342 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



themselves, at least the conditions 

 under which it occurs, and remove 

 these conditions.'' In fact, in the fol- 

 lowing lines nothing- more is said 

 about the actual causes of swarming-, 

 but some conditions are explained 

 under which swarming- can be ex- 

 pected. 



Do we, in fact, kno7V anything about 

 these actual causes of swarming? I 

 will explain in this article that we are 

 not entirely in the dark in this respect; 

 but some knowledge of the physiology 

 of the bees is necessary; especially in 

 regard to nourishment, if we are to 

 understand the condition under which 

 the different impulses of bees will 

 appear. 



THIC PREPARATION OF LARVAIC FOOD 



AND HOW IT INFLUENCES 



SWARMING. 



For nourishment the bees have pollen 

 and honey onl}', and prepare from 

 these all the different foods for queen, 

 drones and workers, and for the differ- 

 ent larvae. The process of digestion 

 in the body of a worker bee is very 

 much simplified compared with the 

 same process in higher animals. It 

 goes on in the following way: If pol- 

 len is chewed by the bee it is mixed 

 with saliva, and the same takes place 

 if nectar is sucked through the so- 

 called tongue. This saliva is import- 

 ant for digestion, then the food is 

 swallowed into the true or chyle 

 stomach, where it is fully digested. 

 The partially digested food we call 

 chyme; the fullj' digested food is called 

 chyle; both we can find in the true 

 stomach at different times and stages 

 of digestion. If ch3'le remains in the 

 true stomach for some time it passes 

 through the wall of this stomach and is 

 mixed with the blood, is, in fact, iden- 

 tical with blood. The process of di- 

 gestion, as it is here explained, is ac- 

 cepted by all scientists. 



Now, by the help of that wonderful 

 organ called the stomach-mouth the con- 

 tents of the true stomach can be re- 

 gurgitated, and can be used as food 

 for other parts of the bee family. 

 Queen-larvae receive fully digested 

 chyle in large quantities till the cell 

 is capped by the bees. To the queen 

 herself the same chyle is fed, because 

 she can't eat pollen, but she helps her- 

 self to hone}'. To worker and drone- 

 larvae chv'le is fed the first three days 

 of their larval state, and after this 

 ch^'me is mixed in larger quantities. 



and, from the fifth day, till the larvae 

 are capped, honey and pollen are fed 

 to them. That the royal-jelly and the 

 larval food are fully digested chyle, 

 and regurgitated from the true stomach 

 is a discover}' of Pastor Schonfeld. It 

 is accepted by T. W. Cowan of Eng- 

 land (The Honey Bee, page 120) and by 

 Prof. A. J. Cook (Manual of the Apiary, 

 page 141), while Cheshire in his book 

 explains the older theory, that this 

 larval food is a secretion of glands. 

 It would take too much space here to 

 explain why this gland theory is un- 

 true and impossible. 



Now, we will consider the cause of 

 swarming. That bees are caused to 

 swarm by their instinct or impulses, 

 and not by some kind of reasoning, I 

 do not think it necessary to explain to 

 the reader; and the same is true with 

 all other actions of the bees. The 

 question is: by what conditions and in 

 what way are induced these different 

 impulses ? In a given colon}' of bees 

 we can observe that with the advance 

 of the season different impulses will 

 appear in a certain order- During the 

 winter bees are in a semi-dormant 

 state; at least in colder climates. 

 Witli warm weather, especially after 

 the first flight, the impulse for breed- 

 ing will appear. Here in tlie South 

 this is in close connection with the first 

 gathered pollen. The bees, becoming 

 more active, eat yioUen, digest it to 

 chyle, which is fed to the queen, stimu- 

 lating her ovaries to activity, and eggs 

 are laid, and when the young larvae 

 appear chyle is again fed to them. 



We may suppose that one worker 

 bee can prepare enough chyle to feed 

 10 worker larvae. We know that feed- 

 ing larvae is the first duty of a young 

 bee. When the young bees begin 

 gnawing out of the cells there will soon 

 be enough young bees in the hive to 

 feed ten times as many larvae as it 

 was possible during the first breeding 

 period of 21 days. In the third period, 

 100 times as many can and will be fed. 

 If the colony is strong, and has a pro- 

 lific queen in early spring, and, con- 

 sequently, starts a large patch of 

 brood, there will soon be a condition in 

 which the young bees will prepare 

 more chyle than can be consumed by 

 the larvae. The consequence is that 

 this chyle cannot be regurgitated at 

 once. It will remain in the stomach 

 for some time, and a large part of it 

 will go into the blood in the body of 

 the bee and will enrich it, or cause a 

 kind of extension of the blood. 



