THE AMERICAJN BEE JOURIJAJL.. 



375 



wax, which is the great basis and raw 

 material of all their curious opera- 

 tions. When a bee comes to the hive 

 with its thighs filled with farina, it is 

 often met near the entrance by some 

 of its companions, who first take off 

 the load, and then devour the pro- 

 visions so kindly brought to them. 

 But when none of the bees employed 

 in the hive are hungry for this species 

 , of food, the carriers of the farina de- 

 posit their loads in cells prepared for 

 that purpose. To these cells the bees 

 resort, when the weather is So bad 

 that they cannot venture to go to the 

 fields in quest of fresh provisions. 

 The carrying bees, however, com- 

 monly enter the hive loaded with 

 farina. They walk along the combs, 

 beating and making a noise with their 

 wings. By these movements they 

 seem to announce their a'rrival to 

 their companions. No sooner has a 

 loaded bee made these movements 

 than three or four of those within 

 leave their work, come up to it, and 

 first take olt' its load, and then eat the 

 materials it has brought. 



As a further evidence that the bees 

 actually eat the farina of flowers, 

 when the stomach and intestines are 

 laid open, they are often found to be 

 filled with this dust, the grains of 

 which, when examined by the micro- 

 scope, have the exact figure, color and 

 consistence of farina taken from the 

 antherse of particular flowers. After 

 the farina is digested and conrerted 

 into wax, the bees possess the power 

 of bringing it from their stomachs to 

 their mouths. 



The instrument they employ in 

 furnishing materials for constructing 

 their waxen cells is their tongue. This 

 tongue is situated below the two 

 teeth or fangs. When at work the 

 tongue may be seen by the assistance 

 of a lens and a glass-hive. It is then 

 in perpetual motion, and its motions 

 are extremely rapid. Its figure con- 

 tinually varies. Sometimes it is more 

 sharp, at others it is flatter, and some- 

 times It is more or less concave, and 

 partly covered with a moist paste or 

 wax. By the different moyeraents of 

 its tongue the bee continues to sup- 

 ply fresh wax to the two teeth, which 

 are employed in raising and fashion- 

 ing the walls of its cells, till they 

 hare acquired a sufficient height. As 

 soon as the moist paste or wax dries, 

 which it does almost instantaneously, 

 it then assumes all the appearances 

 and qualities of common wax. There 

 is a still stronger proof that wax is 

 the result of an animal process. When 

 bees are remoted into a new hive, 

 and closely confined from the morn- 

 ing to the evening, it the hive chances 

 to please them, in the course of this 

 day several waxen cells will be 

 formed, without the possibility of a 

 single bee having had access to the 

 fields. 



Besides, the rude materials, or the 

 farina of plants carried into the hive, 

 are of various colors. The farina of 

 some plants employed by the bees is 

 whitish ; in others it is of a fine yellow 

 color ; in others it is almost entirely 

 red; and in others it is green. The 

 combs constructed with these differ- 

 ently colored materials are. however. 



uniformly of the same color. Every 

 comb, especially when it is newly 

 made, is of a pure white color, which 

 is more or less tarnished by age, or by 

 other accidental circumstances. To 

 bleach wax, therefore, requires only 

 the art of extracting such foreign 

 bodies as may have insinuated them- 

 selves into its substance, and changed 

 its original color. 



Bees, from the nature of their con- 

 stitution, require a warm habitation. 

 They are likewise extremely solicitous 

 to prevent insects of any kind from 

 getting admittance into their hives. 

 To accomplish both these purposes, 

 when they take possession of a new 

 hive, they carefully examine every 

 part of it, and if they discover any 

 small holes or clincks, they imme- 

 diately paste them firmly up with a 

 resinous substance which differs con- 

 siderably from wax. This substance 

 was not unknown to the ancients. 

 Pliny mentions it under the name of 

 propolis or bee-glue. Bees use the 

 propolis for rendering their hives 

 more close and perfect in preference 

 to wax, because the former is more 

 durable, and more powerfully re- 

 sists the vicissitudes of weather than 

 the latter. This glue is not, like wax, 

 procured by an animal process. The 

 bees collect it from different trees, as 

 the poplars, the birches, and the wil- 

 lows. It is a complete production of 

 Nature, and requires no addition or 

 manufacture from the animals by 

 which it is employed. After a bee 

 has procured a quantity sufficient to 

 fill the cavities in its two hind thighs, 

 it repairs to the hive. Two of its 

 companions instantly draw out the 

 propolis, and apply it to fill up such 

 chinks, holes, or other deficiencies, 

 as they find in their habitation. 



But this is not the only use to which 

 bees apply the propolis. They are 

 extremely solicitous to remove such 

 insects or foreign bodies as happen to 

 get admission into the hive. When 

 so light as not to exceed their powers, 

 they first kill the insect with their 

 stings, and then drag it out with their 

 teeth. But it sometimes happens that 

 an ill-fated snail creeps into the hive. 

 It is no sooner perceived than it is 

 attacked on all sides and stung to 

 death. But how are the bees to carry 

 out a burden of such weight V This 

 labor they know would be in vain. 

 They are perhaps apprehensive that 

 a body so large would diffuse, in the 

 course of its putrefaction, a disagree- 

 able or noxious odor through the 

 hive. 



To prevent such hurtful conse- 

 sequences, immediately after the 

 animal's death they embalm it by 

 covering every part of its body with 

 propolis, through which no effluvia 

 can escape. When a snail with a shell 

 gets entrance, to dispose of it gives 

 much less trouble and expense to the 

 bees. As soon as this kind of snail 

 receives the first wound from a sting, 

 it naturally retires within its shell. 

 In this case the bees, instead of past- 

 ing it all over with propolis, content 

 themselves with gluing all around 

 the margin of the shell, which is 

 sufficient to render the animal for 

 ever immovably fixed. 



But propolis and the materials for 

 making wax, are not the only sub- 

 stances these industrious animals 

 have to collect. As formerly re- 

 marked, beside the whole winter, 

 there are many days in summer in 

 which the bees are prevented by the 

 weather from going abroad in quest 

 of provisions. They are, therefore 

 under the necessity of collecting and 

 amassing in cells destined for that 

 purpose,' large quantitie* of honey. 

 This sweet and balsamic liquor they 

 extract by means of their proboscis 

 or trunk, from the nectariferous 

 glands or flowers. The trunk of_a 

 bee is a kind of rough cartilaginous 

 tongue. After collecting a few small 

 drops of honey, the animal with its 

 proboscis conveys them to its mouth 

 and swallows them. From the oeso- 

 phagus gullet it passes into the first 

 stomach, which is more or less 

 swelled in proportion to the quantity 

 of honey it contains. When empty, 

 it has the appearance of a fine white 

 thread ; but when filled with honey, 

 it assumes the figure of an oblong 

 bladder, the membrane of which is so 

 thin and transparent, that it allows 

 the color of the liquor it contains to 

 be distinctly seen. This bladder is 

 well known to children who live in 

 the country. They cruelly amuse 

 themselves with catching bees, and 

 tearing them asunder, in order to 

 suck the honey. 



A single flower furnishes but a 

 small quantity of honey. The bees 

 are, therefore, obliged to fly from one 

 to another till they fill their first 

 stomachs. When they have accom- 

 plished this purpose, they return 

 directly to the hive, and disgorge in a 

 cell the whole honey they have col- 

 lected. It not unfrequently happens, 

 however, that, when on its way to the 

 hive, it is accosted by a hungry com- 

 panion. How the one can communi- 

 cate its necessity to the other, it is 

 perhaps impossible to discover. But 

 the fact is certain that, when two 

 bees meet in this situation, they 

 mutually stop, and the one whose 

 stomach is full of honey extends its 

 trunk, opens its mouth, which lies a 

 little beyond the teeth, and like rumi- 

 nating animals, forces up the honey 

 into that cavity. The hungry bee 

 knows how to take advantage of this 

 hospitable invitation. With the point 

 of its trunk it sucks the honey from 

 the other's mouth. When not stop- 

 ped on the road, the bee proceeds to 

 the hive, and in the same manner 

 offers its honey to those who are 

 at work, as if it meant to prevent the 

 necessity of quitting their labor in 

 order to go in quest of food. In bad 

 weather, the bees feed upon the honey 

 laid up in open cells ; but they never 

 touch these reservoirs when their 

 companions are enabled to supply 

 them with fresh honey from the fields. 

 I3ut the mouths of those cells which 

 are destined for preserving honey 

 during winter, they always cover with 

 a lid or thin plate of wax. 



We shall now give some account of 

 the ingenious Mr. Debraw's discov- 

 eries concerning the sex of bees, and 

 the manner in which their species is 

 multiplied. It was almost univer- 



