408 



BEE. 



Bee. 



Perfect 

 *tate of 

 bees. 



explain the cause of that Fertility, which is at times, 

 though rarely, seen in workers. These workers they 

 suppose to have inhabited cells in the immediate vi- 

 cinity of royal cells, during the earlier part of their 

 own existence. Particles of the food appropriated for 

 queens having accidentally fallen among what was des- 

 tined for the common worms, produces a partial change 

 in particular organs. Though under its influence, the 

 ovaries are but imperfectly expanded, and also labour 

 under a vicious conformation, which unfits them from 

 propagating any eggs excepting those transforming to 

 drones. We cannot subset ibe to these doctrines, which 

 proceed from the most intelligent naturalists of the 

 present age, because they are unsupported by experi- 

 ment. '1 he subject is to us still wrapt in mystery; 

 nor is it to be aided by any fact with which we are 

 acquainted in the generation of animals. Perhaps it 

 affords some reason for believing, that the germs of 

 all animals are of one sex only, it may be of no sex, 

 but possessing organs susceptible, in certain case:-, of 

 a different kind of evolution. We are indebted to 

 Schirach for the original discovery of this property 

 enjoyed by bees, which has subsequently been con- 

 firmed by other observers. 



These being the imperfect stages which bees under- 

 go, and their ultimate transformation being com- 

 pleted, three different kinds, females, males, and 

 workers, whose offices, nature, and properties, are 

 also different from those of each other, inhabit the 

 same swarm. In common with other insects, they 

 are of a lighter colour at the moment of issuing from 

 the cells, arid totally covered with hair, which is less 

 abundant on the queen. The quantity of it seems 

 to dimmish with their age: it is not known how long 

 they survive, but most probably above one or two 

 years, or considerably more. The queens and drones 

 of smaller size, sometimes found in hives, are regard- 

 ed as aberrations from the general race. Their na- 

 ture has not hitherto been fully illustrated ; but na- 

 turalists have ascribed this diminution to the eggs 

 producing them having accidentally been laid lu 

 wrong cells : that their organs are there cramped 

 and confined, and prevented from attaining their due 

 expansion from the smallucss of the cell. At the same 

 time, though the eggs producing workers are laid in 

 cells of greater than ordinary size, the reverse does not 

 ensue, and the body is still restrained to its natural 

 dimensions. Schirach obscurely hints his opinion, 

 that the greater length of the queen is owing to the 

 greater length of her cclL 



We shall next explain the peculiar office and func- 

 tions of each species of bees, the queens, drones, and 

 workers, in their perfect state, and shew the mutual 

 relation that must subsist among them, in order to 

 ensure the welfare of the community. In the history 

 of other insects, nothing more is taken into consider- 

 ation than a general view of the structure, habits and 

 perpetuation of the race. But in treating of bees, 

 we have not only to enter on the origin of each va- 

 riety in a hive, to follow it through its successive 

 3tages until gaining perfection, to examine that in- 

 ternal ceconomy which the instinct of many thousand 

 individuals regulates; but we have to shew the cul- 

 tivator, who designs converting their labours to ad- 



vantage, how their nature operates separately as well &** 

 as combined. v " "' 



The sole functions of the queen bee are to perpe- Nature of 

 tuate her species ; but single and unassisted by the the queen; 

 workers, herself and her offspring would perish. Her 

 fecundity is surprizing. Swammerdam affirms, that 

 she contains 50,000 eggs; and some authors advance, 

 that she may be the mother of 100,000 bees in one 

 season. In addition to the peculiarities exhibited in 

 her propagating young, she is marked by others of 

 the most conspicuous description. She is watched 

 and attended to ; and, to judge from appearances, 

 sheltered and respected by the workers. Groups of 

 them constantly encircle h r ; they supply her with 

 honey, brush and lick her limbs ; whenever she moves, 

 they recede before her ; and, according to the united 

 sentiments of all who have studied the nature of bees, 

 pay her what would be called real homage, could we 

 allow them the prerogative of understanding. She 

 is an object of the greatest attachment ; her presence 

 inspires them with new instincts, and animates them 

 to labour : the permanent existence of a queen, in 

 short, is the only security of the workers. Except- 

 ing when she leaves the hive for fecundation, they clus- 

 teiaroundherjand hence some persons have endeavour- 

 ed to impose on the credulous, as having a command 

 or power over bees. It is true that such persons could 

 make a whole swarm follow them from place to place 

 without injury to themselves or the spectator ; but 

 the sole secret consisted in their having obtained 

 possession of the queen. The natives of foreign 

 countries are acquainted with this attachment of the 

 workers to their queen, which some years since was 

 exhibited in Britain under mysterious disguise, aa 

 Labat, long ago, relates in his Travels. He received 

 a visit from a man who called himself master of the 

 bees. " It is certain they followed him as sheep do 

 their shepherd, and even more closely. His cap in 

 particular was covered in such a manner, that it ex- 

 actly resembled those swarms which, in endeavouring 

 to settle, fix on some branch of a tree. Being de- 

 sired to take it off, he did 60, whereupon the bees 

 settled on his shoulders, his head, and his hands, with- 

 out stinging him or those in the vicinity. All fol- 

 lowed him when he retired ; for besides those which 

 he carried about, they attended him in legions." 

 People accustomed to handle bees with address, can 

 easily seize the queen, and then, as during swarming, 

 little is to be apprehended from the bees attempting 

 to sting ; they are too much occupied in regarding 

 their queen. 



Though the queen lays several eggs, which will be One queen 

 successively transformed into queens, only one in its 0,, 'y 5 an 

 perfect state can exist in a swarm : a plurality seems 

 equally adverse to the intention of Nature as a total 

 defc ct. Hence it follows, that of two coming at the 

 same time into existence, one must die for the welfare 

 of the community. But the charge of accomplish- 

 ing the destruction of the victim is not confided to 

 the common bees ; the queens themselves are entrust- 

 ed with it. Were it otherwise ordained, dangerous 

 consequences might be the result ; for while one 

 group of bees destroyed the first of two queens, 

 another might massacre the second, and the hive be- 



exist in a 

 swarm. 



