114 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ Anpust 7, 1866. 



The hive of black bees which I used to help in making the 

 artificial swarm was a last year's swarm, and early this last 

 spring I cut a hole in the top of the hive (a common straw one), 

 and fixed on a board, and they have yielded me three glasses 

 of splendid honeycomb, weighing from 6J to 9 lbs. each. I 

 have also had two large glasses well filled, each from a this 

 year's swarm. 



One of my stocks threw a small second swarm on the 9th 

 of July, and as they had been filling a glass I was anxious 

 to make them go back to their quarters again, but could not 

 succeed in catching the queen, though I had them on the 

 ground on a tablecloth, and turned them over while kneeling 

 over them for fifteen or twenty minutes, and also put them 

 backwards and forwards into a hive several times. At last 

 they all clustered again, and I hived them in a large bell-glass, 

 and last week I sent them to a flower show three miles away. 

 As they had half filled their glass, and were not numerous 

 enough to hide their white new-made combs, they looked very 

 well, and, together with four glasses of well-filled honeycomb, 

 formed a very pretty group, which was much admired and 

 gained the first prize. 



I intend selling all my black bees (six stocks), this autumn, 

 and starting next spring with only the two stocks of Ligurians, 

 and letting them swarm naturally, using straw hives, as the 

 bar-and-frame hives are expensive and difficult to procure. I 

 hope that any one who tries bee-keeping may feel as well 

 satisfied and as much interested as myself. — S. B. 



THE EGYPTIAN BEE— Part III. 



ITS ACCLIMATISATION IN TUE NORTH OF GERMANT. 



(Continued from papr 94.) 



Herb Vocel next discusses whether the Egyptian bee is 

 more sensitive in rough weather during summer than the 

 northern and Italian varieties. In reference to this question 

 he says — " Although the average annual temperature of a 

 country or place is all that is generally stated with regard to its 

 climate, it is not sufficient merely to quote the medium annual 

 temperature of Egypt and North Germany, in order to judge of 

 the probability of the successful acclimatisation of the Egyp- 

 tian bee, but a statement of the average temperature of shorter 

 spaces of times becomes necessary. We will, therefore, com- 

 pare the temperature of Egypt and North Germany for the first 

 five months in the year, according to Reaumur's thermometer. 

 January. Feb. March. April. Mav. 



Cairo (30° N. lat.) 16.60 10.72 14.48 20.40 20.56 



Berlin (50° 20' N. lat., and 



31° east long.) 10.92 13.94 15.04 14.43 11.75 



" Between the temperature of the winter months at Cairo, 

 arid the summer months of Berlin we find a difference of but 

 a few degrees. In Cairo the thermomeler in winter sometimes 

 falls as low as 3° below zero of Reaumur, but only for a short 

 time. The chief harvest time of the Egyptian bee in its own 

 country is during the coldest months of the year, from January 

 to March. In May the harvest is finished in the lowlands, and 

 many districts in Egypt then look like a dead desert. The 

 Schaiuki districts only, which in consequence of artificial 

 watering give three harvests annually, furnish occasionally 

 some pasture for the bees. In districts in Germany which are 

 poor in honey, the chief gathering takes place in May, June, 

 and July, and these months have the same temperature as the 

 Egyptian winter. The Egyptian bee is, therefore, quite at 

 home in our summer — as happy as ' the little fish at the 

 bottom of the sea.'* 



"At from 10° to 12' of Reaumur (55° to 60° Fahrenheit), the 

 Egyptian bees are in full flight, at which temperature our 

 native bees generally only begin to take wing. When the bees 

 of an Egyptian stock begin to fly, it is not only a few single 

 bees that fly out for some time, but the whole stock is im- 

 mediately in full flight. The Egyptians always rush forth 

 from the entrance like ants from a hole made in their nest. 

 During mild days in November the Egyptians carried in pollen 

 and honey, and came home in full flight, whilst only a few 

 single bees of the other species were to be seen. I never saw 

 Egyptians chilled. A German or Italian bee is very soon 

 overtaken by an Egyptian bee in a race ; the quickness of the 

 children of the Nile, is, however, most apparent in the queens. 

 A fertile German or Italian queen walks but slowly and heavily 

 on a comb, whilst an Egyptian one runs as quickly from one 



" Wie'g Fischleiu auf tfeni Grund." — Qitthe. 



side of the comb to the other as the comb can be turned round. 

 Great activity, quickness, and agility are the general charac- 

 teristics of the natives of warm countries, and by this ob- 

 servation in natural history, the above-mentioned peculiarity 

 of the Egyptian bee may be explained. 



" During the hot season in Egypt the thermometer stands at 

 26° to 30° R. (92° to 100° F.), in Upper Egypt, even in the shade, 

 30° to 34° R. (100° to 110° F.). Cairo has an average tempera- 

 ture of 22.96° R. in June, 23.92° in July, 23.92° in August, 

 and 20.96° in September. One might suppose, therefore, that 

 the Egyptian bee would continue to fly out and to work in 

 Germany even in the greatest heat, because it mu9t have been 

 accustomed to as great a heat in its native country. Such, 

 however, is not the case. The Egyptian, like the northern 

 and Italian bees, cease working when the temperature of the 

 interior of the hive has reached about 30° R. (100 F.), and like 

 them they remain inactive, some on the combs and inner walls 

 of the hive, and some outside the entrance. If the bees were 

 by their activity still more to increase the temperature of the 

 interior of the hive, the waxen combs must soften and fall 

 down. The inactivity of the bee, therefore, during very great 

 heat in the interior of the hive is evidently an effect of in- 

 stinct. In Egypt, also, the bee is inactive in the hot season, 

 for the country is then bare of flowers. 



" The Egyptian Bee in the Winter of Germany. — In 

 Egypt the bee is able almost every day to hum joyfully 

 through the air ; but Germany has a winter in which the 

 temperature not unfrequently falls to 20° or more below zero 

 of Reaumur, and the cold keeps the bee imprisoned in its 

 hive. Already before the actual introduction of the Egyptian 

 bee, the question has been mooted whether the hive bee of 

 Egypt could survive our severe winters. From the begin- 

 ning I believed the Egyptian bee capable of wintering here, and 

 I supported my opinion by the following passage from ' The 

 Acclimatisation Journal,' for 1864, page 40 : — ' The genus 

 Apis has a very peculiar nature — i.e., all the species, including 

 the different varieties, of Apis have a similar and unchangeable 

 nature and manner of living." Let us consider, then, that the 

 genus Apis lives in permanently organised societies, and in 

 this forms an exception among the class of insects. Humble 

 bees' and wasps' societies are dissolved in autumn ; the fertile 

 females only hybernate during winter and survive till spring. 

 Our ants also certainly live in lasting communities, but at about 

 1° R., they likewise hybernate, and the genus Termes, which 

 belongs to warm climates, is not to be compared with the bee. 

 The bee does not hybernate, it only passes into a state of rest 

 in winter, which state is evidently conditional upon the want 

 of that degree of warmth which is necessary for its activity. 

 Anv organic cause for the winter's rest of our bee does not 

 exist, as it prospers equally well between the tropics without 

 any rest in winter. The specific or personal temperature of an 

 individual bee is very low indeed, yet the whole society in the 

 hive produces a higher temperature, which may be felt. Ac- 

 cording to experience, the production and supply of animal 

 warmth is intimately connected with the process of breathing 

 and nutriment. The bee possesses a trachean system like no 

 other insect known to Leuckart (vide Von Berlepsch, ' The 

 Bee and Bee-keeping,' page 188). The more severely the bee 

 is attacked by cold in winter, the more food it consumes, and 

 the more it accelerates its breathing, until by actual roaring it 

 produces that degree of warmth necessary for its existence. 

 The extremity of the abdomens of those bees which hang on 

 the outside of the cluster often come very near to the hoar frost 

 in the" hive, whilst in the heart of the cluster there are from 

 9° to 12° of warmth.* It is universally acknowledged, that the 

 lethargy into which our bee falls in winter, is contrary to 

 its nature. Likewise it cannot be disputed that the winter of 

 Germany is contrary to the nature of the Egyptian bee ; it 

 will, however, survive our winter just as well and just as badly 

 as our northern bee, if it be kept in hives which afford shelter 

 against too great cold. The genus Apis belongs to the cosmo- 

 polites among animals, and is able to prosper in countries the 

 seasons of which have an extreme climate. 



" Dr. Buory also states from experience, in ' The Acclima- 

 tisation Journal,' (1863, pp. 295, &c), that a transplantation 

 of animals from warmer to colder countries is more frequently 

 successful than unsuccessful. 



" The Egyptian stocks are quiet in winter. During only the 

 most severe cold (3rd and 4th of January), they caused a low 

 humming to be heard, just like the German and Italian stocks. 



• 53° to 59° Fahrenheit. 



