1839 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



481 



of the belly. The moment that the formidable 

 weapon, with which the workers are armed, 

 touched them, was the last ol' their existence ; 

 they stretched their win<is and expired. A.t the 

 same time, as if the workers did not consider them 

 so completely dead as they appeared to us, they 

 struck the stini? so deep that it could scarcely he 

 withdrawn. Next day having resumed our posi- 

 tion, we witnessed new scenes ofcarnage : during 

 three hours the beesrurioiJsl3alestroyed their males. 

 On the preceding evening they had massacred all 

 their own ; but now they attacked those which, 

 driven from the neighboring hives, had taken re- 

 fuge amongst them. We saw them also tear 

 some remaining nymphs from the combs : they 

 greedily sucked the whole tiuid from the abdomen, 

 and then carried them away. The lullowing days 

 no drones remained in the hives." 



The cause of this cruel extirpation ofso great a 

 portion ol' the community, is very lar from being 

 evident. It is not enough to say, that it is from 

 the drones being no longer of any use in propaira- 

 ling the species ; or that their numbers would be 

 a burden on the rest, seeing they arc altogether 

 inefficient. Conclusions deduced from either of 

 these reasons, are not to be admitted in our pre- 

 sent state of knowledtre respecting the natural his- 

 tory of bees. Probably, however, our attention 

 should be directed to the consequences of the drones 

 liaving fulfilled the purposes of generation ; lor 

 they are never destroyed in hives wanting queens, 

 nor in hives where queens lay eggs producing 

 males only. In both situations they are tolerated 

 and fed, and may be seen living in perfect security 

 throughout the winter. The massacre happens in 

 those hives alone possessing queens completely 

 fertile; but never until the season of swarming 

 has elapsed. 



In considering the nature of the individual spe- 

 cies of bees inhabiting a hive, an acquaintance 

 with which, we repeat, is indispensable belbre 

 converting their labors to use, we have to notice 

 some of the peculiarities exhibited by workers. 

 It is to this great class that the welfare of a hive 

 properly belongs: without their incessant aid, the 

 males, females, and even the brood itself would 

 quickly perish ; and if the presence of a queen be 

 essential to their salety, they are no less requisite 

 for her preservation. 



Certain facts, we have already remarked, tend 

 to establish, that all workers are originally females; 

 and in most, perhaps in every hive, some are found 

 laying eggs, which will be fiiture drones. But 

 here viewing them as a large class of the commu- 

 nity, consistiniT of twenty, "thirty, nay forty thou- 

 sand individuals, we behold them employed in va- 

 rious purposes, extremely diversified, for the ge- 

 neral good. They are charged with cleaning and 

 preparing the cells appropriated for their embryos 

 of their own kind, of the queens, and the males: 

 they collect the honey, obtain wax. and build the 

 combs: hkowise, they gather a particular sub- 

 stance, (resinous, as is supposed) with which all 

 the crevices of the hive are closed, and its inside 

 covered. Alter the queen has deposited her eggs, 

 the workers supply the food adapted for the worms 

 of each species, and regulate the proportions, so 

 as to serve until the last metamorphosis is under- 

 gone: and they seal every cell with a covering, 

 different, according to the different worm included, 

 at the proper and appointed time. Nor are these 

 Vol. VH--61 



the limits of their occupations; while eome guard 

 the queen, construct the combs, and watch over 

 the necessities of the young, others keep corustant 

 watch, day and night, at the entrance of^ the hive: 

 if a stranger bee, a wasp, or noxious iiisect ap- 

 pears, it is instantly repelled or destroyed: even 

 should a queen, which, on ueual occa-giona, is 

 treated with such unequivocal marks of regard, 

 be introduced to the hive of any swarm but her 

 own, the workers immediately seize and reGtruin 

 her, and, without being wounded with their stin^/s, 

 the confinement she suffers ie such, that she ponie- 

 times dies of absolute suffocation. 



All the operative parts of the oeconomy of the 

 hive arc entrusted to the workers; aud as the col- 

 lection of honey and combs which they construct 

 are the substances converted to our use, and in- 

 deed is the main purpose of our cultivating them 

 in numbers, it is proper that we should elucidate 

 the manner in which this is efiecte^l. Honey is a 

 vegetable secretion, whicii aftpoars at differe-nt 

 seasons of the year, especially when flowers in 

 general blow. We can readily understand how 

 it is stored up by the bees: they lick it with the 

 proboscis from the flowers; it ts swallowed; and 

 on their return to the hive, it is disgorged, n jt 

 from the trunk, but the mouth, into the cells. Only 

 a small portion is collected by each, but the united 

 labors of thousands produce an abundant harvest. 

 Reaumur has calculated, that within an hour 3000 

 bees have returned from their collections to a hive, 

 whose population did not exceed 18,000; and in 

 six days, Swammerdam, if we rightly understantl 

 his expressions, found nearly 4000 cells construct- 

 ed by a new swarm, consisUng of less than 6000 

 bees. Some of the cells filled with honey are des- 

 tined for the daily consumption of the bees, and 

 others are sealed up and reserved for times of ne- 

 cessity. Many of the laborers free themselves of 

 their collections before reaching the cells, by be- 

 stowing them on their neighbors; the trunks ot' 

 latter are seen extended, and they receive the ho- 

 ney with them as it is disgorged. 



Honey being a vegetable product, its properties 

 depend entirely on the nature of the plants from 

 which it is collected: one kind is of the finest fla- 

 vor, delicious to the taste, pure and transparent; 

 another is entirely of a different consistence, dark, 

 greenish, tenacious or bitter; and a third has been 

 known to produce deleterious effects, wiuch were 

 almost, if not completely, fatal to human life. 

 Dioscorides, Pliny, and various ancient authors, 

 speak of honey in the east being dangerous in ccr* 

 tain years; and Xenophon relates, that when the 

 army of ten thousand approached Trehisond, the 

 soldiers having partaken copiously of honey found 

 in the neighborhooil, were aHected like persons 

 inebriated; several, on wliom it hful more violent 

 consequences, became furious, and seemed as if in 

 the agoniciS ol death. Though none of then) died, 

 all were extremely weak 'or three days. In recent 

 times, we are told of the pernicious effects of a 

 particular kind of honey collected in America; and 

 plants grow in the Archipelago, the honey of 

 which is said to occasion vomiting. Thus l)on 

 Felix Azara informs us, that there is a particular 

 kind of honey collected in Paraguay, called caba- 

 tain, which occasions a severe headach, and pro- 

 duces as perfect intoxication as ensues from bran- 

 dy; while another kind brings on convulsions, at^ 

 tended with the most excruciating pains, which 

 last thirty hours. 



