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The
Worth of Scotland College of Agriculture.

Bulletin No. 26.

THE
NATURAL HISTORY
OF THE BEE.

BY
JOHN ANDERSON, M.A., B.Sc., E.B:S.B.A.,

LECTURER IN BFE-KEEPING.

ABERDEEN: MILNE & HUTCHISON

1920

NOTE.

I am indebted to the Proprietors of “The Bazaar, Exchange
and Mart” for the facsimile illustrations originally prepared
for their publication, entitled, “Cheshire’s Bees and Bee-

keeping.” J. A.

THE NATURAL HISTORY
OF THE BEE.
By

JOHN ANDERSON, M.A., B.Sc., E.B:5S.B.A.,

Lecturer in Bee-keeping.

INTRODU CTLOR.

Tus slight sketch is intended to be merely a simple intro-
duction to the study of the bee and its ways. The earnest
student is advised to refer to some larger work, such as “ Bees
and Bee-keeping,” vol.i, by the late Frank R. Cheshire, or to
“Langstroth on the Honey Bee,” as revised and enlarged,
first by the late Charles Dadant, and later by his son, Mr. C. P.
Dadant. Members of the Scottish Bee-keepers’ Association
(Secretary, Rev. J. Beveridge, B.D., Gartmore, Stirling) may
borrow these manuals from the excellent library of the Asso-
ciation, and this course is recommended in the first instance
because the books are somewhat expensive. After perusing
volumes borrowed from the library, the serious bee-keeper will
decide which and how many of them must find a place in his
own private collection.

Classification of the Honey Bee.

The bee is without the internal bony skeleton so character-
istic of the higher animals, and is provided instead with a
hard outer crust to which its muscles are attached, It is
classed, therefore, among the Invertebrates or animals without
a backbone. All invertebrate animals that possess jointed
limbs are grouped together in the great Phylum of Arthropods,
which is subdivided into Crustaceans (almost all aquatic),

4

Arachnids (spider-like creatures), and Insects. The Arthropods
are predominantly active, and very successful in the struggle
for existence. More than half of all the animals in the world
are Arthropods, and the Insects alone are more numerous than
all the other animals put together.

Insects,

Thoughtless people are in the way of calling any small
animal an insect, and perhaps most people would be quite
sure that a spider should be so described. But a spider has
eight legs, while an insect has never more nor less than six,
and the insect has three well-marked divisions of the body—
head, thorax and abdomen—while the spider has apparently
only two divisions. All insects have antenne or feelers on
their heads, very few are without wings, and all the higher
types display in development a remarkable transformation or
metamorphosis.

Insect types are so extraordinarily numerous that we must
divide the Class into smaller groups or Orders, each consisting
of creatures more or less resembling each other. The Butter-
flies and Moths (Lepidoptera) constitute one such Order,
characterised by the possession of four wings covered with
beautiful scales. The four wings of the bee are gauzy and
transparent, so it is grouped with the Wasps, the Ants, the
Saw-Flies, and the Ichneumon-Flies to form the Order of the
Hymenoptera or membrane-winged insects.

Bees.

The Family of the Apide or Bees includes all Hymenoptera
which collect honey and pollen, and perhaps even bee-keepers
will be surprised to learn that, in addition to the honey bee
(Apis), and the very familiar humble bee (Bombus), there are
in Britain more than 200 species, which belong to the group
of Solitary or non-social bees. Of these the burrowers are
perhaps easiest to discover, for we can find them at work on
sandy banks on any fine day in summer. Inside their burrows
they make cells of a transparent material, like oiled-silk or

5

gold-beater’s skin, provision these with a paste of honey and
pollen, and then attach their eggs to the insides of the cells.
There is no worker caste, and the larval bees have to feed
themselves un the store provided.

More akin to the hive bees are the Bombi, or humble bees,
so well described and so beautifully figured in Mr. F. W. L.
Sladen’s “Humble Bee.” These are familiar to all dwellers
in the country, but are not so nearly related to the hive bees
as is commonly supposed. They are social indeed, but the
colonies break up in the autumn, and only the young queens
survive the winter, which they pass in holes in the ground.
These queens start new colonies next season, and undertake
every duty involved in the rearing of the first batch of brood.
The drone of the humble bee is smaller than the queen, aad
leaves the nest as soon as he can fly, henceforth supporting
himself on nectar obtained from flowers. Most of the humble
bees working on flowers in late autumn will be found to be
drones, as shown by the absence of a sting.

The Genus A)is.

All Apide, which form colonies more or less permanent
(perennial rather than annual) are grouped together to form
the Genus Apis, which includes such species as A. mellifica
(the common hive bee), d. fasciata (the Egyptian bee),
A. dorsata (the giant bee of India), and A. florea (the tiny
East Indian bee).

Having now defined the position of the honey bee in the
animal world, and indicated its relation to other types, we are
in a position to study Ap/s mellifica in more detail.

The Head of the Bee.

Tuer head of the bee bears five eyes, three simple and two
compound. The simple eyes are arranged in a triangle on
the crown of the head, and are sometimes called “ ocelli.”
The two compound eyes are larger, and situated on the sides
of the head. They consist of many thousands of simple eyes,
hexagonal in shape. The eyelashes are not arranged in two
fringes on moveable lids as in the case of the higher animals,
but grow, so to speak, all over the eye-ball, being attached really
at the corners of the simple eyes. Dust that would tend to
obscure the sight of the bee is caught on these hairs, but as this
cannot be winked away, since the bee has no eyelids, a special
comb for cleaning the eyelashes is attached to the first leg of
the bee. The head also bears the characteristic antenne («), two
very slender jointed rods, which are attached to the face of the
bee by ball-and-socket joints. They are extremely flexible, and
are the seat probably of several senses. The bees feel with them,
smell with them, possibly hear with them, and they certainly
talk by means of their antenne. Worker bees are all
female, and apparently talk a good deal, but they do so
without making a sound, simply by touching each other’s
antenne. The outside of the bee consists of “chitin,” an
almost shell-like material, which is dead, insensitive, and
which cannot be repaired when injured. In order that the
bee, surrounded by this unfeeling envelope, may be able to
come in contact with the outside world, it has to develop to
an extraordinary extent the sensitive hairs that we see
exemplified in the whiskers of the cat. For example, the
sensitiveness of the antenne depends on the fine hairs with
which they are provided. Dust on these organs would
render them less efficient, so the bee has an apparatus
on the forelegs for combing the dust off the hairs of its
antennz. Both the comb for the eyelashes and the comb
for the antenne have been beautifully figured by Cheshire,
who was the best worker on the bee that Britain has produced.

The mandibles or jaws (m) of the bee work sideways, like
typical insect jaws, and are used for making comb, tighting,

ats

Sreren

BEERS BEEEEESEO

<—

eELUL UC HEP HLL EbL ES ECEEEEEHEREEE SEE!

TE PEEEH EDPEELELEFEREERE!

&

2

HEAD AND TONGUE OF BEE.
(Magnified 16 times. From Cheshire).
u, Antenna, or Feeler; m, Mandible, or Outer Jaw; g, Gum Flap, or Epipharynx
map, Maxillary Palpus; pg, Paraglossa ; ma, Maxilla, or Inner Jaw; lp, Labial
Palpus ; 1, Ligula, or Tongue; b, Bouton, or Spoon of the same.

,

9

seizing robbers by the leg, and removing dead bees and debris
from the hive. They also bear tactile hairs, and these
probably ensure the delicacy of touch necessary in fashioning
the wonderful comb. The so-called tongue or proboscis (/) is
not really a tongue, but a prolongation of the lower lip. This
is the organ which is unfolded and thrust down into the
heart of the flower to reach the nectar. It is many-jointed
and covered thickly with hairs, so that it is rather a brush
than a tube. The bee does not so much suck up the nectar
as mop it up with this brushlike organ.

The Thorax.

A very narrow white neck connects the head with the
thorax, or chest. This bears the six legs and the four wings,
and the cavity of the thorax is filled mainly with the muscles
which work these limbs. The thorax is the meaty ,ait of
the bee, and is the only part carrie away by a wasp, which
has killed a bee for food. The w:i-} cuts off the head, the
legs, the wings and the abdomen, and flies away to its nest
carrying only the lump of red meat constituting the thorax
of the bee.

The Abdomen.

A second narrow isthmus, the petiole, connects the thorax
with the abdomen, which is the largest division of the body.
This is in sections, and the sections move in and out a little
way like the joints of a telescope. It is by this means that
the creature breathes. The abdomen is enlarged or reduced by
a telescopic action, and air passes in and out, not by the mouth
or nose as in the higher animals, but through a series of holes
situated along each side of the bee. Some of these holes, or
spiracles, are found on the abdomen and some on the thorax,
but none on the head. It is not possible, therefore, to drown
a bee by holding its head under water, since the breathing of
the bee would go on as usual with the head submerged.
At the extreme tip of the abdomen is situated the sting,
which is a very important organ, for without its presence
the bee would long since have become extinct,

10

The Legs.

It has already been mentioned that the first pair of legs bear
combs (C.eb) for the eyelashes, and a very elaborate pair of
combs (E.q) for cleaning the antennew. The use of these can
be most readily observed on drones. When these issue from
the hive on a fine sunny day they pause on the alighting
board and put up their forelegs alternately to their heads.
The old bee-keepers said they were wiping their eyes.
Rather they were combing the dust out of their eyelashes,
and securing also that the sensitive hairs of the antennx
were ready for use. If one touches the antenna of a bee
with a moist finger the bee will immediately put up its
foreleg and wipe the contaminated organ.

The second pair of legs bear prominent spurs, which are
said to be used in removing the pollen pellets from the baskets
on the last pair of legs. On the hind legs of the worker bee are
the wonderful structures for collecting and carrying home the
pollen. These have also been beautifully figured by Cheshire,
who shows both the outside and inside aspects of the hind leg.
The last broad joint which Cheshire has called the planta, or
metatarsus, bears on its inside a set of beautiful combs (B.p).
On the joint above this, called by Cheshire the tibia, is
found the corbicula or pollen basket. The tibia on the
outer side is bare of hair, hollow and polished, but along the
edges are arranged numerous bristles. These correspond to
the framework put on a cart when the load is light and
bulky, as when leading home the corn.

The Collection of Pollen.

If we shake a full-blown flower over a sheet of paper
we observe a fine dust falling out on the paper. The micro-
scope shows that it is not dust at all, but that each little
particle has a definite shape and colour, depending on the
particular flower. In fact, the pollen grains always found in
honey as an accidental admixture are the final test for the
source of honey. Eucalyptus pollen found in a sample of
so-called British honey would be held as a conclusive proof
of adulteration with Australian or other foreign honey.

LEGS OF WORKER-BEE.
(Magnified 10 times. From Cheshire.)
A, third right leg, side from the body.
p, planta or metatarsus ; ¢, tarsus.
tr, trochanter ; wp, pincers.
D, second right leg.

ti, tibia, showing pollen basket ;
B, third right leg, side next the body. c¢, coxa;
C, front right leg. v, velum; 0, brush ; cd, eye-brush.
b, brush. E, joint of first leg, more enlarged. v, velum;
a, antenna comb; 2, brush. F, teeth of antenna comb, magnificd 200 times. G,
cross-section of tibia through pollen-basket.

2, nerve; h, holding hairs; su, farina
or pollen. H, antenna in process of cleaning. v, velum ; s, scraping edge; a, antenna ;
1, seotion of leg; ¢, antenna comb.

13

The bee engaged in gathering pollen alights in the heart
of the flower and moves around, bringing its hairy body in
contact with the anthers. The sticky pollen grains adhere to
the webbed hairs of the bee, and, when it has got enough to
be worth dealing with, the bee rises from the flower and
apparently flies aimlessly about. In reality it has taken to
its wings in order to have the use of all its legs at once.
Close observation will show that the hind legs bearing the
pollen combs are being passed over the under side of the bee,
combing out the pollen grains adhering to the hairs. Then,
by a motion too quick for the eye to follow, the two sets of
combs are rubbed together and the collected pollen transferred
to the pollen baskets. When the load is complete the two
pellets of pollen are bean-shaped, of equal size, and almost
invariably of one kind of pollen throughout. The bee-
keeper, standing in front of his hives, sees bee after bee
alighting on the board with pollen baskets heavily laden, the
burdens being of different colours according to the flowers
visited. They are light yellow from wall-flower; a sober
brown from the clover; golden red from the whin, and
blue-black from the poppy.

When the bee enters the hive it goes fussing over the
comb, shaking its body in a very typical way, apparently
looking for a cell in which to deposit the pollen. When this
is found it hangs on to the upper wall with its fore legs,
inserts its hind legs into the cell, and then pushes off the
pollen with the middle pair of legs. The two pellets fall on
the lower walls of the cell, and the pollen carrier pays no
more attention to them. Another and younger bee presently
comes along, inserts its head into the cell, and moves around
for about two minutes. When it comes out of the cell it
will be found that the pollen has been packed down firmly
and neatly.

Honey is mainly a carbo-hydrate, providing energy
and heat, but does not,contain sufficient nitrogen to be
used in forming tissue. The proteid or nitrogenous
element essential for body-building, and specially necessary
when brood is being reared, is supplied chiefly by the
pollen, In Britain, pollen is so abundant that old combs

14

tend to be clogged with it, but in many parts of Australia
there is a deficiency of pollen-bearing plants, and in such
districts bees rapidly die out from what the Australian Bee-
keeper calls the “Disappearing Sickness.”

Propolis.

The pollen baskets are also used for the carrying home of
a resinous material that the bees gather mainly off trees. In
a treeless country various substitutes, such as tar, wet paint,
and varnish, are used for the same purpose. This material is
called “ propolis,” and is used by the bees to varnish the inside
of the hive, to fill up any cracks in the walls, and to fasten
down the quilt so as to prevent the escape upward of warm
air. When collected in quantity it may be used to daub the
honey-comb, marring its beautiful appearance. Bees vary
greatly as regards tendency to collect and use propolis. The
black bees of Austria, known as Carniolans, use very little
propolis, and consequently produce section honey which is
beautifully white. The Caucasian bees are the worst
offenders, fastening everything firmly together with propolis
so that the whole hive may be lifted by the top crate. The
word “propolis” in Greek means “in front of the city,”
and implies that certain bees build ramparts at the hive door
to exclude robbers, and specially to exclude the death’s-head
moth. Such ramparts are beautifully seen in a nucleus stock
of Punic bees which has been provided with too large a door.
The whole of such a door will be closed by a curtain of
propolis, leaving only two small round holes at the two lower
corners, just large enough to admit one bee at a time. The
bee-keeper who uses plenty of quilts, and takes care that
there are no openings near the top of the hive to permit
the escape of warm air, will usually have little trouble with
propolis. Vaseline is frequently used to prevent propolisation.
It may be smeared on the runners carrying the lugs.of the
frames, and on the bearing surfaces of section crates,

Feet.

Each of the six feet of the bee is furnished with sharp
curved hooks, two large and two small, and with these the bee

15

can cling securely to any ordinarily rough surface, such as the
face of the comb. On polished wood or glass there is no foot-
hold for the hooks, so the bee folds them out of the way and
brings into action a soft, white, moist and sticky pad situated
between the hooks. So also the fly walks on the window-pane,
and with a lens it is actually possible to see on the glass the
footprints of a fly. The ignorant or thoughtless bee-keeper
sometimes worries his bees by placing right over their combs
a piece of blanket or other rough material. This entangles
the hooked feet of the bees, with the result that they rapidly
lose their tempers and sometimes even their lives. The quilt
placed on the top of the combs should be light and smooth, of
such material as window-blind, bed-ticking, or plain calico.
The bees readily slip from under such a quilt, and, when they
are down among the combs, other and heavier quilts can be
added till the loss of heat upward is reduced to a minimum.

Wings.

The wings of the bee are four in number, two large front
wings and two smaller hind wings. A single pair of large
wings, as in the blue-bottle, would be very effective for flight,
but very much in the way inside the hive, where the bee has
to walk about amid the thronging multitude, and even to
enter the very narrow cells. Before entering the hive the
smaller hind wings of the bee are tucked away underneath
the larger front wings, enabling the bee to move more readily
in small space. In flight, however, the advantage pertaining
to a single pair of large wings is obtained for the bee by a
device consisting of a set of hooks on the anterior border of
the small hind wing, which engage in a kind of curved ledge
on the posterior border of the larger front wing. Thus the
flying bee is apparently provided with a single pair of large
wings.

Breathing.

As already mentioned, the bee breathes through a series
of apertures on each side of its body. These apertures or
spiracles lead to an intricate system of tubes, which
ramify through every part of the body of the: bee

16

conveying oxygen directly to the tissues. In the higher
animals the blood is a carrier of oxygen, but the colourless blood
of the insect is not a gas carrier, the oxygen being distributed
directly through the tubes or “tracheae” to every part of the
insect’s body. To ensure the free passage of air, each of the
tiny tubes is provided with a spiral thread of “ chitin,” which
acts like a coiled spring and prevents the tube from
collapsing. One result of having such a multitude of air-
tubes within its body is that the insect is extremely light
and buoyant, so facilitating flight. This lightness is well
exemplitied in the Pond-skaters, which can be seen on a
summer day actually walking on the surface of the water
in any clear pool.
Wax.

Wax is a secretion produced by eight glands situated on
the under surface of the abdomen. Bees about to produce
wax consume a quantity of honey and then hang in clusters
motionless within the hive. After several hours the newly
secreted wax oozes like oil from the glands and solidifies in
eight little wax pockets. The little bits of wax so pro-
duced are not unlike fish scales, and are frequently found
in large numbers among the debris on the floor of the hive.
The leaves of a bush on which a swarm has remained over-
night are sometimes found glittering with newly made wax
scales. When the bee is about to make comb it picks off the
scales with its feet, carries them to its mouth, and works
them up with its mandibles. The comb so produced is
white—or almost white —although the wax scales are trans-
parent. So snow is white while ice is transparent, and the
explanation is the same in both cases. The snow and the
honeycomb are full of little caves which reflect the light and
produce the effect of whiteness. If the caves in a snowball
be filled with water the whiteness disappears.

Honeycomb.

Honeycomb is one of the wonders of the world. It has
extraordinary delicacy and beauty, and is so fragile that it
ean hardly be touched without danger of breaking the cells,

17

The sheets of comb are vertical and parallel, but may not be
plane. That is to say, if there should be convexities in one there
will be corresponding coneavities in the adjacent comb. In each
sheet there is a central mid-rib with sets of cells arranged on
both sides. The cells are not quite horizontal, having a slight
upward tilt in order to retain thin unripened honey. The
shape and delicacy of the cells is not evident from an outside
view, because each cell is finished off with a thickened rim,
which tends to make it look round and clumsy. If
these outside rims be shaved off with a warm sharp blade
it will be seen that the cells are perfectly hexagonal, and that
the walls are thinner than tissue paper. How the bee with
its horny mandibles is able to thin them down with such
admirable precision is one of the things that we find difficult
to understand. Possibly the hairs displayed on the mandibles
may be the sensitive mechanism which gives to those horny
tools the necessary delicacy of touch.

The Worker Bee.

In a hive in the summer time there are three well marked
types. There is the worker bee, of which we have been
writing hitherto. It does all the spectacular work of the
hive, the gathering of nectar, the collection of propolis
and pollen, the carrying of water, the tending of brood, the
building of the comb, the fighting and the stinging. But
there is one very important bit of work which it cannot
perform. Although the workers are all female and developed
from an egg identical with that which produced the queen,
yet the essential organs of sex are comparatively undeveloped,
and the worker bee as a rule is incapable of laying eggs.
Under stress of circumstances a stock that is hopelessly
queenless may develop laying workers, that is, a number of
workers (not one as is generally stated) will start laying eggs
in the cells, but these eggs produce only drone bees, and it
is not generally believed that a laying worker can ever
become the mother of a worker bee or queen. A stock
consisting, therefore, solely of workers would ultimately

18

come to an end, because the old bees would die out, and there
would be no young worker bees to replace them.

The Queen Bee.

The queen or mother bee is the specialised egg layer. She
is the state mother whose sole function it is to lay eggs. Her
other activities are limited as far as possible in order that
all her energies may be directed to this one end. Her tongue
is too short to reach the nectary of any flower, so that she
would starve in a garden of plenty. She has no apparatus
for collecting or carrying home pollen. The wax glands are
entirely wanting, so she could not produce the smallest bit of
comb. But her ovaries are enormously developed, and
Dzierzon—the greatest of German Beemasters—showed, by
actual count, that a queen is capable of laying at least three
thousand eggs in a day. She does not maintain that rate
throughout the year, her egg-laying being appropriate to
the season. She can as a rule continue laying for about
three years, so that a stock provided with a young fertile
queen may remain in a prosperous condition for that period.
On the other hand, a stock consisting only of workers would
become extinct in a few months, ~

But the queen will ultimately become exhausted, and will
fail in the business of laying eggs. So she must be replaced
by a daughter, rearcd by the workers for this purpose. The
young «ueen, however, is not perfectly fertile unless mated
to a drone. This occurs once in her lifetime in the open air
on a fine day, and this is why hundreds of drones are
produced by every prosperous stock during the summer
season. The drone dies in the act of mating and the queen
returns to the hive. She will not lay any eggs that day,
nor the next, but will start laying on the second day after
mating, and will continue to lay eggs, producing either male
or female offspring, for a period of two or three years.

The Drone or Male Bee.

The drone’s activities are even more restricted than those of
the queen. He has no wax glands; no apparatus for collecting

19

pollen; his tongue is even shorter than that of the queen;
and he has no sting. An examination of his structure will
show that he is specialised for rapid, powerful, and long-
continued flight. He has a great spread of wing, a highly
developed thorax to accommodate the great muscles that
work the wings, a spacious abdomen to ensure the supply of
oxygen necessary for rapid motion, a magnificent pair of
eyes so that he may detect from afar that small dark object,
which is the queen in flight. His legs are relatively weak,
because they are never in use except inside the hive, and for
a few steps on the alighting board on entering and departing.
The function of the drone is to be on the wing every fine
day during the sunny hours, when young queens are likely
to come forth for mating purposes. This is the only duty
for which drones are fitted, and this they perform with the
‘utmost diligence, their whole time outside the hive being
spent in active flight. Their life is indeed strenuous, although
the drone has been called lazy by those who apparently
expect him to do what he cannot possibly do, namely, gather
honey and pollen like the worker. To compare a lazy man
to a drone is therefore an injustice—to the drone.

At the end of the honey harvest, every “queen-right”
stock of bees drives forth its drones to perish of cold and
want. But the drones may be destroyed at any time if the
stock comes within sight of starvation. First the adult
drones are expelled, next the drone brood is pulled out
of the cells, then the worker brood is sacrificed, and finally
the old worker bees begin to die of starvation. The bee-
keeper who sees the drones being killed out of season
should take prompt measures to supply food to the stock.
When the hive does not contain a fertile queen, the drones
will be allowed to live until very late in the season, or even
until the following spring, and the presence of drones in a
particular stock at a time when most drones have been killed
off indicates that there must be something wrong with
the queen.

20

The Laying of the Queen.

The most noticeable thing about the queen is the great
development of the abdomen, which projects beyond the
wings. It accommodates the huge ovaries, which, in the
laying season, are extremely active, producing in one day
more than twice the weight of the queen in eggs. The legs
of the queen are highly developed, because she spends her
life in walking. The first man to describe the laying of the
queen was a Scotch clergyman, the Rev. William. Dunbar,
Minister of Applegarth, who, in 1840, wrote a beautiful book
on the bee, and was so modest that he did not put his name
on the title page. When Langstroth, the father of American
bee-keeping, published his book in 1851, he was content to
quote, with acknowledgment, the Scotch parson’s description
of the laying of the queen. During the laying season she
walks over the surface of the comb, examining cell after
cell until she finds one empty, freshly varnished, and
situated well within the warm part of the hive. She bends
her body sharply, inserts her abdomen into the cell, turns
round until she is looking downwards and deposits an egg
in the cell. At this period she is waited upon by a number
of workers, who keep their heads towards the queen at all
times and supply her with anything that she requires. It
is their duty to see that she does not waste her time looking
for food, or in making her toilet. They perform all offices
for the queen, and thus enable her to set her whole mind to
the business of laying eggs.

The queen bee requires mating only once in her life,
because she has a little reservoir or sperm sac in which she
can store the sperm received from the drone at her mating.
The sperm cells remain alive and ready to become active for
years. Very old queens, however, begin to produce what
might be called accidental or inadvertent drones — drones
produced in worker cells—and it has been suggested that the
sperm has become exhausted, but it is more likely that the
queen has lost the power of working the mechanism of
fertilisation.

21

Sometimes a queen fails to mate, possibly through the
scarcity or entire absence of drones. In such cases she
remains a virgin queen, and, if weather permit, she makes
frequent flights in search of a drone. At last she seems to
give up hope, and commences laying without being mated at
all. The eggs develop in the normal way, but produce only
drones, whether laid in drone or in worker cells.

Brood Rearing.

The egg laid by the queen is quite unlike a fowl’s egg in
shape. It is elongated, wider at one end than the other,
slightly curved, and both ends are rounded. It is attached
by the smaller end to the bottom of the cell, and is just
large enough to be easily detected by the naked eye. In
the bottom of the cell it looks like a bit of bluish white
thread, and is clearly visible to a close observer. Under
normal circumstances the egg hatches in about three days,
and the creature that emerges is a tiny white grub
with no legs, no wings, and no sting. It is fed by the
worker bees on a kind of thin white jelly, which has an
acid pungent taste. Its origin is undecided, but there is
good reason to suppose that this “Royal Jelly” is the
secretion of two glands situated in the head of the
worker bee. These glands are not found in the drone, are
undeveloped in the queen, are shrunken and apparently
functionless in the old forager bees. But they are large and
apparently active in the younger worker bees, which are
known to feed the brood. At a later stage it is said that
raw honey and pollen are added to the ration of the worker
bee and the drone, but queens are fed throughout on “ Royal
Jelly.” Whatever its origin it must be very nourishing,
because the little grub grows apace, and in six days its weight
has increased more than a thousand times.

On the sixth day from the hatching of the egg the
worker-grub is fully fed, and the bees cover it over with a
porous cap composed of pollen and wax, so as to allow the
young bee to breathe. The rest of the development goes

Missing Page

Missing Page

24

Supersedure of Queens.

Some bee-keepers imagine that an old queen cannot be
replaced except by swarming, but a little thought will suggest
that since the old queen normally accompanies the first
swarm, there will come a time when the old queen must be
superseded without swarming. In such circumstances the
bees make a few queen cells, usually not more than three,
and generally at the close of the honey harvest. The
selected queen is allowed to emerge, and she may live for
weeks in the hive along with the old mother. Sometimes,
indeed, both mother and daughter may be laying in the same
hive. The supersedure of the queen occurs so quietly that
it may be missed even by an observant bee-keeper, and we
thus get stories of queens that have been supposed to live to
phenomenal ages, the fact being that the old worn-out queen
had been quietly replaced by the bees without the knowledge
of the bee-keeper.

Swarming.

Swarming is a natural function which must occur if bees
are not to become extinct; for it is by swarming that stocks
lost by disease, by queenlessness, and so forth, are replaced.
Bees about to swarm make preparation inside and outside the
hive. The inside preparation consists in storing the hive
from floor to ceiling as it were. There must be abundance of
bees, brood, honey, and pollen, and, as a rule, the whole
available space must be filled with comb. The old home is
never left destitute, while those that have helped to gather
the stores leave all behind and go out to start the world over
again with only as much honey as can be carried by each
bee tilling its honey-sac. Preparations have also been
made to replace the queen that is to go forth with the
swarm. A number of queen cells are started on successive
days so as to provide queens that mature on different dates.
The normal time for the leaving of a first or top swarm is
fixed by the sealing of the most advanced queen cell in the
hive. As a queen takes only seven days to develop after

25

sealing, this means that the old hive may have a new queen
in about seven days after the leaving of the top swarm. In
about two days more this new queen will be able to fly, so
that bee-keepers expect the second swarm on the ninth day
after the first. During those two days of waiting one or
two of the other queens may be so far developed as to be
ready to come out of the cell, but the worker bees will see
to it that they are retained in the cell until the first hatched
queen has left with the swarm. During the period of
detention those imprisoned queens will be fed through a tiny
hole in the cell. It is just at this time that piping can be
heard. It is most noticeable at dusk when all around is quiet,
and there are two distinct sounds. There is the clear note
like “peep peep,” emanating from the queen which is loose
on the comb, and a deeper note, like “waa waa,” produced by
the other queens inside the cells) The hearing of those two
sounds means two things to the bee-keeper; (1) that a swarm
will issue in a day or two, and (2) that it will be accompanied
by a virgin queen. The outside preparation for swarming
consists in searching the country round about for a new home.
The scouts travel far farther than foragers, and may be
observed round hollow trees, going into cracks in roofs, or
carefully examining empty hives. They are looking for a
new home for the prospective swarm, but, if the owner of the
swarm knows his business, and is able to attend to it, his
swarm will never be allowed to take up residence.

The actual swarming occurs near the middle of a fine
day. Bees pour out of the hive in a continuous stream, and
fill the air like a cloud of midges. At first they dart
about in all directions, but they soon begin to cluster on a
selected spot, very frequently within the garden in which
the hive is located, at any rate very rarely more than a short
distance away When fully clustered there is a mass of bees
clinging closely together. If on a small branch it sometimes
bends with their weight right down to the ground. As soon
as the cluster has begun to form, the scouts go off once more
to see whether the new home is still available, and in due
course they will return to take away the swarm. The

26

interval of absence may be short or long, but is usually long
enough to enable the bee- keeper to secuie his swarm and
to remove it from the neighbourhood of the bush on which
it is clustered, and which was duly marked by the scouts.
If it is inconvenient to hive the swarm at once, the skep, or
other receptacle used to contain it temporarily, ought to be
shifted from the neighbourhood of the bush, so that the scouts
may not be able to find it on their return.

How Bees find their Hives.

It is known that the bees of a stock range the country
in every direction fot a distance of about 24 miles, so that
the area covered exceeds 12,000 acres. How then do the
bees manage to find their way back to their own hive’ It
has been sussested that bees and homing pigeons and certain
other animals possess a special sense—‘“ homing instinct "—or
sense of direction—which is represented very poorly, it at
all, in the human species. The practical bee-keeper is aware,
however, that bees do not need any special extraordinary sense
for locating their home. The behaviour of a stock of bees
liberated in a new situation is very characteristic. They issue
cautiously from the hive, fly in front of it with their heads
towards it, obviously observing minutely the appearance of
their hive, and the objects in its immediate neighbourhood. The
area of their flight gradually increases until tinally they are
high up in the air describing great circles, evidently observing
the greater landmarks—a big tree, a church spire, a prominent
building, a stretch of water. The cloud of bees which has
been darting about in every direction over a wide area is now
seen to gradually condense and again to enter the hive. Their
observations have been made, their new situation located,
and they are now ready to proceed on a foraging expedition.
A stock of bees sent by steamer on a journey, which took
three days to complete, was liberated on arrival. Within
45 minutes bees with full loads of pollen were seen entering
the hive. It had taken the strangers just three quarters of
an hour to locate the pesition of their home, and to tind the

27

treasures of the field) The foraging bee may wander far
from the hive and find itself in surroundings more or less
unfamiliar, but it only requires to rise high in the air to
perceive the great landmarks for its home—the church spire,
big tree, or prominent house, as the case may be. Queens
also in preparing for their mating flight carefully locate the
position of the hive, and, at the final stage, rise by great
circles high in the air. It is the observation of this which
has given rise to the quite erroneous idea that the mating
of the queen takes place in the “blue empyrean, remote
from the haunts of birds, who might otherwise profane
the ceremony.”

It is evident that the shifting of a stock of bees without
due precaution may lead to great confusion and the loss of
a number of bees. If the hive, for instance, be lifted at
night to another part of the apiary, bees going forth in the
morning will be unaware of any change, and, returning to
the spot where the hive formerly stood, will become greatly
perturbed, will either perish on the old stance, or attempt to
enter neighbouring hives. If the stock be shifted a distance
of two or three miles the issuing bees will observe that the
stance has been changed and will take steps to relocate
themselves. Difficulty then arises when a bee-keeper requires
to move a stock of bees within the area of twelve thousand
acres with which they are acquainted, but it can be readily
accomplished if steps are taken to inform the bees that they
have been moved. The Americans claim that closing the
hive and wheeling it round on a barrow for a certain time
is sufficient. The bees will then take care to mark the
position in which they have been placed.. Another method
is to transfer the stock towards evening to a temporary box,
in which the bees can be closed up, when all have entered
for the night. They are kept confined until the afternoon
of the next day, and then transferred to their own hive at
the new situation. This enforced sojourn in a strange
receptacle makes the bees very cautious in coming forth,
and they proceed to mark carefully the new position.

28

Conclusion.

We know a great deal about the natural history of the
bee, but many authors have got into the way of copying,
without verification, statements that have appeared in the
publications of earlier writers, and we are undoubtedly still
ignorant of many facts about the bee which would be interesting
and profitable for us to know. It is noteworthy, also, that
most discoveries of first class importance concerning bees have
not been made by trained scientific men but by earnest bee-
keepers, who had no thought of systematic research, but
followed knowledge for its own sake, and with a patience
which is becoming rare in these days of hustle and haste to be
rich. This Bulletin may be concluded, therefore, with the
suggestion that the thoughtful and intelligent bee-keeper may
do much to advance our knowledge of the bee, if he will only
observe carefully, record methodically, and in due course
publish the result of his observations.

The
Worth of Scotland College of Agriculture.

Bulletin No. 27.

How To
HANDLE BEES.

BY

JOHN ANDERSON, NLA, B.Sc, E.B25.B.A.

LECTURER IN BEE-KEEPING.

ABERDEEN: MILNE & HUTCHISON

1920

NOTE,

Tue blocks for Figs. IL, I, and IV., which appear in this
Bulletin, were kindly lent by Messrs. J. T. Burgess & Son,
Exeter; and for the use of the other fourfblocks I am

indebted to Messrs. Steele & Brodie, Wormit, Fife.

J. A.

HOW TO HANDLE BEES.
By
JOHN ANDERSON, M.A., B.Sc., E.B: S.B.A.,

Lecturer in Bee-keeping.

INTRODUCTION,

Many people are afraid to keep bees because they have the
impression that a bee is a creature going about seeking for
somebody to sting. In reality, a bee is a very inoffensive
insect, which never volunteers an attack unless the intruder
is quite near the hive and likely to interfere with the private
property of the colony. A bee inside a room is anxious only
to get out, and a bee at work in the garden attends strictly
to the business of the moment. The thoughtful bee-keeper
is actually grateful that bees have stings, because, if they
had not been possessed of some means of defence the species
would long since have become extinct—their product is so
delectable, and they have so many enemies.

The handling of live bees seems to the novice a matter
of such, extreme difficulty that the expert bee-master who
handles bees without veil or gloves is regarded as a kind of
wizard, and receives a great deal of credit to which he is not
entitled. We are frequently told of such and such a man
who “worked among the bees, and the bees seemed to know
him, and he never got stung.” The suggestion is that the
management of bees cannot be acquired, that a bee-master,
like a poet, has to be born, and cannot be made. On the
contrary, any person of average intelligence, and possessed
of an ordinary amount of patience, can easily and quickly
learn to handle bees. It is true, also, that all the experts
will admit, when closely questioned, that they began hy being
dreadfully afraid of the bees. But there are a few simple
principles which must be kept in view by those who would
handle bees and receive, in the process, a minimum of stings.

4

Situation of the Hive.

It is a frequent practice to set the bee-hives in a back
garden, behind a hedge, or in some other out-of-the-way place,
where the bees are usually out of view. In such a situation,
the bees have unpleasant associations connected with the
visits of the bee-keeper, and they are likely to attack him
on sight. If placed near a dwelling-house, where people are
frequently passing, the bees soon get used to the appearance of
human beings, and come to regard them as harmless animals.
This proximity to dwellings has the additional advantage
that swarms are not so likely to be lost, for someone in or
about the house is almost sure to hear or see them.

The hives must be so placed that the bee-keeper can get in
behind them, in order that he may be out of the way of the
bees coming from and going to the fields. On this account,
a hive should not be set with its back close to a wall, or be

-placed in one of those low sheds built originally to shelter
straw skeps. -~Yhe shed provided excellent shelter for the
straw hives, and did not interfere with manipulation of these,
since a skep has to be turned right over in any case. On
the other hand, a modern hive must be moved as little as
possible, and the bees should be able to use it freely, even
while the bee-keeper is handling the combs.

Protection for the Bee-keeper.

Beginners are frequently so nervous at first that they are
glad to wear both veil and gloves. The latter can be obtained
of material that is quite sting-proof, and with long sleeves
attached to the gloves (Figure L.), the bee-keeper is quite safe
from stings on the hands.
He will soon discover, how-
ever, that the gloves hamper
his movements very much,
and deprive him of that
delicacy of touch and deftness in manipulation that is so
important in handling bees. His mere clumsiness will irritate
the bees, and make them less easy to control. To meet this
difficulty, and to help in eliminating the gloves, Messrs,

Figur i 7

5

J. T. Burgess & Son, of Exeter, provide bee gloves which
leave the points of the fingers bare, as shown in Figure IT.
On certain special occasions
the experienced bee-keeper
may find gloves useful. He
may have to take bees out tn
of a hole in a wall, or from Figure IL.

some odd corner of a roof or floor, where the use of his bare
hands would lead to the receiving of a needless number of
stings. Then, during transit, one or more combs might be
jerked out of their frames and be found lying on the bottom
of the travelling box. With gloves, these could easily be
lifted, and, perhaps, most of the brood in them saved. In
general, however, it will be found that the gloves, are soon
thrown aside, never to be used again, except on the very
rarest occasions.

The veil (Figure III.) is in a different category, and the
writer has no hesitation in affirming that
it would make for the comfort of the
bees, and for an increase in the honey
crop, if expert bee-masters would use
the veil more and the smoker less. The
most convenient veil is made of fine black
net, of a shape that can be readily slipped
over the hat or cap, and tucked under
the collar of the coat. Veils of coarse
netting, or of any other colour except
black, interfere seriously with clearness

\

WI
SOE Of vision, and wire-fronted veils are
Figure HL. inconvenient to carry.

In carrying out any operation which involves shaking the
bees off their combs, one may find that several bees, still too
young to fly, are crawling over the ground. Trouser clips,
such as are used by cyclists, may be found convenient to
prevent those young bees from crawling up the legs.

When the bee-keeper has his hands on the combs within
the hive any bees flying upwards are likely to be caught
within the outstanding cuffs of his coat. These are brought

6

to a dead stop very suddenly, and are too surprised to fly out
immediately. Presently, they reflect that the fabric with
which they are in contact is like the quilt of the hive, and
the warmth also suggests the proximity of the cluster of bees.
So those bewildered insects proceed upward in the hope of
soon getting in among their fellows. By and by the bee-
keeper, while bending his arm, will pinch the exploring bee,
and will be stung. To obviate
this danger, gauntlets, as shown
in Figure IV., may be worn.
Alternatively, an elastic band
may be slipped over the sleeve,
or the cuff may be merely
turned back so as to tighten
it round the wrist.

Figure IV.

The Smoker.

The smoker is the most useful implement available for
the modern bee-keeper. It consists essentially of a fire-box
to contain some fuel, with an attached bellows for putting the
smoke on to the bees. The Clark Cold Blast (Figure V.)

Figure V.

though very largely used in this country, is not recommended,
because it is difficult to light and keep lighted, and is not
very efficient. In this type the blast of air does not pass
through the fire-box. The popular Bingham Smoker

7
(Figure VL) is of the hot blast type, is less liable to “go

Figwve VI.

out” when in use, and has a shield to keep the hands from
getting burnt by coming in contact with the fire-box. The
Root Standard is a very fine implement indeed, with the one
defect, that it has no shield for the fire-box. As one can
see from Figure VII, every detail has been well thought

Figure VII

out, even to the provision of a hook with which to hang the
smoker on to the side of the hive. The Root Junior is a
smaller smoker of the same type, but without the front hinge
to the nozzle.

For fuel many employ corrugated paper, such as is used
for packing glass-ware. It lights very readily, but burns
away very quickly, generating great heat in proportion to

8

the smoke produced. Ordinary brown paper goes out very
readily unless it has been treated with saltpetre. Punk or
rotten wood lights easily, and rarely goes out till all is
eonsumed. “ Moleskin” and corduroy are excellent, but not
always readily obtainable. Very convenient, and usually
very plentiful, is sacking or burlap. New material may be
used, but, frequently, there is more old sacking lying about
than the bee-keeper will use in a season. This fuel is not so
easy to light as corrugated paper, but it produces abundance
of smoke that is not too hot, and it is not easily extinguished.
The fuel should be rolled loosely in the form of a cylinder
of a size to fit easily inside the barrel of the smoker, and it
should be lighted at the lower end. The beginner may find
it easier at first to light the smoker at the fireside, but he will
soon acquire the art of lighting up outside, even in windy
weather, by holding the ighted match within the barrel of
the smoker until the fuel has caught fire. Then, by working
the bellows, a powerful cloud of smoke will be produced.

Subduing Effect of Smoke.

The question is frequently asked why it is that bees which
have been lightly smoked are disinclined to sting. Langstroth,
the great American bee-keeper, suggested that it induced the
bees to fill their honey-sacs with honey, and made it
physically difficult for them to curve the abdomen sharply
so as to apply the sting. Another view is that the bee full
of honey is like most well-fed animals, full of good humour,
and at peace with all the world. In any case, it is a fact
that bees brought in contact with smoke seem very rapidly
to forget that they have stings at all.

We shall probably get a more correct view of the effect
of smoke upon bees if we try to imagine what it would have
meant for them in their natural habitat, when they dwelt
mainly in hollow trees in great forests. There they would
be attacked by animal enemies who desired to rob them of
their honey. In their effort to burgle the home of the bees,
such marauders would necessarily shake the tree and attract

9

the attention of the bees on the combs. The most effective
behaviour in such circumstances would be to rush out of
doors and attack the intruding animal with all the might of
thousands of stings. By such prompt action the home and
property of the colony might be efficiently preserved.
Assuming that this instinct of self-preservation has been
inherited by modern bees, we can readily understand why
it is that the clumsy manipulator is so promptly and severely
punished for any jarring or banging of the hive.

But another enemy of quite a different type might menace
the home and property of the bees. There might be a forest
fire, sweeping all before it, and reducing the great trees to
blackened stumps. The bees which survived such a fire, and
transmitted the instinct which made for self-preservation,
behaved exactly as human beings do in similar circumstances.
As soon as the clouds of smoke blowing in at their doors
indicated the proximity of an enemy against which stings
were of no avail, the provident insects rushed to their stores,
while there was yet time, and began to fill their honey-sacs
with honey. If the worst came to the worst, and the fire
spread to their own tree, they could abandon their combs
stored full of honey, pollen and brood, and go out with their
queen to find a new home. Every honey-sac being filled
with honey, the homeless bees would be in the position of a
swarm, having enough stores with which to begin the world
over again in some hollow tree that the fire had not reached.

When we know what smoke means to the bees we can
use it with much greater effect and with less discomfort to
them. It is not necessary to stupefy the bees—as many
erroneously suppose—so long as one uses a little smoke now
and again to keep up the suggestion of fire; one must avoid,
meanwhile, any shaking or jarring of the hive that might
suggest an animal robber. The smoker, therefore, when not
in actual use, should be set with the nozzle upward, in which
position it will draw like a chimney, and be always ready for
the moment when the bees show signs of recovering from
the notion that they are threatened with fire.

10

Use of the Smoker.

In the ease of a stock of unknown temper, the bee-keeper
will be well advised to start by blowing a little smoke in at
the door of the hive. This startles the bees stationed near
the entrance, who will pass into the interior of the hive, and
spread the alarm among the other bees. The operator then
passes to the back of the hive, and quietly removes the roof,
This, when placed upside down beside the hive, provides a
convenient receptacle in which to place the quilts, all of which,
except the lowest, are removed entirely from the hive. The
quilt next the bees is now rolled gently back, while a little
smoke is blown over the tops of the frames, and sometimes
between them also. In most cases not a single angry bee will
be seen, since all are obsessed with the idea that it is a fire with
which they have to deal, and they will be too busy filling up
with honey to think of using their stings. In such a frame
of mind they will crawl over the bee-keeper’s hands and face
without making the slightest attempt to sting, unless he is
clumsy enough to pinch or otherwise injure them.

Some experts do not approve of blowing smoke in at the
entrance, and begin by lifting off the roof. With a good-
tempered stock, or in the height of the honey harvest, this
may be all right, but there is always the chance that the
removal of the roof may jar the hive to such an extent that a
few bees may rush out of doors in search of the disturber of
their peace. These have not encountered any smoke, and the
sight of a bee-keeper so close at hand confirms them in their
first notion that it is a robber they have to deal with. They
will fly at the intruder, menacing him with their stings, and
will go with him from hive to hive, annoying him all the time
he is in the apiary. If such angry bees are numerous, and it
is essential that the bee-keeper should proceed with his work,
he will have to apply more smoke to the bees in the hive.
These will become so alarmed that in time the panic will be
communicated to the bees on the wing. The necessity for
such extreme measures should be avoided,

11

Manipulation of the Combs.

It is not advisable to have a hive completely filled with
frames. There should be room for at least one dummy, by
the removal of which extra space can be obtained at one side.
The adjacent comb is then gently loosened—if propolised—
and moved to the centre of the available space. It can then
be lifted clear of the hive, without the necessity of brushing
the bees against their fellows on the next comb. When fully
examined, this comb is replaced against the side of the hive,
and the next is handled in the same way. When all the
combs have been duly examined, the dummy is replaced at the
other side of the hive. If at any time during the process the
bees are observed to be recovering from the alarm of fire, and
to be assembling in a threatening manner on the tops of the
combs, a little more smoke should be applied.

In accordance with the theory advanced, it will be evident
that ease and comfort in handling the bees will depend largely
upon correct construction of the hive. If roofs or lifts fit
tightly, they will have to be wrenched off, and volumes of
smoke may not then suffice to convince the bees that stings are
not the best means with which to preserve their property. The
dimensions of the inside of the hive must be just right if the
combs are to be really movable. If the bee space of a quarter
of an inch at the ends of the frames has been exceeded, the
bees may build combs joining the frames to the sides of the
hive. On the other hand, if these end-spaces are less than a
quarter of an inch, the frames may be fastened in with
propolis. In either case the combs cannot be removed without
some degree of violence, which is sure to arouse anger in the
bees. If the half-inch space at the bottom has become
reduced through shrinkage of the wood to such an extent that
the bees can no longer pass, this narrowed space may be filled
with moth-cocoons, which often fasten the bottom bar so
firmly to the floor that it is left behind when the frame is
forcibly removed.

If the frames have not been nailed through the dovetails
at the upper corners, these joints frequently give way, the
comb sinks down, and the bottom bar will be found propolised

12

to the floor. When one attempts to remove such a frame in
the ordinary way, it often happens that only the top bar is
lifted out. There is no excuse for such unwisdom when bee
firms supply special {-in. nails for making those joints secure.
Similarly, if the frames have not been properly wired, or
inferior foundation has been used, the consequent irregularity
of the combs will make it difficult to remove and replace them
without crushing bees and producing undue vibration.

Gentleness and Deliberation.

Too much stress can hardly be laid on the necessity for
slow movements when handling bees. Under favourable con-
ditions, it is perfectly possible, especially with pure Italian
bees, to go right through the combs of a hive without any
smoke—if the bee-keeper has plenty of patience, and time
is no object. The bee, like most other insects, moves normally
at a high rate of speed, and is scarcely conscious of slow
movements. The experienced bee-keeper, as if by instinct,
does everything slowly, so as to avoid attracting the attention
of the bees. This explains why a visitor to the apiary is
more liable to be stung than is the bee-keeper himself. The
visitor is alarmed when bees fly past his face, and indulges in
rapid gestures which irritate the bees, and increase the
number flying about his head. This induces further move-
ments of the visitor's hands, and these provoke further
hostility on the part of the bees. The result is that the
novice arrives at two conclusions, both of which are erroneous,
(1) that he is peculiarly obnoxious to the bees, and (2) that
the bees know the bee-master, and consciously refrain from
stinging him. The fact is that they would sting anybody
who was nervous enough to indulge in rapid movements.

Suitable Time for Manipulation.

There is sometimes real danger that the enthusiastic
beginner may manipulate his first stock of bees so excessively
that he may lose them, and it should be impressed on him that
needless handling of the bees, or opening of the hive at
unseasonable times, can only do harm. If no veil is worn,

18

and stings are to be avoided, a good deal of smoke may have
to be used, so as to demoralise the bees. Under these circum-
stances, an examination in the middle of the day, when the
bees are very busy in the fields, might result in great disturb-
ance, and consequent loss of honey. At such a time the bee-
keeper is advised to use as little smoke as possible, and to
wear a veil, in order to frustrate the attack of the one or two
bees that might become dangerous during the handling process.

‘Many advise opening the hives only in the late afternoon,
when the work of the bees will be less interfered with, since
foraging has largely ceased by that time. Others recommend
the very middle of the day, holding that at this time the
older and more irritable worker bees will be mostly in the
fields, leaving at home the younger and more docile.

The weather and the season have great effect on the
temper of the bees. Cold and wet days, and especially
showery weather, make the bees very irritable, because it
interferes with their work in the fields. In the late autumn,
when the natural flow of nectar has largely ceased, and
robbers are prowling round, the bees appear to have their
nerves on edge, and may attack anyone who approaches their
hives. At such unfavourable seasons they are much more
difficult to handle, and more smoke will have to be used.

Influence of Race and. Strain.

So-ealled “black” bees are nervous and irritable, but
easily subdued and reduced to a state of panic. If too much
smoke is used, they “boil over” the sides of the hive, pour
out at the door, and produce much disturbance and incon-
venience. They can be readily shaken off their combs, and
will run into a new hive without trouble. This characteristic
makes it easy to “drive” or “drum” a skep of black bees.

Pure-bred Italians are much more docile, and can frequently
be handled without any smoke at all. If a comb of Italians
be gently lifted out of the hive, the bees will remain at their
work, and the queen will frequently go on laying while the
comb is held in the sunshine. In similar circumstances, black
workers would be running up and down over the comb, and

14

the black queen would cease laying at once. She then usually
retreats to the bottom of the comb, where she can readily pass
over to the dark side, through the slot generally found
between the edge of the comb and the bottom bar of the
frame. Italians are not readily shaken off their combs, are
difficult to drive, and, when fully roused by unskilful haudling,
are more vicious and difficult to subdue than are blacks.

When the Italian bee is crossed with the black, a inongrel
or so-called hybrid is produced, which, like most crosses, is an
excellent worker, very vigorous and active, and resistant to
disease. They are also very prolific, but are sometimes
uncertain in temper and difficult to handle. Experienced
bee-keepers find hybrids excellent for the production of
extracted honey, but their comb honey is not so white as that
produced by blacks.

Manipulation of Bees in Skeps.

Bee-keepers are a conservative class, and many thousands
of skeps are still in use. In many cases the knowledge of the
skeppist as to what is going on inside his skeps is very
meagre indeed, but the expert should be able to handle bees
in skeps as readily as those in frame hives. The first step, as
with the modern hive, is to create an alarm of fire by blowing
smoke in at the door, and more is required than with a frame
hive, because the interference is bound to be greater. The
skep is then lifted bodily froin its board, and turned, mouth
upward, at a little distance from its stance. By this
maneuvre the operator is less likely to be stung by returning
foragers. The weight of the hive gives some indication of
the amount of stores, and, by pressing the combs a little
apart, one can readily observe sealed brood, and distinguish
drone from worker brood. Queen cells are particularly
noticeable in an upturned skep, and the bee-keeper thus gets
warning that preparations are being made for swarming.
One cannot see egys or grubs unless by cutting out a piece of
comb.

It is not easy to handle a skep furnished with ekes or
“tops,” but it can be done with a little more trouble. The

15

combs are usually fastened to the eke only to a slight extent,
and it is frequently not difficult to lift the straw skep off the
eke without breaking any of the combs. In other cases it
may be advisable to keep the eke attached to the skep. A
top may also be left in position, or it may be more convenient
to remove it temporarily.

With an old skep filled with combs, toughened by the
cocoons of several generations of larva, there is little danger
of combs breaking, especially in skeps furnished with cross-
sticks, but a skep filled with new combs pretty well filled
with honey, even when these are built round sticks, must be
handled with very great care. The danger of disaster is
greatly increased if the skep be held with the combs
horizontal.

While the skep is being examined the field bees will have
returned in large numbers, and will be crawling over the
board. These should be jerked off by striking the edge of
the board against the ground. The board is then scraped
clean, the skep replaced on it, and the whole placed back
on the old stance.

Other Methods of Subduing Bees,

Bee-keepers who are smokers frequently use tobacco and
a pipe instead of a special bee-smoker, and it must be
admitted that tobacco smoke is very effectual in creating
panic among bees. But one cannot wear a veil while
smoking, and the result is that too much smoke is frequently
used.

More generally useful than the pipe is the subduing cloth,
frequently used alone or in conjunction with a smoker. It
consists of a cloth large enough to cover the tops of the
frames and sprinkled with some strong-smelling chemical
diluted with water. Carbolic acid is frequently used, but has
the disadvantage that it is not soluble in water. Jeyes’ Fluid,
being non-corrosive and readily mixible with water, has been
used with success. It is frequently convenient to use two
cloths, unrolling the one and rolling up the other, so that only
one or two combs are uncovered at one time. Dnring the

16

robbing season this affords considerable protection to a stock
that would be very liable to attack if its combs were fully
exposed while the defenders were demoralized by smoke.

In making use of the cloth it is necessary, as with the
smoker, to intimidate the bees just inside the door of the
hive. Placing the cloth in front of the entrance for half a
minute or so will be sufficient. The yuilt next the bees is
peeled off and replaced in the same action by the subduing
cloth, and this may be accomplished so deftly that not a bee
will fly up. The bees set up a great humiing, and retreat
from the “poison gas.” In about a minute one edge of the
cloth may be rolled back and the bees handled as usual.
When not in use the cloth should be kept in a canister or in
a sponge bag in order to keep it moist as long as possible.

Effects Produced by Stings.

A bee can kill another bee only by stinging it between the
joints of its chitinous armour, and a sting so delivered is
usually rapidly fatal. A bee that has received a mortal
wound crawls out of the hive, using mainly its fore-legs,
since the others are frequently paralysed at an early stage.
The abdomen of such a bee has a typically twisted look, which
persists after death, and enables the bee-keeper to tell by
examination of the dead bees when fighting has been going
on at a hive.

Applied to the human skin a sting produces a sharp pain,
followed later by characteristic swelling. We cannot promise
that the bee-keeper will never be stung, but we can assure
him that in most cases he will acquire “immunity” after
receiving a certain number of stings. The pain of the sting
at the inoment of infliction will still be felt, but this will not
persist for nore than a second or two, and there will be no
swelling or other after effect. This immunity is almost
certainly due to the development in the blood of the bee-
keeper of an antitoxin which neutralizes the sting-poison.

As indicated in the Bulletin for Prospective Bee-keepers,
there are a very few people to whom even a single sting
coutinues to be a serious matter. In such cases, a sting

17

received on any part of the body produces swelling of the
lips and face, a choking sensation in the throat, and frequently
blisters or red spots all over the skin. Those who are affected
in this way should not try to keep bees. Beginners should
avoid getting their first stings on the face, because such stings
give considerable pain and sometimes cause quite remarkable
swelling. Both eyes may be completely closed by a single
sting. On the hands bee stings are much less serious and
quite as effective so far as acquiring immunity is concerned.

Structure and Action of the Sting.

The sting of the worker bee consists essentially of two
barbed darts working inside a brown sheath, which is
frequently, but erroneously, believed to be the sting proper.
These darts get so firmly fixed in the human skin that the
bee as a rule is unable to free itself except by tearing the
sting and its appurtenances away from its body. An
examination of the sting thus detached will show the brown
sheath with its hollow point embedded in the skin, the white
mauscles which work the darts, and a little bladder containing
a crystal-clear fluid with a characteristic aromatic odour.
This is the sting-poison which is pumped into the wound by
the alternate action of the darts, and which is responsible for
the pain and the swelling. The diffusion of the odour of
bee-venom incites other bees to sting. For this reason one
should avoid killing a bee if at all possible, for the bee am
extremis always thrusts forth its sting, thus producing the
characteristic odour. Apart from this effect, the killing of a
bee causes no concern to her companions. If any honey is
exposed in the crushed body of the slain bee the others near
at hand will calmly insert their trunks and lap it up so that
nothing may be lost. On account of the irritating effect of
this odour a bee-keeper, who has received stings in his coat
or veil, may find it advisable to exchange these for others or to
wait till the sting-poison has dried up and become odourless.

For some minutes at least after the bee has freed itself,
the white muscles of the detached sting will be observed to
twitch rythmically, and close observation will prove that the

18

sting is visibly digging itself deeper into the skin, while
more and more poison is being poured into the wound. This
indicates that the sting should be removed with all speed,
and it must not be simply plucked out by finger and thumb,
for this would squeeze the poison-sac and drive more venom
into the wound, The finger-nail or the blade of a knife
should be placed against the point of the brown sheath just
where it enters the skin, and the sting should be scraped out
without any pressure being applied to the poison-sac. In
order that stings near the eyes should be quickly removed
it is advisable that the bee-keeper should carry a tiny pocket
mirror.

A whole host of specitics have been recommended for
bee-stings, each being guaranteed to allay the pain
immediately and to prevent all swelling. Alkalis, such as
aminonia, are frequently recommended, on the ground that
bee venom is a weak solution of formic acid. The fact is
that sting-poison is just as effectual after its acidity has been
completely neutraljzed, and, in any case, the microscopically
small aperture made by the sting has completely closed long
before anything can be applied. The active principle in the
poison is probably a very subtle substance, and the only
efficient antidote is that prepared in Nature’s secret
laboratory, situated in this case within the body of the
bee-keeper that has been frequently stung.

Conclusion.

An attempt has been made to explain to the beginner
the methods used by the expert in handling bees. In most
cases the principles underlying the practice have been
discussed at some length so that the bee-keeper may use the
various methods with intelligence. It is not claimed that
perusal of a’bulletin is the quickest or best way of learning
to handle bees, but a study of the problem beforehand, with
an occasional revisal as experience is acquired, should be of
considerable service,

It is essential, however, that the novice should have an
opportunity of seeing bees handled by a competent bee-

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master. Every summer the Lecturer in Bee-keeping conducts
a number of public demonstrations at various centres
throughout the College area, and bee-keepers are always
welcome to visit the College Apiaries maintained at
Craibstone and in Aberdeen City. Beginners, who may be
unable to avail themselves of such opportunities, should
apply to a competent bee-keeper for a lesson or two. In
the selection of such a demonstrator the novice should not
too hastily assume that one who has kept bees for some time
must necessarily know how to manage them. Many who
have “kept” bees for years are quite unable to handle them,
and may be almost entirely ignorant of what is contained
in the brood chambers of their own hives. On the other
hand, we have in the north of Scotland a large number of
bee-keepers who have little to learn in the art of handling
bees, and any one of these would be delighted to vive a
private demonstration to a beginner. Once the initial difh-
culties have been got over, the budding expert will make very
rapid progress if he is willing to assist others not so far
advanced. He will thus profit by the mistakes of others as
well as by his own, and will crowd into one season the
experience that might otherwise have been spread over several
years.

Cornell University Library

SF 523.4547

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