 will serve more readily than words to enlighten the would-be bee-keeper . It shows a portion of honeycomb (natural size) not precisely as it appears when the frame containing it is lifted out of the hive, but as would be seen on two or more combs in the same hive, namely, the various cells built for—and occupied by—queens, drones and workers; also the larvae or grubs in the various stages of transformation Fic . 25.—Honeycomb, Metamorphoses of the Honey Bee .

(From Cheshire's Bees and Bee-keeping, Scientific and Practical.) from egg to perfect insect, with the latter biting their way out of sealed cells . It also shows sealed honey and pollen in cells, &c . To familiarize himself with the various See also:

objects depicted, all of which are drawn from nature, will not only help the reader to understand the different phases of bee-life during the swarming season, but tend to increase the interest of beginners in the pursuit . " Early drones, early swarms " was the ancient bee-man's favourite adage, and the skilled apiarist of to-day Swarming . 636 experiences the same pleasurable thrill as did the skeppist of old at the sight of the first drone of the year, which betokens an early swarm . As the drones increase in number queen-cells are formed, unless steps be taken to turn aside the swarming impulse by affording additional room beforehand in the hive . The above brief outline of the guiding principles of natural swarming is merely intended as See also:introductory to the See also:fuller See also:information given in a good text-book . Management of,an Apiary.—The main See also:consideration in estab- lishing an apiary is to secure a favourable location, which means a place where honey of good marketable quality may be gathered from the bee-forage growing around without any planting on the part of the bee-keeper himself . It is impossible to deal here with the varying conditions under which apiculture is carried on in all parts of the world, but, as a rule, the same principle applies everywhere . The bee industry prospers greatly in America, where amid the vast stretches of See also:mountain Bee- forage is and See also:canyon in California the bee-forage extends for the U.S.A. miles without a break, and the climatic conditions are so generally favourable as to reduce to a minimum the cnances of the honey crop failing through adverse See also:weather . The bee-keeper's object is to utilize to the utmost the brief space of a worker-bee's life in summer, by adopting the best methods in vogue for building up stocks to full strength before the honey-gathering time begins, and preparing for it by the exercise of skill and intelligence in carrying out this work . In the United Kingdom there is a difference of several weeks in the honey season between See also:north and south .

Swarming usually begins in May in the south of England, and in See also:

mid-July in the north of See also:Scotland, the issue of swarms coinciding with the early part of the main honey flow . The weather is naturally more See also:precarious in autumn than earlier in the year, and chances of success proportionately smaller for See also:northern bee-men, but the disadvantage to the latter is more than compensated for by the heather season, which extends well into See also:September . With regard to the British bee-keeper located in the south, the early fruit crop is what concerns him most, and Value of where pollen (the fertilizing dust of flowers) is plentiful pollen . his bees will make steady progress . If pollen is scarce, a substitute in the form of either See also:pea-See also:meal or wheaten See also:flour must be supplied to the bees, as brood-rearing cannot make headway without the nitrogenous element indispensable in the food on which the young are reared . But the main honey-crop of both north and south is gathered from the various trifoliums, among which the See also:white Dutch or common See also:clover The queen (Trifolium repens) is acknowledged to be the most of bee- See also:plants. important honey-producing plant wherever it grows . In the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and in many other parts of the world honey of the finest quality is obtained from this " queen of bee-plants," and in lesser degree from other clovers such as See also:sainfoin, alsike (a hybrid clover), See also:trefoil, &c . Before undertaking the management of a modern apiary, the bee-keeper should possess a certain amount of aptitude for the pursuit, without which it is hardly possible to succeed . He must also acquire the ability to handle bees judiciously and well under all imaginable conditions . In doing this it is needful to remember that bees resent outside interference with either their work or their hives, and will resolutely defend themselves when aroused even at the cost of life itself . Experience has also proved that, when alarmed, bees instinctively begin to fill their honey-sacs with food from the nearest store-cells as a safeguard against contingencies, and when so provided they are more amenable to interference . The bee-keeper, therefore, by the judicious application of a little See also:smoke from smouldering See also:fuel, blown into the hive by means of an appliance known as a bee-smoker, alarms the bees and is thus able to manipulate the frames of comb with ease and almost no disturbance .

The smoker (fig . 26) devised by T . F . See also:

Bingham of Farwell, See also:Michigan, U.S.A., is the one most used in America and in the United Kingdom . No other See also:protection is needed beyond a bee-See also:veil of fine black See also:net, which slipped over a wide-brimmed straw See also:hat protects theface from stings when working among bees; as experience is gained the veil is not always used . The man who is hasty and See also:nervous in temperament, who fears an occasional sting, and resents the same by viciously killing the bee that inflicts it will rarely make a good apiarist . The methods of handling bees vary in different countries, this being in a great measure accounted for by the number of hives kept . Very few apiaries in the United Kingdom contain more than a hundred hives; consequently the British bee-keeper has no need for employing the forceful or " hustling " methods found necessary in America, where the honey-crop is gathered in car-loads and the British hives numbered by thousands . It naturally follows and that bee-life is there regarded very slightly by com- American parison, and the " bee-See also:garden " in England becomes methods. the " bee-yard " in America, where the apiarist when at work must thoroughly protect himself from being stung, and, safe in his See also:immunity from damage, cares little for bee-life in getting through his task, the loss of a few hundred bees being considered of no account . There are, however, other reasons, apart from humanity, to account for the difference in handling bees as advocated in the United Kingdom . The great majority of apiaries owned by British bee-keepers are located in close proximity to neighbours; consequently a serious upset among the bees would in many cases involve an amount of trouble which should if possible be avoided; therefore quietness and the exercise of care when manipulating are always recommended by teachers, and practised by those who wisely take their lessons to See also:heart . Having made himself proficient in practical bee-work and chosen a suitable location for his apiary, the bee-keeper should carefully select the particular type of hive most suited to his means and requirements .

This point settled, uniformity is choosing location . secured, and all loose parts of the hives being interchangeable time will be saved during the busy season when time means money . Beginning with not too many stocks he can test the capabilities of his location before investing much See also:

capital in the undertaking, so that by utilizing the information already given and adopting the See also:wise adage " make haste slowly " he will realize in good time whether it will pay best to work for honey in comb or extracted honey in bulk; not only so, but the knowledge gained will enable him to select such appliances as are suited to his needs . As a rule, it may be said that the man content to start with an apiary of moderate size—say fifty stocks—ma Bee=Aeep-~' y y inv., realize a See also:fair profit from comb-honey only; but so profit. limited a venture would need to be supplemented by some other means before an adequate income could be secured . On the other hand, the owner of one or two hundred colonies would find it more lucrative to work for extracted honey and send it out to wholesale buyers in that form . By so doing a far greater weight of surplus per hive may be secured, and extracted honey will keep in good condition for years, while comb-honey must be sold before granulation sets in . At the same time it is but fair to say that bee-culture in the United Kingdom, if limited to honey-production alone, is not sufficiently safe for entire reliance to be placed on it for obtaining a livelihood . The uncertain See also:climate renders it necessary to include either other branches of the craft less dependent on warmth and See also:sunshine, or to combine it with fruit-growing, poultry-rearing, &c . Under such conditions the bees will usually occupy a good position in the See also:balance-sheet . Another indispensable feature of good bee-management is " forethought," coupled with order and neatness; the rule of (Redrawn from the A B C of Bee-Culture, published by the A . I . Root Co., Medina, Ohio, U.S.A .

" a place for everything and everything in its place " prepares the bee-keeper for any emergency; constant watchfulness is also necessary, not only to guard against disease in Need of his hives, but to overlook nothing that tends to be of fore- thought. advantage to the bees at all seasons . Among the many ways of saving time nothing is more useful than a carefully-kept See also:

note-book, wherein are recorded brief memoranda regarding such items as condition of each stock when packed for winter, amount of stores, age and prolific capacity of queen, strength of colony, healthiness or otherwise, &c., all of which particulars should be noted and the hives to which they refer plainly numbered . It also enables the bee-keeper to arrange his day's work indoors while avoiding disturbance to such colonies as do not need interference . In the early spring stores must be seen to and replenished where required; breeding stimulated when pollen begins to be gathered; and appliances cleaned and prepared for use during the busy season . The main honey-gathering time (lasting about six or seven weeks) is so brief that in no pursuit is it more important to " make See also:hay while the See also:sun shines," and if the bee-keeper Length of bee seasonneeds a reminder of this truism he surely has it in the . example set by his bees . As the season advances and the flowers yield nectar more freely, visible signs of comb-building will be observed in the whitened edges of empty cells in the brood-chambers; the thoughtful workers are lengthening out the cells for honey-storing, and the bee-master takes the hint by giving room in advance, thus lessening the See also:chance of undesired swarms . In other words, order and method, combined with the habit of taking time by the forelock, are absolutely necessary to the bee-keeper, seeing that the enormous army of workers under his control is multiplying daily by scores of thousands . As spring merges into summer, sunny days become more frequent; the ever-increasing breadth of bee-forage yields still more abundantly, and the excitement among the labourers crowding the hives increases, rendering room in advance, shade and See also:ventilation, a sine qua non . It requires a level head to keep cool amongst a couple of hundred strong stocks of bees on a hot summer's day in a good honey season . Moreover, it will be too late to think of giving ventila-Swarm tion at noontide, when the temperature has risen to preven- 80° See also:Lion . ~ F. in the shade ; the necessary precautions for swarm prevention must therefore be taken in advance, for when what is known as the " swarming See also:fever " once starts it is most difficult to overcome .

The well-read and intelligent bee-keeper, content to work on orthodox lines, will be able to manage an apiary—large or small—by guiding and controlling the countless army he commands in a way that will yield him both See also:

pleasure and profit . All he needs is good bee weather and an apiary free from disease to make him appreciate bee-craft as one of the most remunerative of rural See also:industries; affording a wholesome open-air life conducive to good See also:health and yielding an abundance of contentment . Diseases of Becs.—It is quite natural that bees living in colonies should be subject to diseases, and only since the introduction of movable-comb hives has it been possible to learn something about these ailments . The most serious disease with which the bee-keeper has to contend is that commonly known as " bee-pest " or " foul brood," so called because of the young brood dying and rotting in the cells . This disease has been known from the earliest ages, and is probably the same as that designated by Pliny as blapsigonia (Natural Histc-y, bk. xi. ch. xx.) . Coming to later times, Della Rocca minutely describes a disease to which bees were subject in the See also:island of See also:Syra, between the years 1777 and 1780, and through which nearly every colony in the island perished . From the description given it was undoubtedly foul brood, and the bee-keepers of the island became convinced, after See also:bitter experience, that it was extremely contagious . Schirach also mentioned and described the disease in 1769, and was the first to give it the name of " foul brood." Still later, in 1874, Dr See also:Cohn, after the most exhaustive experiments and bacteriological See also:research, realized that the disease was caused by a bacillus, and—nine years later—the name Bacillusalvei was given to it by See also:Cheyne and Cheshire, whose views were in agreement with those of Dr Cohn . The illustration (fig . 27) shows a portion of comb affected with foul brood in its worst form . The sealed cells are dark-coloured and sunken, pierced with irregular holes, and the larvae in all stages from the See also:crescent-shaped healthy condition to that in which the dead larvae are seen lying at the bottom of the cells, flaccid and shapeless . The remains then change to See also:buff See also:colour, afterwards turning See also:brown, when decomposition sets in, and as the bacilli present in the dead larvae increase and the nutrient matter is consumed, the mass in some cases becomes sticky and See also:ropy in See also:character, making its removal impossible by the bees .

In course of time it dries up, leaving nothing but a brown scale adhering to the bottom or side of the cell . In the worst cases the larvae even See also:

die after the cells are sealed over; a strong characteristic and offensive odour being developed in some phases of the disease, noticeable at times some distance away from the hive . Two forms of foul brood have been long known, one foul smelling, the other odourless; and investigations made during 1906 and 1907 showed that the etiology of the disease is not by (From Cheshire's Bees and Bee-keeping, Scienti,ic and Practical.) any means simple, but that it is produced by different microbes, two others in addition to Bacillus alvei playing an important part . These are Bacillus brandenburgiensis, Maassen (syn . B. burri, Burri: B. larvae, white), and Streptococcus apis, Maassen (syn . B . Guntheri, Burri) . The first two are found in both forms of foul brood, whereas the last is only present with B. alvei in the strong-smelling form of the disease, in which the larvae are attacked prior to the cells being sealed over . The brood of bees, when healthy, lies in the combs in compact masses, the larvae being plump and of a pearly whiteness, and when quite young curled up on their sides at the See also:base of the cells . When attacked by the disease, the larva moves uneasily, stretches itself out lengthwise in the cell, and finally becomes loose and flabby, an appearance which plainly indicates death . When the disease attacks the larvae before they are sealed over Bacillus alvei is present, usually associated with Streptococcus apis, which latter imparts a sour See also:smell to the dead brood . In cases where the disease is odourless the larvae are attacked after the cells are sealed over, and just before they change to pupae, when they become slimy, sputum-like masses, difficult to remove from the cells .

Under these conditions Bacillus brandenburgiensis is found, although Bacillus alvei may also be present . The two bacilli are antagonistic, each striving for supremacy, first one then the other predominating . Various other microbes are also present in large See also:

numbers, but are not believed to be pathogenic or disease-producing in character . It is, therefore, seen that at least three different microbes See also:play an important part in the same disease . The danger of contagion lies in the wonderful vitality of the spores, and their great resistance to heat and cold . Dr Maassen records a case where he had no difficulty in obtaining cultures from spores removed from combs after being kept dry for twenty years . It should be borne in mind that the disease is much easier to cure in the earlier stages while the bacilli are still See also:rod-shaped than when the rods have turned to spores . Since the bacterial origin of foul brood has been established, the efforts of some bacteriologists have been employed in finding a simple remedy by means of which the disease may be checked in its earliest stages, and in this an appreciable amount of success has been attained . Nor has foul brood in its more advanced forms been neglected, all directions for treatment being found in text-books written by distinguished writers on apiculture in the United Kingdom, America and throughout the European continent . The only other disease to which reference need be made here is See also:dysentery, which sometimes breaks out after the long confinement bees are compelled to undergo during severe winters . This trouble may be guarded against by feeding the bees in the early autumn with good food made from See also:cane See also:sugar, and See also:housing them in well-ventilated hives kept warm and dry by suitable coverings . When bees are wintered on thin, watery food not sealed over, and are unable for months to take cleansing flights, they become weak and involuntarily See also:discharge their excrement over the combs and hive, a state of things never seen in a healthy colony under normal conditions .

The stocks of bee-keepers who attend to the instructions given in text-books are rarely visited by this disease . The above embraces all that is necessary to be said in relation to diseases, though bees have been subject to other ailments such as See also:

paralysis, See also:constipation, &c . In the Isle of See also:Wight a serious epidemic See also:broke out in 1906 which caused great destruction to bee-life in the following year . The malady was of an obscure character, but its cause has been under investigation by the British Board of Agriculture and See also:Fisheries, and by European bacteriologists in 1908 . AuTnoaxTIEs.—Though in modern times a great deal has appeared in the daily See also:newspapers on the subject, it is a notable fact that not a tithe of the wonderful things published in such articles about bees and bee-keeping is worthy of See also:credence or possesses any real value . Indeed; a pressman possessing any technical knowledge of the subject—beyond that obtainable from books—would be a rare avis . The account given above is the result of See also:forty years' practical experience with bees in England, the writer having for a great portion of the time been connected editorially with the only two papers in that country entirely devoted to bees and bee-keeping, The British Bee Journal (weekly, founded 1873), and Bee-keepers' Record (monthly, founded 1882), the former being the only weekly journal in the world . The following books on the subject may be consulted for further details: Francois Huber, New Observations on the Natural History of Bees; T . W . Cowan, British Bee-keepers' See also:Guide-Book, The Honey Bee, its Natural History, See also:Anatomy and See also:Physiology; Langstroth on the Honey Bee, revised by C . Dadant & Son; A . I .

Root, A B C and X Y Z of Bee-culture; F . R . Cheshire, Bees and Bee-keeping; Dr Dzierzon, Rational Bee-keeping; E . See also:

Bertrand, Conduite du rucher; A . J . See also:Cook, Manual of the Apiary; Dr C . C . See also:Miller, Forty Years among the Bees; F . W . L . Sladen, Queen-rearing in England; S . Simmins, A Modern Bee See also:Farm .

(W . B .

End of Article: BEE (Sanskrit blza, AS. ben, Lat. apis)
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