The combats I have here described to you took place between virgin queens; but M. Huber found that those which had been impregnated were actuated by the same animosity, and attacked royal cells with a fury equally destructive. When another fertile queen had been introduced into this hive, a singular scene ensued, which proves how well aware the workers are that they cannot prosper with two sovereigns. Soon after she was introduced, a circle of bees was formed round the stranger, not to compliment her on her arrival, or pay her the usual homage, but to confine her, and prevent her escape; for they insensibly agglomerated themselves in such numbers round her, and hemmed her in so closely, that in about a minute she was completely a prisoner. While this was transacting, what was equally remarkable, other workers assembled in clusters round the legitimate queen, and impeded all her motions; so that soon she was not more at liberty than the intruder. It seemed as if the bees foresaw the combat that was to ensue between the two rivals, and were impatient for the event; for they only confined them when they appeared to avoid each other. To witness the homage, respect and love thatthey usually manifest to their lawful ruler; the anxiety concerning her which they often exhibit: and the distrust which for a time (as we shall see hereafter) they usually show towards strange ones even when deprived of their own; one would expect that, rather than permit such a perilous combat, they would unite in the defence of their sovereign, and cause the interloper to perish under the stroke of their fatal stings. But no; the contest for empire must be between the rival candidates: no worker must interfere in any other way than that which I have described; no contending armies must fight the battles of their sovereigns, for the law of succession seems to be "detur fortiori." But to return to my narrative. The legitimate queen appearing inclined to move towards that part of the comb on which her rival was stationed, the bees immediately began to retire from the space that intervened between them, so that there was soon a clear arena for the combat. When they could discern each other, the rightful queen rushing furiously upon the pretender, seized her with her jaws near the root of the wings, and, after fixing her without power of motion against the comb, with one stroke of her sting dispatched her. If ever-so-many queens are introduced into a hive, all but one will perish, and that one will have won the throne by her own unassisted valour and strength. Sometimes a strange queen attempts of herself to enter a hive: in this case the workers, who are upon the watch and who examine every thing that presents itself, immediately seize her with their jaws by the legs or wings, and hem her in so straitly with a clustered circle of guards, turning their heads on all sides towards her, that it is impossible for her to penetrate within. If they retainher prisoner too long, she dies either from the want of food or air, but never from their stings[165].
Here you may perhaps feel curious to know, supposing the reigning queen to die or be killed, and the bees to have discovered their loss, whether they would then receive a foreigner that offers herself to them or is introduced amongst them. Reaumur says they would do this immediately[166]; but Huber, who had better means of observing them, and studied them with more undivided attention, affirms that this will not be the case, unless twenty-four hours have elapsed since the death of the old queen. Previously to this period, as if they were absorbed by grief at their calamity, or indulged a fond hope of her revival, an intruder would be treated exactly as I have described. But when the period just mentioned is passed, they will receive any queen that is presented to them with the customary homage, and she may occupy the vacant throne[167].
I must now beg you to attend to what takes place in the second case that I mentioned, where queens are wanted to lead forth swarms. Here you will, with reason, suppose that nature has instilled some instinct into the bees, by which these necessary individuals are rescued from the fury of the reigning sovereign.
Did the old queen of the hive remain in it till the young ones were ready to come forth, her instinctive jealousy would lead her to attack them all as successively produced; and being so much older and stronger, the probability is that she would destroy them; in which case there could be no swarms, and the race would perish. But this is wisely prevented by a circumstancewhich invariably takes place—that the first swarm is conducted by this queen, and not by a newly disclosed one, as Reaumur and others have supposed. Previously to her departure, after her great laying of male eggs in the month of May, she oviposits in the royal cells when about three or four lines in length, which the workers have in the mean time constructed. These however are not all furnished in one day,—a most essential provision, in consequence of which the queens come forth successively, in order to lead successive swarms. There is something singular in the manner in which the workers treat the young queens that are to lead the swarms. After the cells are covered in, one of their first employments is to remove here and there a portion of the wax from their surface, so as to render it unequal; and immediately before the last metamorphosis takes place, the walls are so thin that all the motions of the inclosed pupa are perceptible through them. On the seventh day the part covering the head and trunk of the young female, if I may so speak, is almost entirely unwaxed. This operation of the bees facilitates her exit, and probably renders the evaporation of the superabundant fluids of the body of the pupa more easy.
You will conclude, perhaps, when all things are thus prepared for the coming forth of the inclosed female, that she will quit her cell at the regular period, which is seven days:—but you would be mistaken. Were she indeed permitted to pursue her own inclinations, this would be the case: but here the bees show how much they are guided in their instinct by circumstances and the wants of their society; for did the new queen leave her cell, she would immediately attack and destroy thosein the other cells; a proceeding which they permit, as I have before stated, when they only want a successor to a defunct or a lost sovereign. As soon therefore as the workers perceive—which the transparency of the cell permits them to do—that the young queen has cut circularly through her cocoon, they immediately solder the cleft up with some particles of wax, and so keep her a prisoner against her will. Upon this, as if to complain of such treatment, she emits a distinct sound, which excites no pity in the breasts of her subjects, who detain her a prisoner two days longer than nature has assigned for her confinement. In the interim, she sometimes thrusts her tongue through the cleft she has made, drawing it in and out till she is noticed by the workers, to make them understand that she is in want of food. Upon perceiving this they give her honey, till her hunger being satisfied she draws her tongue back—upon which they stop the orifice with wax[168].
You may think it perhaps extraordinary that the workers should thus endeavour to retard the appearance of their young females beyond its natural limit; but when I explain to you the reason for this seeming incongruity of instinct, you will adore the wisdom that implanted it. Were a queen permitted to leave her cell as soon as the natural term for it arrived, it would require some time to fit her for flight, and to lead forth a swarm; during which interval a troublesome task would be imposed upon the workers, who must constantly detain her a prisoner to prevent her from destroying her rivals, which would require the labours and attention of a much larger number than are necessary to keep her confined to hercell. On this account they never suffer her to come forth till she is perfectly fit to take her flight. When at length she is permitted to do this, if she approaches the other royal cells, the workers on guard seem greatly irritated against her, and pull and bite and chase her away; and she enjoys tranquillity only while she keeps at a distance from them. As her instinct is constantly urging her to attack them, this proceeding is frequently repeated. Sometimes standing in a particular and commanding attitude, she utters that authoritative sound which so much affects the bees; they then all hang down their heads and remain motionless; but as soon as it ceases, they resume their opposition. At last she becomes violently agitated, and communicating her agitation to others, the confusion more and more increases, till a swarm leaves the hive, which she either precedes or follows. In the same manner the other young queens are treated while there are swarms to go forth; but when the hive is sufficiently thinned, and it becomes troublesome to guard them in the manner here described, they come forth unnoticed, and fight unimpeded till one alone remains to fill the deserted throne of the parent hive.—You see here the reason why the eggs that produce these queens are not laid at the same time, but after some interval, that they may come forth successively. For did they all make their appearance together, it would be a much more laborious and difficult task to keep them from destroying each other.
When the bees thus delay the entrance of the young queens into their world, they invariably let out the oldest first; and they probably know their progress to maturity by the emission of the sound lately mentioned.The accurate Huber took the trouble to mark all the royal cells in a hive as soon as the workers had covered them in, and he found that they were all liberated according to seniority. Those first covered first emit the sound, and so on successively; whence he conjectures that this is the sign by which the workers discover their age. As their captivity, however, is sometimes prolonged to eight or ten days, this circumstance in that time may be forgotten. In this case he supposes that their tones grow stronger as they grow older, by which the workers may be enabled to distinguish them. It is remarkable that no guard is placed round the mute queens bred according to the Lusatian method, which, when the time for their appearance is come, are not detained in captivity a single moment; but, as you have heard, are left to fight, conquer, or die[169].
You must not think, however, from what I have been saying, that the old queen never destroys the young ones previously to her leading forth the earliest swarm. She is allowed the most uncontrolled liberty of action; and if she chooses to approach and destroy the royal cells, her subjects do not oppose her. It sometimes happens, when unfavourable weather retards the first swarm, that all the royal progeny perishes by the sting of their mother, and then no swarm takes place. It is to be observed that she never attacks a royal cell till its inhabitant is ready to assume the pupa, therefore much will depend upon their age. When they arrive at this state, her horror of these cells, and aversion to them, are extreme: she attacks, perhaps, and destroys several; but finding it too laborious, for they are often numerous, to destroythe whole, the same agitation is caused in her as if she were forcibly prevented, and she becomes disposed to depart, rather than remain in the midst of her rivals, though her own offspring.
But though the bees, in one of these cases, appear such unconcerned spectators of the destruction of royal personages, or rather, the applauders and inciters of the bloody fact; and in the other show little respect to them, put such a restraint upon their persons, and manifest such disregard to their wishes; yet when they are once acknowledged as governors of the hive, and leaders of the colony, their instinct assumes a new and wonderful direction. From this moment they become the "publica cura," the objects of constant and universal attention; and wherever they go, are greeted by a homage which evinces the entire devotion of their subjects. You seemed amused and interested in no slight degree by what I related in a former letter of the marked respect paid by the ants to their females[170]: but this will bear no comparison with that shown by the inhabitants of the hive to their queen. She appears to be the very soul of all their actions, and the centre of their instincts. When they are deprived of her, or of the means of replacing her, they lose all their activity, and pursue no longer their daily labours. In vain the flowers tempt them with their nectar and ambrosial dust: they collect neither; they elaborate no wax, and build no cells; they scarcely seem to exist; and, indeed, would soon perish, were not the means of restoring their monarch put within their reach. But, if a small piece of comb containing the brood grubs of workers be given to them, all seemendued with new life: their instincts revive; they immediately set about building royal cells; they feed with their appropriate food the grubs they have selected, and every thing proceeds in the usual routine. Virgil has described this attachment of the bees to their sovereign with great truth and spirit in the following lines:
"Lydian nor Mede so much his king adores,Nor those on Nilus' or Hydaspes' shores:The state united stands while he remains,But should he fall, what dire confusion reigns!Their waxen combs and honey, late their joy,With grief and rage distracted, they destroy:He guards the works, with awe they him surround,And crowd about him with triumphant sound;Him frequent on their duteous shoulders bear,Bleed, fall, and die for him in glorious war."
"Lydian nor Mede so much his king adores,Nor those on Nilus' or Hydaspes' shores:The state united stands while he remains,But should he fall, what dire confusion reigns!Their waxen combs and honey, late their joy,With grief and rage distracted, they destroy:He guards the works, with awe they him surround,And crowd about him with triumphant sound;Him frequent on their duteous shoulders bear,Bleed, fall, and die for him in glorious war."
M. Huber thus describes the consequences of the loss of a queen.—When the queen is removed from a hive, at first the bees seem not to perceive it, their order and tranquillity not being disturbed, and their labours proceeding as usual. About an hour after her departure, inquietude begins to manifest itself amongst them; the care of the young brood no longer engages their attention, and they run here and there, as if in great agitation. This agitation, however, is at first confined to a small portion of the community. The bees that are first sensible of their loss meet with others, they mutually cross their antennæ, and strike them lightly. By this action they appear to communicate the sad intelligence to those who receive the blow, who in their turn impart it in the same way to others. Disorder and confusion increase rapidly, till the whole population is in a tumult.Then the workers may be seen running over the combs, and against each other; impetuously rushing to the entrance and quitting the hive; from thence they spread themselves all around, they re-enter, and go out again and again. The hum in the hive becomes very loud, and increases the tumult, which lasts two or three hours, rarely four or five: they then return and resume their wonted care of the young; and if the hive be visited twenty-four hours after the departure of the queen, it will be seen that they have taken steps to repair their loss by filling some of the cells with a larger quantity of jelly than is the usual portion of common larvæ; which however is intended, it seems, not for the food of the inhabitant, but for a cushion to elevate it, since it is found unconsumed in the cell when the grub has descended into the pyramidal habitation afterwards prepared for it[171].
If, after being removed, their old queen is restored to the hive, they instantly recognise her, and pay her the usual attentions; but if a strange one be introduced within the first twelve hours after the old one is lost, she is kept a close prisoner till she perishes: if twenty-four hours, as I have before hinted, have expired since they lost their queen, and you introduce a new one, at the moment you set this stranger upon a comb, the workers that are near her first touch her with their antennæ, and then pass their proboscis over all parts of her body: place is next given to others, who salute her in the same manner:—all then beat their wings at the same time, and range themselves in a circle round their new sovereign.A kind of agitation is now communicated to the whole surface of the comb, which brings all the bees upon it to see what is going forward. This may be called the first shout of the applauding multitude to welcome the arrival of their new sovereign. The circle of courtiers increases, they vibrate their wings and bodies, but without tumult, as if their sensations were very agreeable. When she begins to move, the circle opens to let her pass, and all follow her steps. She is received with similar demonstrations of loyalty in the other parts of the hive, is soon acknowledged queen by all, and begins to lay eggs.—Reaumur put some bees into a hive without their queen, and then introduced to them one that he had taken when half perished with cold, and kept in a box, in which she had covered herself with powder. The bees immediately owned her for their queen, employed themselves very anxiously in cleaning her and warming her, sometimes turning her upon her back for this purpose—and then began to construct cells in their new habitation[172]. Even when the bees have got young brood, have built or are building royal cells, and are engaged in feeding these hopes of their hive, knowing that their great aim is already accomplished, they cease all these employments when this intruder comes amongst them.
With regard to the ordinary attention and homage that they pay to their sovereigns—the bees do more than respect their queen, says Reaumur, they are constantly on the watch to make themselves useful to her, and to render her every kind office; they are for ever offeringher honey; they lick her with their proboscis, and whereever she goes she has a court to attend upon her[173]. It may here be observed, that the stimulant which excites the bees to these acts of homage is the pregnant state of their queen, and her fitness to maintain the population of the hive; all they do being with a view to the public good: for while she remains a virgin she is treated with the utmost indifference, which is exchanged, as soon as impregnation has taken place, for the above marks of attachment[174].
The instinct of the bees, however, does not always enable them to distinguish a partially fertile queen from one that is universally so. What I mean is this—A queen, whose impregnation is retarded beyond the twenty-eighth day of her whole existence, lays only male eggs, which are of no use whatever to the community, unless they are at the same time provided with a sufficient supply of workers. Yet even a queen of this description, and sometimes one that is entirely sterile, is treated by them with the same respect and homage as a fertile one. This seems to evince an amiable feeling in these creatures, attachment to the person as well as to the functions of the sovereign; which is further manifested by their unwillingness at first to receive a new sovereign upon the loss or death of their old one. Nay, this respect is sometimes shown to the carcase of a defunct queen, which Huber assures us he has seen bees treat with the same attention that they had shown her when alive; for a long time preferring her inanimate corpseto the fertile queens that he offered to them[175]. He attributes this to some agreeable sensation which they experience from their queens, independent of their fecundity. But since virgin queens, as we have seen, do not excite it, more probably it is a remnant of their former attachment, first excited by her fecundity, and afterwards strengthened and continued by habit.
I may here introduce an interesting anecdote related by Reaumur, which strongly marks the attachment of bees to their queen when apparently lifeless. He took one out of the water quite motionless, and seemingly dead, which had lost part of one of its legs. Bringing it home, he placed it amongst some workers that he had found in the same situation, most of which he had revived by means of warmth; some however still being in as bad a state as the poor queen. No sooner did these revived workers perceive the latter in this wretched condition, than they appeared to compassionate her case, and did not cease to lick her with their tongues till she showed signs of returning animation; which the bees no sooner perceived, than they set up a general hum, as if for joy at the happy event. All this time they paid no attention to the workers who were in the same miserable state[176].
On a former occasion I have mentioned the laying of the eggs by the queen[177]; but as I did not then at all enlarge upon it, I shall now explain the process more in detail. In a subsequent letter I shall notice, what has so much puzzled learned apiarists—her fecundation: which is now ascertained beyond contradiction, from theobservations of M. Huber, to take place in the open air, and to be followed by the death of the unfortunate male[178]. It is to be recollected that, from September to April, generally speaking, there are no males in the hives; yet during this period the queen often oviposits: a former fecundation, therefore, must fertilize all the eggs laid in this interval. The impregnation, in order to ensure complete fertility, must not be too long retarded: for, as I before observed, if this be delayed beyond the twenty-eighth day of her existence, her ovaries become so vitiated, that she can no longer lay eggs that will produce workers, but can only furnish the hive with a male population; which, however high a privilege it may be accounted amongst men, is the reverse of it amongst the bees. When this is the case, the abdomen of the queen becomes so enlarged that she is no longer able to fly[179]; and, what is remarkable, she loses that instinctive animosity which stimulates the fertile ones to attack their rivals[180]. Thus she seems to own that she is not equal to the duties of her station, and can tolerate another to discharge them in her room. When we consider how much virgin queens are slighted by their subjects, we may suppose that nature urges them to take the opportunity of the first warm day, when the males fly forth, to pair with one of them.
When fecundation has not been retarded, forty-six hours after it has taken place, the queen begins to lay eggs that will produce workers, and continues for the subsequent eleven months, more or less, to lay them solely; and it is only after this period that an uninterrupted laying of male eggs commences.—But when ithas been retarded, after the same number of hours she begins laying male eggs, and continues to produce these alone during her whole life. From hence it should seem to follow, that the former kind of eggs are first in the oviducts, and, if impregnation be not effected within a given time, that all the worker embryos perish. Yet how this can take place with respect to those that in a fertile queen should succeed the laying of male eggs, or be produced in the second year of her life, seems difficult to conceive;—or how the male embryos escape this fate, which destroys all the female, both those that are to precede them and those that are to follow them. Is it impossible that the sex of the embryo may be determined by the period at which theaura seminalisvivifies it, and by the state of the ovary at that time? In one state of the ovary this principle may cause the embryos to become workers, in another males. And something of this kind perhaps may be the cause of hermaphrodites in other animals. But this I give merely as conjecture[181]: the truth seems enveloped in mystery that we cannot yet penetrate. Huber is of opinion that a single impregnation fertilizes all the eggs that a queen will produce during her whole life, which is sometimes more than two years[182]. But of this enough.
I said that forty-six hours after impregnation the queen begins laying worker eggs;—this is not, however,invariable. When her impregnation takes place late in the year, she does not begin laying till the following spring. Schirach asserts, that in one season a single female will lay from 70,000 to 100,000 eggs[183]. Reaumur says, that upon an average she lays about two hundred in a day, a moderate swarm consisting of 12,000, which are laid in two months; and Huber, that she lays above a hundred. All these statements, the observations being made in different climates, and perhaps under different circumstances, may be true. The laying of worker eggs begins in February, sometimes so early as January[184]. After this, in the spring, the great laying of male eggs commences, lasting thirty days; in which time about 2000 of these eggs are laid. Another laying of them, but less considerable, takes place in autumn. In the season of oviposition, the queen may be discerned traversing the combs in all directions with a slow step, and seeking for cells proper to receive her eggs. As she walks she keeps her head inclined, and seems to examine, one by one, all the cells she meets with. When she finds one to her purpose, she immediately gives to her abdomen the curve necessary to enable it to reach the orifice of the cell, and to introduce it within it. The eggs are set in the angle of the pyramidal bottom of the cell, or in one of the hollows formed by the conflux of the sides of the rhombs, and, being besmeared with a kind of gluten, stand upright. If, however, it be a female that lays only male eggs, they are deposited upon the lowest of the sides of the cell, as she is unable to reach the bottom[185].
While our prolific lady is engaged in this employment,her court consists of from four to twelve attendants, which are disposed nearly in a circle, with their heads turned towards her. After laying from two to six eggs, she remains still, reposing for eight or nine minutes. During this interval the bees in her train redouble their attentions, licking her fondly with their tongues. Generally speaking, she lays only one egg in a cell; but when she is pressed, and there are not cells enough, from two to four have been found in one. In this case, as if they were aware of the consequences, the provident workers remove all but one. From an experiment of Huber's, it appears that the instinct of the queen invariably directs her to deposit worker eggs in worker cells; for when he confined one, during her course of laying worker eggs, where she could only come at male cells, she refused to oviposit in them; and trying in vain to make her escape, they at length dropped from her; upon which the workers devoured them. Retarded queens, however, lose this instinct, and often, though they lay only male eggs, oviposit in worker cells and even in royal ones. In this latter case the workers themselves act as if they suffered in their instinct from the imperfect state of their queen; for they feed these male larvæ with royal jelly, and treat them as they would a real queen. Though male eggs deposited in worker cells produce small males, their education in a royal cell with "royal dainties" adds nothing to their ordinary dimensions[186].
Theswarmingof bees is a very curious and interesting subject, to which, since a female is thesine quâ nonon this occasion, I may very properly call your attention here. You will recollect that I said something upon the principle of emigrations, when I was amusingyou with the history of ants[187]; but the object with them seems to be merely a change of station for one more convenient or less exposed to injury, and not to diminish a superabundant population. Whereas in the societies of the hive-bee, the latter is the general cause of emigrations, which invariably take place every year, if their numbers require it; if not, when the male eggs are laid, no royal cells are constructed, and no swarm is led forth. What might be the case with ants, were they confined to hives, we cannot say. Formicaries in general are capable of indefinite enlargement, therefore want of room does not cause emigration;—but bees being confined to a given space, which they possess not the means of enlarging,—to avoid the ill effects resulting from being too much crowded, when their population exceeds a certain limit, they must necessarily emigrate. Sometimes—for instance, when wasps have got into a hive—the bees will leave it, in order to fly from an inconvenience or enemy which they cannot otherwise avoid; but it does not very often happen that they wholly desert a hive.
Apiarists tell us that, in this country, the best season for swarming is from the middle of May to the middle of June; but swarms sometimes occur so early as the beginning of April, and as late as the middle of August[188]. The first swarm, as I before observed, is led by the reigning queen, and takes place when she is so much reduced in size, in consequence of the number of eggs she has laid, (for previously to oviposition her gravid body is so heavy that she can scarcely drag it along,)as to enable her to fly with ease. The most indubitable sign that a hive is preparing to swarm,—so says Reaumur,—is when on a sunny morning, the weather being favourable to their labours, few bees go out of a hive, from which on the preceding day they had issued in great numbers, and little pollen is collected. This circumstance, he observes, must be very embarrassing to one who attempts to explain all their proceedings upon principles purely mechanical. Does it not prove, he asks, that all the inhabitants of a hive, or almost all, are aware of a project that will not be put in execution before noon, or some hours later? For why should bees, who worked the day before with so much activity, cease their labours in a habitation which they are to quit at noon, were they not aware that they should soon abandon it[189]? The appearance of the males, and the clustering of the population at the mouth of the hive, (though this last is less to be relied upon, being often occasioned by extreme heat,) are also indications of the approach of this event. A good deal depends, however, on the warmth of the atmosphere and the state of the weather either to accelerate or retard it. Another sign is a general hum in the evening, which is continued even during the night,—all seems to be in a bustle, the greatest restlessness agitates the bees. Sometimes to hear this hum the ear must be placed close to the hive, when clear and sharp sounds may be distinguished, which appear to be produced by the vibration of the wings of a single bee. This hum by some has been gravely construed into an harangue of the queen toanimate her subjects to the great undertaking which she now meditates—the founding of a new empire. There sometimes seem to happen suddenly amongst them, says Reaumur, events which put all the bees in motion, for which no account can be given. If you observe a hive with attention, you may often remain a long time and hear only a slight murmur, and then, all in a moment, a sonorous hum will be excited, and the workers, as if seized with a panic terror, may be seen quitting their various labours, and running off in different directions. At these moments if a young queen goes out, she will be followed by a numerous troop.
Huber has given a very lively and interesting account of the interior proceedings of the hive on this occasion. The queen, as soon as she began to exhibit signs of agitation, no longer laid her eggs with order as before, but irregularly, as if she did not know what she was about. She ran over the bees in her way; they in their turn struck her with their antennæ, and mounted upon her back; none offered her honey, but she helped herself to it from the cells in her path. The usual homage of a court attending round her was no longer paid. Those however that were excited by her motions followed her, rousing such as were still tranquil upon the combs. She soon had traversed the whole hive, when the agitation became general. The workers, now no longer attentive to the young brood, ran about in all directions; even those that returned from foraging, before the agitation was at its height, no sooner entered the hive than they participated in these tumultuous movements, and, neglecting to free themselves from the masses of pollen on their hind legs, ran wildly about.At length there was a general rush to the outlets of the hive, which the queen accompanied, and the swarm took place[190].
It is to be observed that this agitation, excited by the queen, increases the customary heat of the hive to a very high temperature, which the action of the sun augments till it becomes intolerable, and which often causes the bees accumulated near the mouth of the hive to perspire so copiously, that those near the bottom, who support the weight of the rest, appear drenched with the moisture. This intolerable heat determines the most irresolute to leave the hive. Immediately before the swarming, a louder hum than usual is heard, many bees take flight, and, if the queen be at their head, or soon follows them, in a moment the rest rise in crowds after her into the air, and the element is filled with bees as thick as the falling snow. The queen at first does not alight upon the branch on which the swarm fixes; but as soon as a group is formed and clustered, she joins it: after this it thickens more and more, all the bees that are in the air hastening to their companions and their queen, so as to form a living mass of animals supporting themselves upon each by the claws of their feet. Thus they sometimes are so concatenated, each bee suspending its legs to those of another, as to form living chaplets[191].After this they soon become tranquil, and none are seen in the air. Before they are housed they often begin to construct a little comb on the branch on which they alight[192]. Sometimes it happens that two queens go out with the same swarm; and the result is, that the swarm at first divides into two bodies, one under each leader; but as one of these groups is generally much less numerous than the other, the smallest at last joins the largest, accompanied by the queen to whom they had attached themselves; and, when they are hived, this unfortunate candidate for empire falls sooner or later a victim to the jealousy of her rival. Till this great question is decided, the bees do not settle to their usual labours.[192]If no queen goes out with a swarm, they return to the hive from whence they came.
As in regular monarchies, so in this of the bees, the first-born is probably the fortunate candidate for the throne. She is usually the most active and vigorous; the most able to take flight; and in the best condition to lay eggs. Though the queen that is victorious, and mounts the throne, is not, as Virgil asserts, resplendent with gold and purple, and her rival hideous, slothful and unwieldy[193], yet some differences are observable; the successful candidate is usually redder and larger than the others; these last, upon dissection, appear to have no eggs ready for laying, while the former, which is a powerful recommendation, is usually full of them. Eggsare commonly found in the cells twenty-four hours after swarming, or at the latest two or three days.
You may think, perhaps, that the bees which emigrate from the parent hive are the youth of the colony; but this is not the case, for bees of all ages unite to form the swarms. The numbers of which they consist vary much. Reaumur calls 12,000 a moderate swarm; and he mentions one which amounted to more than three times that number (40,000). A swarm seldom or never takes place except when the sun shines and the air is calm. Sometimes, when every thing seems to prognosticate swarming, a cloud passing over the sun calms the agitation; and afterwards, upon his shining forth again, the tumult is renewed, keeps augmenting, and the swarm departs[194]. On this account the confinement of the queens, before related, is observed to be more protracted in bad weather.
The longest interval between the swarms is from seven to nine days, which usually is the space that intervenes between the first and the second. The next flies sooner, and the last sometimes departs the day after that which preceded it. Fifteen or eighteen days, in favourable weather, are usually sufficient for throwing the four swarms. The old queen, when she takes flight with the first swarm, leaves plenty of brood in the cells, which soon renew the population[195].
It is not without example, though it rarely happens,that a swarm conducted by the old queen increases so much in the space of three weeks as to send forth a new colony. Being already impregnated, she is in a condition to oviposit as soon as there are cells ready to receive her eggs: and an all-wise Providence has so ordered it, that at this time she lays only such as produce workers. And it is the first employment of her subjects to construct cells for this purpose[196]. The young queens that conduct the secondary swarms usually pair the day after they are settled in their new abode; when the indifference with which their subjects have hitherto treated them is exchanged for the usual respect and homage.
We may suppose that one motive with the bees for following the old queen, is their respect for her; but the reasons that induce them to follow the virgin queens, to whom they not only appear to manifest no attachment, but rather the reverse, seem less easy to be assigned. Probably the high temperature of the hive during these times of tumultuous agitation may be the principal cause that operates upon them. In a populous hive the thermometer commonly stands between 92° and 97°; but during the tumult that precedes swarming it rises above 104°, a heat intolerable to these animals[197]. This is M. Huber's opinion. Yet still, though a high temperature will well account for the departure of the swarm from the hive with a virgin queen, if there were really no attachment, (as he appears to think,) is it not extraordinary, that when this cause no longer operates upon them, they should agglomerate about her, as they always do, be unsettled and agitated without her, and quiet when she is with them? Is it not reasonable to supposethat the instinct which teaches them what is necessary for the preservation of their society,—at the same time that it shows them that without a queen that society cannot be preserved,—impells them in every case to the mode of treating her which will most effectually influence her conduct, and give it that direction which is most beneficial to the community?
Yet, with respect to the treatment of queens, instinct does not invariably direct the bees to this end. There are certain exceptions, produced perhaps by artificial or casual occurrences, in which it seems to deviate, yet as we should call it amiably, from the rule of the public advantage. Retarded queens, which, as I have observed, lay male eggs only, deposit them in all cells indifferently, even in royal ones. These last are treated by the workers as if they were actually to become queens. Here their instinct seems defective:—it appears unaccountable that they should know these eggs, as they do, when deposited in workers cells, and give them a convex covering when about to assume the pupa; unless, perhaps, the size of the larva directs them in this case.
The amputation of one of the antennæ of a queen bee appears not to affect her perceptibly; but cutting off both these important organs produces a very striking derangement of all her proceedings—She seems in a species of delirium, and deprived of all her instincts; every thing is done at random; yet the respect and homage of the workers towards her, though they are received by her with indifference, continue undiminished. If another in the same condition be put in the hive, the bees do not appear to discover the difference, and treat them both alike: but if a perfect one be introduced, eventhough fertile, they seize her, keep her in confinement, and treat her very unhandsomely. One may conjecture from this circumstance, that it is by those wonderful organs, the antennæ, that the bees know their own queen. If two mutilated queens meet, they show not the slightest symptom of resentment. While one of these continues in the hive, the workers never think of choosing another; but if she leaves it, they do not accompany her, probably because the heat is not increased by her putting them into the preparatory agitation[198].
I am, &c.
Having given you a history sufficiently ample of the queen or female bee, I shall next add some account of thedroneormale bee; but this will not detain you long, since, "to be born and die" is nearly the sum total of their story. Much abuse, from the earliest times, has been lavished upon this description of the inhabitants of the hive, and their indolence and gluttony have become proverbial.—Indeed, at first sight, it seems extraordinary that seven or eight hundred individuals should be supported at the public expense, and to common appearance do nothing all the while that may be thought to earn their living. But the more we look into nature, the more we discover the truth of that common axiom,—that nothing is made in vain.—Creative Wisdom cannot be caught at fault. Therefore, where we do not at present perceive the reasons of things, instead of cavilling at what we do not understand, we ought to adore in silence, and wait patiently till the veil is removed which, in any particular instance, conceals its final cause from our sight. The mysteries of nature are gradually opened to us, one truth making way for the discovery ofanother: but still there will always be in nature, as well as in revelation, even in those things that fall under our daily observation, mysteries to exercise our faith and humility: so that we may always reply to the caviller,—"Thine own things and those that are grown up with thee hast thou not known; how then shall thy vessel comprehend the way of the Highest?"
Various have been the conjectures of naturalists, even in very recent times, with respect to the fertilization of the eggs of the bee. Some have supposed,—and the number of males seemed to countenance the supposition,—that this was effected after they were deposited in the cells. Of this opinion Maraldi seems to have been the author, and it was adopted by Mr. Debraw of Cambridge, who asserts that he has seen the smaller males (those that are occasionally produced in cells usually appropriated to workers) introduce their abdomen into cells containing eggs, and fertilize them; and that the eggs so treated proved fertile, while others that were not remained sterile. The common or large drones, which form the bulk of the male population of the hive, could not be generally destined to this office, since their abdomen, on account of its size, could only be introduced into male and royal cells. Bonnet, however, saw some motions of one of these drones, which, while it passed by those that were empty, appeared to strike with its abdomen the mouth of the cells containing eggs[199]. Swammerdam thought that the female was impregnated by effluvia which issued from the male[200]. Reaumur, from some proceedings that he witnessed, was convinced thatimpregnation took place according to the usual law of nature, and, as he supposed, within the hive[201]. This opinion Huber has confirmed by indubitable proofs; but he further discovered that these animals pair abroad, in the air, during the flight of the queen: a fact which renders a large number of males necessary, to ensure her impregnation in due time to lay eggs that will produce workers[202]. Huber also observed those appearances which induced Debraw to adopt the opinion I mentioned just now, and was at first disposed to think them real; but afterwards, upon a nearer inspection, he discovered that it was an illusion caused by the reflection of the rays of light[203].
In fine weather the drones, during the warmest part of the day, take their flights; and it is then that they pair with the queen in mid air, the result being invariably the death of the drone. No one has yet discovered, unless the proceedings observed by Debraw and Bonnet may be so interpreted, that when in the hive they take any share in the business of it, their great employment within doors being to eat. Their life however is of very short duration, the eggs that produce drones being laid in the course of April and May, and their destruction being usually accomplished in the months of July and August. The bees then, as M. Huber observes, chase them about, and pursue them to the bottom of the hives, where they assemble in crowds. At the same time numerous carcases of drones may be seen on the ground before the hives. Hence he conjectured, though he never could detect them engaged in thiswork upon the combs, that they were stung to death by the workers. To ascertain how their death was occasioned, he caused a table to be glazed, on which he placed six hives, and under this table he employed the patient and indefatigable Burnens, who was to him instead of eyes, to watch their proceedings. On the fourth of July this accurate observer saw the massacre going on in all the hives at the same time, and attended by the same circumstances. The table was crowded with workers, who, apparently in great rage, darted upon the drones as soon as they arrived at the bottom of the hive seizing them by their antennæ, their legs, and their wings; and killing them by violent strokes of their sting, which they generally inserted between the segments of the abdomen. The moment this fearful weapon entered their body, the poor helpless creatures expanded their wings and expired. After this, as if fearful that they were not sufficiently dispatched, the bees repeated their strokes, so that they often found it difficult to extricate their sting. On the following day they were equally busy in the work of slaughter; but their fury, their own having perished, was chiefly vented upon those drones, which, after having escaped from the neighbouring hives, had sought refuge with them. Not content with destroying those that were in the perfect state, they attacked also such male pupæ as were left in their cells; and then dragging them forth, sucked the fluid from their bodies and cast them out of the hive[204].
But though in hives containing a queen perfectly fertile(that is, which lays both worker and male eggs,) this is the unhappy fate of the drones; yet in those where the queen only lays male eggs, they are suffered to remain unmolested; and in hives deprived of their queen, they also find a secure asylum[205].
What it is that, in the former instance, excites the fury of the bees against the males, is not easy to discover; but some conjecture may perhaps be formed from the circumstances last related. When only males are produced by the queen, the bees seem aware that something more is wanted, and retain the males; the same is the case when they have no queen; and when one is procured, they appear to know that she would not profit them without the males. Their fury then is connected with their utility: when the queen is impregnated, which lasts for her whole life, as if they knew that the drones could be of no further use, and would only consume their winter stores of provision, they destroy them; which surely is more merciful than expelling them, in which case they must inevitably perish from hunger. But when the queen only produces males, their numbers are not sufficient to cause alarm; and the same reasoning applies to the case when there is no queen.
Having brought the males from their cradle to their untimely grave, and amused you with the little that is known of their uneventful history, I shall now, at last, call you to attend to the proceedings of theworkersthemselves; and here I am afraid, long as I have detained you, I must still press you to expatiate with mein a more ample field; but the spectacles you will behold during our excursion will repay, I promise you, any delay or trouble it may occasion.
When I consider the proceedings of these little creatures, both in the hive and out of it, they are so numerous and multifarious, that I scarcely know where to begin. You have already, however, heard much of their internal labours, in the care and nurture of the young; the construction of their combs[206]; and their proceedings with respect to their queens and their paramours. It will therefore change the scene a little, if we accompany them in their excursions to collect the various substances of which they have need[207]. On these occasions the principal object of the bees is to furnish themselves with three different materials:—the nectar of flowers, from which they elaborate honey and wax; the pollen or fertilizingdust of the anthers, of which they make what is called bee-bread, serving as food both to old and young; and the resinous substance called by the ancientsPropolis,Pissoceros, &c. used in various ways in rendering the hive secure and giving the finish to the combs. The first of these substances is the pure fluid secreted in the nectaries of flowers, which the length of their tongue enables them to reach in most blossoms. The tongue of a bee, you are to observe, though so long and sometimes so inflated[208], is not a tube through which the honey passes, nor a pump acting by suction, but a real tongue which laps or licks the honey, and passes it down on its upper surface, as we do, to the mouth, which is at its base concealed by the mandibles[209]. It is conveyed by this orifice through the œsophagus into the first stomach, which we call the honey-bag, and which, from being very small, is swelled when full of it to a considerable size. Honey is never found in the second stomach, (which is surrounded with muscular rings, and resembles a cask covered with hoops from one end to the other,) but only in the first: in the latter and the intestines the bee-bread only is discovered. How the wax is secreted, or what vessels are appropriated to that purpose, is not yet ascertained. Huber suspects that a cellular substance, consisting of hexagons, which lines the membraneof the wax-pockets, may be concerned in this operation. This substance he also discovered in humble-bees (which though they make wax have no wax-pockets), occupying all the anterior part or base of the segments[210]. If you wish to see the wax-pockets in the hive-bee, you must press the abdomen so as to cause it to extend itself; you will then find on each of the four intermediate ventral segments, separated by the carina or elevated central part, two trapeziform whitish pockets, of a soft membranaceous texture: on these the laminæ of wax are formed, and they are found upon them in different states, so as to be more or less perceptible. I must here observe that, besides Thorley, who seems to have been the first apiarist that observed these laminæ, Wildman was not ignorant of them, nor of the wax being formed from honey[211]: we must not therefore permit foreigners to appropriate to themselves the whole credit of discoveries that have been made, or at least partially made, by our own countrymen.
Long before Linné had discovered the nectary of flowers, our industrious creatures had made themselves intimate with every form and variety of them; and no botanist, even in this enlightened era of botanical science, can compare with a bee in this respect. The station of these reservoirs, even where the armed sight of science cannot discover it, is in a moment detected by the microscopic eye of this animal.
She has to attend to a double task—to collect materials for bee-bread as well as for honey and wax. Observe a bee that has alighted upon an open flower. The hum produced by the motion of her wings ceases,and her employment begins. In an instant she unfolds her tongue, which before was rolled up under her head. With what rapidity does she dart this organ between the petals and the stamina! At one time she extends it to its full length, then she contracts it; she moves it about in all directions, so that it may be applied both to the concave and convex surface of a petal, and wipe them both; and thus by a virtuous theft robs it of all its nectar. All the while this is going on, she keeps herself in a constant vibratory motion. The object of the industrious animal is not, like the more selfish butterfly, to appropriate this treasure to herself. It goes into the honey-bag as into a laboratory, where it is transformed into pure honey; and when she returns to the hive, she regurgitates it in this form into one of the cells appropriated to that purpose; in order that, after tribute is paid from it to the queen, it may constitute a supply of food for the rest of the community.
In collecting honey, bees do not solely confine themselves to flowers, they will sometimes very greedily absorb the sweet juices of fruits: this I have frequently observed with respect to the raspberries in my garden, and have noticed it, as you may recollect, in a former letter[212]. They will also eat sugar, and produce wax from it; but from Huber's observations, it appears not calculated to supply the place of honey in the jelly with which the larvæ are fed[213]. Though the great mass of the food of bees is collected from flowers, they do not wholly confine themselves to a vegetable diet; for, besides the honeyed secretion of the Aphides, the possessionof which they will sometimes dispute with the ants[214], upon particular occasions they will eat the eggs of the queen. They are very fond also of the fluid that oozes from the cells of the pupæ, and will suck eagerly all that is fluid in their abdomen after they are destroyed by their rivals[215].—Several flowers that produce much honey they pass by; in some instances, from inability to get at it. Thus, for this reason probably, they do not attempt those of the trumpet-honey-suckle, (Lonicera sempervirens,) which, if separated from the germen after they are open, will yield two or three drops of the purest nectar. So that were this shrub cultivated with that view, much honey in its original state might be obtained from a small number of plants. In other cases, it appears to be the poisonous quality of their honey that induces bees to neglect certain flowers. You have doubtless observed the conspicuous white nectaries of the crown imperial, (Fritillaria imperialis,) and that they secrete abundance of this fluid. It tempts in vain the passing bee, probably aware of some noxious quality that it possesses. The oleander (Nerium Oleander,) yields a honey that proves fatal to thousands of imprudent flies; but our bees, more wise and cautious, avoid it. Occasionally, perhaps, in particular seasons, when flowers are less numerous than common, this instinct of the bees appears to fail them, or to be overpowered by their desire to collect a sufficient store of honey for their purposes, and they suffer for their want of self-denial. Sometimes whole swarms have been destroyed by merely alighting upon poisonous trees. This happened to onein the county of West Chester in the province of New York, which settled upon the branches of the poison-ash (Rhus Vernix). In the following morning the imprudent animals were all found dead, and swelled to more than double their usual size[216]. Whether the honey extracted from the species of the genusKalmia,Andromeda,Rhododendrum, &c. be hurtful to the bees themselves, is not ascertained; but, as has been before observed, it is often poisonous to man[217]. The Greeks, as you probably recollect, in their celebrated retreat after the death of the younger Cyrus, found a kind of honey at Trebisond on the Euxine coast, which, though it produced no fatal effects upon them, rendered those who ate but little, like men very drunk, and those who ate much, like mad men or dying persons; and numbers lay upon the ground as if there had been a defeat. Pliny, who mentions this honey, calls itMænomenon, and observes that it is said to be collected from a kind ofRhododendrum, of which Tournefort noticed two species there[218].
When the stomach of a bee is filled with nectar, it next, by means of the feathered hairs[219]with which its body is covered, pilfers from the flowers the fertilizing dust of the anthers, thepollen; which is equally necessary to the society with the honey, and may be named the ambrosia of the hive, since from it the bee-bread is made. Sometimes a bee is so discoloured with this powder as to look like a different insect, becoming white, yellow, or orange, according to the flowers in which it has beenbusy. Reaumur was urged to visit the hives of a gentleman, who on this account thought his bees were different from the common kind[220]. He suspected, and it proved, that the circumstance just mentioned occasioned the mistaken notion. When the body of the bee is covered with farina, with the brushes of its legs, especially of the hind ones, it wipes it off: not, as we do with our dusty clothes, to dissipate and disperse it in the air, but to collect every particle of it, and then to knead it and form it into two little masses, which she places, one in each, in the baskets formed by hairs[221]on her hind legs.
Aristotle says that in each journey from the hive, bees attend only one species of flower[222]; Reaumur, however, seems to think that they fly indiscriminately from one to another: but Mr. Dobbs in thePhilosophical Transactions[223], and Butler before him, asserts that he has frequently followed a bee engaged in collecting pollen, &c. and invariably observed that it continued collecting from the same kind of flowers with which it first began: passing over other species, however numerous, even though the flower it first selected was scarcer than others. His observations, he thinks, are confirmed—and the idea seems not unreasonable—by the uniform colour of the pellets of pollen, and their different size. Reaumur himself tells us that the bees enter the hive, some with yellow pellets, others with red ones, others again with whitish ones, and that sometimes they are even green: upon which he observes, that this arises from their being collected from particular flowers, the pollen of whose anthers is of thosecolours[224]. Sprengel, as before intimated[225], has made an observation similar to that of Dobbs. It seems not improbable that the reason why the bee visits the same species of plants during one excursion may be this:—Her instinct teaches her that the grains of pollen which enter into the same mass should be homogeneous, in order perhaps for their more effectual cohesion; and thus Providence also secures two important ends,—the impregnation of those flowers that require such aid, by the bees passing from one to another; and the avoiding the production of hybrid plants, from the application of the pollen of one kind of plant to the stigma of another. When the anthers are not yet burst, the bee opens them with her mandibles, takes a parcel of pollen, which one of the first pair of legs receives and delivers to the middle pair, from which it passes to one of the hind legs.
If the contents of one of the little pellets be examined under a lens, it will be found that the grains have all retained their original shape. A botanist practised in the figure of the pollen of the different species of common plants might easily ascertain, by such an examination, whether a bee had collected its ambrosia from one or more, and also from what species of flowers.
In the months of April and May, as Reaumur tells us, the bees collect pollen from morning to evening; but in the warmer months the great gathering of it is from the time of their first leaving the hive (which is sometimes so early as four in the morning) to about 10 o'clock A.M. About that hour all that enter the hive may be seen with their pellets in their baskets; but during the rest of the day the number of those so furnished is small in comparisonof those that are not. In a hive, however, in which a swarm is recently established, it is generally brought in at all parts of the day. He supposes, in order for its being formed into pellets, that it requires some moisture, which the heat evaporates after the above hour; but in the case of recently colonized hives, that the bees go a great way to seek it in moist and shady places[226].
When a bee has completed her lading, she returns to the hive to dispose of it. The honey is disgorged into the honey-pots or cells destined to receive it, and is discharged from the honey-bag by its alternate contraction and dilatation. A cell will contain the contents of many honey-bags. When a bee comes to disgorge the honey, with its fore legs it breaks the thick cream that is always on the top, and the honey which it yields passes under it. This cream is honey of a thicker consistence than the rest, which rises to the top in the cells like cream on milk: it is not level, but forms an oblique surface over the honey. The cells, as you know, are usually horizontal, yet the honey does not run out. The cream, aided probably by the general thickness of the honey and the attraction of the sides of the cell, prevents this. Bees, when they bring home the honey, do not always disgorge it; they sometimes give it to such of their companions as have been at work within the hive[227]. Some of the cells are filled with honey for daily use, and some with what is intended for a reserve, and stored upagainst bad weather or a bad season: these are covered with a waxen lid[228].
The pollen is employed as circumstances direct. When the bee laden with it arrives at the hive, she sometimes stops at the entrance, and very leisurely detaching it by piecemeal, devours one or both the pellets on her legs, chewing them with her jaws, and passing them then down the little orifice before noticed. Sometimes she enters the hive, and walks upon the combs; and whether she walks or stands, still keeps beating her wings. By the noise thus produced, which seems a call to some of her fellow-citizens, three or four go to her, and placing themselves around her, begin to lighten her of her load, each taking and devouring a small portion of her ambrosia: this they repeat, if more do not arrive to assist them, three or four times, till the whole is disposed of[229]. Wildman observed them on this occasion supporting themselves upon their two fore feet; and making several motions with their wings and body to the right and left, which produced the sound that summoned their assistants[230]. This bee-bread, as I said before, is generally found in the second stomach and intestines, but the honey never; which induced Reaumur to think (but he was mistaken) that the bees elaborated wax from it: and he observes, that the bees devour this when they are busily engaged in constructing combs[231]. When more pollen is collected than the bees have immediate occasion for, they store it up in some of the empty cells. The laden bee puts her two hind legs into the cell, andwith the intermediate pair pushes off the pellets. When this is done, she, or another bee if she is too much fatigued with her day's labour, enters the cell with her head first, and remains there some time: she is engaged in diluting the pellets, kneading them, and packing them close; and so they proceed till the cell is filled[232]. A large portion of the cells of some combs are filled with this bread, which one while is found in insulated cells, at another in cells amongst those that are filled with honey or brood.—Thus it is everywhere at hand for use.