HOW DOTH THE BUSY BEE

Hokitika Guardian, 13 January 1930, Page 2

HOW DOTH THE BUSY BEE

MYSTERIES OF THE HIVE

The queen humble-bees born in the summer are spending the winter in safe solitude, in a state of coma or suspended animation. They are only survivors of the summer communities. But it, is very different with the hive-bees where many members of the community survive, and not in a comatose state. This survival depends oil the store ,of honey in the waxen cells, and r is a .good instance of the value of thrift, .‘or, some would say, capitalism, writes Professor J. A. Thomson in “John o’Londou’s Meekly.”

THE WINTER HOLIDAY

Inside the dark hive the bees are resting but are not dormant; they huddle together if the frost, is very severe ; they fail vigorously with their wings; their bodies are all a-tremble. They are making heat, and a thermometer ‘inserted shows a summer temperature in the hive through there may be snow on the grounds

There is mortality during the winter besides wear and tear of the comb, so the first business when spring comes is to have a cleaning and tidying and mending. Then the workers go out to forage, bringing in a little fresh food from the early flowers. Soon the queen begins to be maternal, and we can actually see her depositing a just visible egg in an empty cell of the comb. She seems to be much preoccupied and passes quickly from cradle to cradle accompanied by a retinue of workers who yield politely before her as she moves. When she gets her maternal stride she may lay a thousand eggs in a day, perhaps three thousand at,.the; height of summer.. Of course she lias to be well fed.

THE NUPTIAL FLIGHT

When a queen bee is laying an egg she may secure its,' fertilisation by means, o'f a spermc'ell expressed from a store which she deceived from a drone during her nuptial flight. This store may last for two or three years. If the laying queen does not secure the fertilisation of’ the egg she lays, it will develop into a male bee or drone; but a fertilised egg will develop into queen 1 or a worker, the result depending on the diet of the grub.

The worker-bee is a normally sterile female, who has, however, some structures that the queen lacks, such as pollen-baskets and waxglands, besides a longer tongue for reaching the nectar and a better brain. The queen cannot gather neither honey or pollen and cannot make a particle of wax. She is given over to maternity.

Since we are making these contrasts we may notice that drones have no waxglands or pollen-baskets, that their tongue is even shorter than the queen’s, that their legs are as weak as hers are strohg, and that they have no string—for'a sting is a transformed egg-laying organ or ovipositor, and therefore represented in females only. But the drones have the finest eyes, for they are always on the outlook for a- young queen, and they have large wings with very strong muscles to work them. We must not make . the mistake of thinking of drones as idle for while they do not forage they spend the whole clay in fine weather flying hard in the vicinity of the hive, on the generally disappointed watch for a queen.

THE LIFE-HISTORY OF A WORKER

Out of the developing egg there is hatched in three days a tiny white grub. The nursing workers feed it for six days with a thin whitish jelly, which seems to be very nutritious. On the sixth day the full-grown grub passes into the quiescent pupa stages and the workers close the cell with a porous cap of pollen and wax. In twelve days the great change is accomplished and on the twenty-first day after the fertilisation of tlie egg a fully-formed worker-bee cuts ruml the cap of the cell and creeps out. The times required for the development of drones „and queens are a little different.

For about three weeks after becoming a winged bee the worker remains in the hive, and'it has been shown by Rosch that she has a regular succession of duties—cleaning up cells, tending the older grubs, giving jelly to the younger ones, dsitributing food in the hive, and finally acting as a porter at the door.

“ROYAL JELLY.”

After these three weeks or so, and after two or three trial flights without any collecting the workers being their serious foraging tasks, and in most eases the summer bees become fatally fatigued in three weeks more. They are victims of an instinct that drives to to be oveivindustrious. The shining hour does not improve the busy bee.

Jn a strong hive there may be two or three thousand worker-bees emerging every day! From May onwards there is also a production of drones. They have a mother, hut not father. Early too, as the population rises by leaps and bounds some special queencells are built and the grubs that develop in these are fed exclusively on “Royal jelly,” and develop into young queens. Those grubs that are fed first on the jelly and later on honey and pollen become workers. As numbers increase the hive becomes '" wellstocked and excitement, grows. Scouts issue forth, looking 'for a new site. The workers feed well, and the young queens are sometimes heard “piping” in their cells.

ONE HOLIDAY IN A LIFETIMI

It sometimes happens that one is liberated while her mother is still queen of the hive. About the middle of a fine day a swarm pours forth, and the first one is normally led by.,the old queen.A new community'is thus started. Later on there, may lie more swarms from the original hive, a young queen leading each. . But whether there is swarming or not, a-'young queen cannot he of n.n.v use as a mother of workers or of other queens unless she is mated with a drone on the nuptial flight, which is often her single holiday.

The queen pairs only once and with one drone, who dies on the heights of love. If the queen does not happen to he overtaken by a drone on her nuptial flight she will try again next day. Tf she fails entirely her eggs will develop into drones.

Earlv in the season the numerous drones are treated in a good-humour-ed way, and are well (fed. But as the season goes on, and the young queens have been mated, and supplies of food become less abundant, the workers cold-shoulder the drones, though there is rarely any massacre. Gradually the hive sinks into its winter rest.