Joly 3, 1874. ] 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



46 



of onr sliruvs, then the ling-vexed question would Boon be 

 settled. — VV. Woodhouse, King's Lynn. 



BEES SWAEMING IN A BUILDING. 



As during the bee-swarming seaBon it is no uncommon occur- 

 renca to hnvH a swarm make their way into some part of a build- 

 ing out iif which it is almost impossible to g>"t them again, the 

 following account of a successful plan may be of use to others. 

 L*.st M»y a swarm effected an entrance into a ceiling in my 

 house through a crack over a window. Hiving seen the bee- 

 trap invented by R. Aston, Esq., Upper Bar, Newport, Salop, 

 favourably noticed in your periodical last year, I wrote to him 

 to know whether it could be used iu this case, and he sent me a 

 trap with a perf jrated zinc cage fitted to it to hold the bees as 

 tht-y passed out through the trap. It was only necessary to 

 screw the trap and cage firmly to the window-frame, stopping 

 np every hole but one, before which the trap was fixed, and as 

 the cage filled to sulphur the inmates. — S. J. Huddleston. 



OBSERVATIONS ON THE DEVELOPMENT OP 



BEES. 

 Iv the unicomb hive noticed in my article on the queen bee, 

 pase 395 of your Journal, I have been able to keep a colony of 

 bees all winter. One of the combs is a little bent, causing one 

 aide to be near the glass, while the opposite one has more space. 

 In this space the bees have attached to the glass a piece of comb 

 containing about a hundred cells. Previous to this year the 

 b<^eB had always used these cells for storing honey and bee brood. 

 On the day following that on which I despatched the article 

 above referred to, I was surprised to see about a dozen eggs laid 

 in the cells attached to the glass. Some of the cells are at right 

 anules to the glass, the glass forming the bottom of the cell. 

 Others are formed horizontally to the glass, in which case the 

 glass forma one side of the cell. I was twice enabled to see the 

 eggs in every position, and all the subsequent processes of bee- 

 growth in the cell. Had I tried it I could not have placed them 

 better for observation. Some of the eggs were deposited on the 

 glass right in the centre of the cell, others were placed on the 

 side of the cell, where I had a full view of the whole egg and 

 bee as it grew to maturity. And as it may be interesting to 

 some of your apiarian readers who have not had the opportunity 

 of observing this, I will describe as well as I can all that I saw. 



To make the subject as clear as possible, I will give the dates 

 and progress of growth of one egg out of many from the notes 

 I made at the time of observation. 



I took the precaution of putting a number on those cells which 



I had selected for more particular notice, and noted down the 



changes which took place at the time the observations were 



made. 



Egg laid (in No. i.) between 8 pm., June 1st, and 6 a.m., June 2nd. 



June 5th, 10 a.m. Grub just hatched. 



„ 8th, 4 pm. Grub a good size, but still lying in a circular 



form. 

 ,, loth. Grub eating at the bottom of the cell, with the 

 abdomen extended towards the top. Bees sealing- 

 up the cell. 

 „ 17th. The form of the eye seen as a light brown spot. 

 „ 18th. The joint between the body and abdomen develop- 

 ing, and legs forming, wings also forming. Still re- 

 taining the white colour of the grub. 

 „ 21st. Changing colour; legs moving. 

 „ 22ad. Hair and wings grown to full size. Bee moving in 

 the cell during the day, and between 9 and 10 P M. 

 of the 22ud the perfect bee had emerged from the 

 cell. 

 It is difl5cnlt to note the hour of every change which takes 

 place in the development of the bee, the progress is so gradual 

 when looking on, but on leaving it for a time the change is very 

 mnrk-^d in some of the stages ; and though other observers may 

 differ from me regarding the time required in each stage, I must 

 observe that much depends on the temperature of the hive in 

 which the process is going on. During the whole of May I was 

 afraid I should not see one egg arrive at maturity, the weather 

 was so cold; and I took the precaution to place woollen cushions 

 against the glass to keep up the temperature when not observing, 

 and at that time the eggs were sometimes six days in hatching. 

 As the temperature increased the time has been shorter, but 

 none less than the one noticed. 



When the egg is first deposited it is pure white ; in twelve 

 hours it begins to become transparent at the point, and becom^8 

 more so till the grub emerges from the egg. Previous to, or 

 just about the time the grab comes out of the egg, a bee deposits 

 a small globule of white matter, like that which the queen bee 

 gets, bat thinner. The quantity each grub gets of this white 



i'elly, as we mny term it, is about the same as a bee can hold of 

 loney in its honey stomach. This white jelly is deposited by 

 the bee immediately beneath the egg, and as the grub emerges 



from the egg it comes in contact with it and begins to consume 

 it, one part of the grub being in the jelly and the other part still 

 holding on by the shell of the egg, which it gradually leaves and 

 burrows itself overhead in the jelly. The grub, as it passes out, 

 bursts the sides of the egg longitudinally as well as at the end. 

 The other food it gets is placed by the bees at the bottom and 

 round the sides of the cell walls, and seems to consist of pollen 

 moistened with water or honey, as I have seen the bees mixing 

 it up with their mandibles against the glass, and then placing it 

 on (he cell walls. 



Each cell is provided with this food before the egg is laid, but 

 should the queen chance to lay an egg in a cell immediately 

 after a young bee has eaten itself out, the bees can and do put 

 the food into the cell after the egg has been deposited. 



When the young bee leaves the cell another bee generally 

 comes and trims the mouth of the cell, then enters it, ftels if all 

 is right, wipes it up with its sucker, which is just a pointed 

 mop, and then proceeds to put in the food for the future bee. 

 The grub goes on increasing in size among the white jelly for 

 about three days, then it begins to the food laid on the cell 

 walls, keeping iu the circular form. As it clears away the food, 

 it requires to turn its head or mouth more into the bottom of 

 the cell, where the food is deposited in greater quantity than on 

 the cell walls. At this stage it eats voraciously, somewhat like 

 a caterpillar on a rose or cabbage leaf, cleaning the glass com- 

 pletely where the food has been laid on it. As the head descends 

 into the bottom of the cell the abdomen extends upwaids. At 

 this stage the bees seal up the cell. Here, then, is a period of 

 the grub's growth, when it increases rapidly in size, with its 

 head the wrong way, and it is seemingly impossible that it can 

 ever turn itself. If I had not seen it as well as others I could 

 not have believed that it would turn ; but it continued eating, 

 notwithstanding, till it seemed to be unable to eat any more. 

 It took about an hour to turn itself, and when it did so it began 

 to eat at the top of the cell off the glass. At last it could eat no 

 more, but kept moving its head as if it were doing so, then it 

 ceased altogether, and became motionless, lying on its side, as 

 they all do, or on the back, none on the belly. And so ends the 

 second stage of a bee's growth. 



No one could ever imagine that from the plain-looking worm 

 quietly reposing in a cell there would come forth a perfect bee, 

 having so many marvellous adaptations for the work assigned to 

 it in creation, and complete in all its parts for the wonders it 

 performs. The first perceptible change that takes place in the 

 grub is a light brown spot the shape of the eye, then small pro- 

 tuberances on the body, from which the legs grow, and the 

 divisions of the body from the abdomen gradually develops 

 themselves. The legs increase in length, and at last are per- 

 fectly formed, but the whole still retain the white colour of the 

 grub, with the exception of the eye, which gets darker. The 

 head and mouth then begin to appear, and the joints of the legs 

 begin to have streaks of brown col lur, which extend all over 

 the body. The thick part of the abdomen is the last to change 

 colour. The proboscis or sucker can be seen growing down the 

 belly. 



On the last day the hair has grown, and the legs begin to move 

 twelve hours before it comes from the cell, always increasing iu 

 motion ; then the whole body moves, turning itself round every 

 few seconds; very restless np to this time — about three hours 

 before it comes from the cell. The proboscis continues as a 

 solid trunk, so that it cannot turn it in as it does at other times; 

 at last it, too, becomes split up as in the normal state. 



Then the now-developed bee begins to eat itself out, which it 

 does in two hours. 'When it does make its way out it serms 

 very happy, but none of its sisters take any notice of it then. 

 It is, as a matter of course, occurring in hundreds of cases every 

 day during the breeding season. 



Though these remarks are confined to one bee, they are the 

 result of the close observation of a number of eggs. 



Though a number have been hatched, yet many more have 

 failed, both as eggs, and more in the grub state; none after they 

 have passed into the bee stage. 



In a number of cells two eggs were deposited at a time, in 

 other Cases a second egg was deposited on the following day, and 

 in two cases an egg was deposited after the first grub was 

 hatched ; but in no case did a bee ever move an egg but by eat- 

 ing it ; both eggs were allowed to remain till they were hatched, 

 then the grub of one would be consumed by a bee, and some- 

 times they would be left till both were devoured. When one 

 observes the firmness with which the eggs are glued to the glass 

 or cell, it is difficult to conceive how the bees could remove such 

 eggs and stick them on to another cell, as they doubtless must 

 be, as they are not dropped, but pressed against the cell. 



In the earlier part of the season, when the weather was cold, 

 I have seen a bee approach an egg, feel it with its antenuEe, pre- 

 senting its mouth filled with the white jelly to it, and remain in 

 that position for half an hour, allowing the grub, not yet out of 

 the egg, to eat the jelly out of its mouth. I saw this distinctly 

 on several oocasions. bat it does not seem that bees do it at all 

 Eeasons, as I have not seen it lately. 



