Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume II.djvu/476

 456 BEE When a hive becomes too crowded, or for other reasons as yet not perfectly understood, preparations are made for the emigration of a swarm with a queen; scouts are sent out in advance to select a proper place for the new hive, and the workers are busy in collecting an extra quantity of provisions to be carried with them. When the weather is warm, and after a full stock of eggs has been laid, the old queen, unsuccessful in her attempts to destroy the royal brood, abdicates the throne which the first-born new queen will soon dispute with her. During the preparations, a great buzzing is occasionally heard, which suddenly ceases on the day of departure. When all is ready, the signal is given by the workers, and the queen, with all the departing swarm, rushes to the door, and rises into the air ; they follow the queen, alighting with her in a dense cluster, and returning to the hive if she does. Cold weather, or even a passing cloud, will arrest the emigration until a warmer or brighter period. After a rest at their first landing place, the swarm collects into a close .phalanx, and Hies in a direct line to the select- ed spot. The deserted hive is busily occupied in hatching out a new queen, which in her turn leads out a swarm ; two or three will be sent oif in a summer from an old hive. After the massacre of the males in July or August, the workers busy themselves in collecting stores for winter use ; as the autumn advances, honey becomes scarce, and they are obliged to collect the sweet exudations from leaves, honey dew, and also the juices of peaches and other sweet fruits, after the skin has been broken by birds, snails, or insects; when all other resources fail, they do not scruple to attack weaker hives and despoil them of their honey. The cold of winter reduces them to a nearly torpid state, in which they remain until the warm days of spring. The instinct of the bee and its tendency to thrift are curiously manifest in the fact that it accumulates immense stores of honey in tropical and semi-tropical countries, wheue there is no necessity for laying up sup- plies for winter, since flowers are abundant at all seasons. In fact, the largest supplies of honey and wax are exported from such coun- tries ; the latter is the more important article of commerce, as the honey, particularly from the West Indies and Central and South Amer- ica, is generally of an inferior quality. Bees recognize the person of their queen ; if a new one be given them, they will generally sur- round her and suffocate or starve her to death, for it is remarkable that the workers never attack a queen with their stings; if she be permitted to live 24 hours, she will be received as their sovereign. Huber discovered that if the fecundation of the queen be delayed beyond the 21st day of her life, she begins to lay the eggs of males, and produces no others d'uring her life; she lays them indiscriminately in large and small, and even in royal cells ; in the latter case, they are treated by the nurses as if they were royal grubs. Eeim made the sin- gular discovery of prolific workers, thus ex- plaining the laying of eggs in hives destitute of a queen; but the eggs thus produced are al- ways those of males ; this is accounted for by their having passed their grub state in cells contiguous to the royal ones, and from having their generative organs partially developed by devouring portions of the stimulating royal food ; how they become impregnated has not been ascertained. (See PARTHENOGENESIS.) The Italian or Ligurian bee (A. ligustica) has been introduced into the United States, and found far superior to the common bee. (See BEE-KEEPING.) The natural enemies of bees are numerous ; among them may be men- tioned wasps, hornets, spiders, dragon flies, toads, lizards, woodpeckers, the bee-eater and most insectivorous birds, rats and mice, ant-eaters, bears, and badgers. They seldom die a natural death, and the average dura- tion of life cannot be more than a year; the whole population would be destroyed by their enemies, each other, and the severity of the weather, were it not for the surprising fecun- dity of the queen, who will lay in temperate climates as many as 60,000 eggs, and in warm regions three times that number ; a single im- pregnation is sufficient to fecundate all the eggs which a queen will lay for at least two years, and probably during her life. The most de- structive and insidious enemy of the bee is a lepidopterous insect, of the group crambida, the galleria cereana (Fab.), commonly called the bee or wax moth ; in its perfect state it is a winged moth, about three fourths of an inch long, with an expanse of wings of a little more than an inch ; the females are the largest, of a dark gray color, tinged with purple-brown and dark spots. (See BEE-KEEPING.) Wild Honey Bees. When bees swarm, if they are neglected and are not speedily hived, they will fly away with their queen to the woods and find a home in a hollow tree, where they lay up honey, rear brood, and send out successive swarms for new wild colonies. Wild bees are abundant in India, the islands of the Malay archipelago, Crete and all the Greek islands, the W. coast of Africa, and throughout America. Those in the United States are all of foreign origin. There were none W. of the Mississippi before 1797, nor in California before 1850; and the Indians call the bee the white man's fly. In regions where wild bees abound, bee hunting is a distinct and important business, pursued by professional hunters or experts. In Africa, India, and the In- dian islands, the hunter is unerringly guided to a bee tree by a bird of the cuckoo family. (See HONEY GUIDE.) Wells's " Explorations in Hon- duras" (New York, 1857) states that in Cen- tral America wild swarms generally establish themselves in the hollow limbs of trees ; these are removed to the porches of the houses, and are there suspended by thongs ; in this primi- tive way large quantities of honey and wax are obtained. The honey of some of these