Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 02.djvu/766

BEE. votes herself to motherhood for the increase of her tribe.

Eggs and Young.—The queen bee, when about to begin to lay eggs, is the object of great attention on the part of the workers. She moves about in the hive, attended by a sort of retinue of about 10 or 15 workers, by some of which she is frequently supplied with honey. But the name of queen bee appears to have originated in a mistaken notion that something analogous to a monarchy subsists in the beehive; and imagination being permitted free scope, many things have been invested with a false coloring derived from this analogy.

The queen bee at first lays eggs which give birth to workers, and afterwards produces eggs which become drones. With unerring instinct she places each egg in the kind of cell appropriate to it, which has been prepared beforehand by the workers, the drones' cells being larger than the workers' cells. The cells in which future queens are to be reared are very unlike all the others, but the eggs differ in no respect from those deposited in workers' cells. It is a curious circumstance that queens, of which the fecundation has been prevented till they are considerably older than usual, lay mainly drone eggs. It occasionally also happens that some of the worker bees lay eggs, and these invariably produce drones.

The eggs of bees are of an oblong shape and bluish-white color, about one-twelfth of an inch in length. They are hatched in about three days. The larvæ are little, worm-like creatures, having no feet, and lying coiled up like a ring. They are diligently fed by the working bees, until, in about five days, when large enough nearly to fill the cell, they refuse food, upon which the attendant bees seal up the cell with wax, and the larva, spinning itself a fine silken envelope or cocoon, is transformed into a pupa; and about the twenty-first day from the deposition of the egg the young bee, in its perfect state, breaks the covering, and issues from the cell. It is caressed and supplied with food by the attendant bees, and is believed not to try its wings until several days old. The cell from which a young bee has issued is speedily cleaned out and prepared for the reception of another egg or of honey. The fine silken envelope of the pupa, however, remains attached to the cell, of which the capacity thus becomes gradually smaller, until the cells of old combs are too small to receive eggs and can be used for honey alone—a fact of which the importance in relation to the economical management of bees is obvious. The spinneret, by means of which the larva spins the cocoon, is a small organ connected with the mouth. The food with which the larvæ are supplied is a mixture of pollen, honey, and water, with the addition, possibly, of some secretion from the bread-glands of the working bees, by which it is prepared. It varies a little, according to the age and kind of the larva, and the peculiarities of that given to young queens appear to be indispensable to their fitness for their future functions. Pollen is constantly found stored up in the cells of the hive, and is called 'bee-bread.' Most people have met with such cells in honeycomb, and have observed the strikingly peculiar taste of the contents.

The combs of a beehive are parallel to each other, forming vertical strata of about an inch in thickness, and distant about half an inch from each other. The cells are therefore nearly horizontal, having a slight and somewhat variable dip toward the centre of each comb. The central comb is generally first begun, and next after it those next to it on each side. Circumstances frequently cause some departure from this uniform and symmetrical plan, which, however, still remains obvious. Each comb consists of two sets of cells, one on each side; and it may be mentioned as an illustration of the wonderful industry of bees, and the results of their combined labors, that a piece of comb 14 inches long by 7 inches wide, and containing about 4000 cells, has been frequently constructed in 24 hours. The greater part of the comb consists of the kind of cells fitted for breeding workers, a smaller part of it of the larger or drone cells. After the principal breeding season is over, the cells of some parts of the comb are often elongated for the reception of honey; and sometimes comb of greater thickness, or with unusually long cells, is constructed for that purpose alone, in which case the mouths of the cells are inclined upward more than is usual with the ordinary brood-cells. When a cell has been completely filled with honey, its mouth is sealed or covered with wax.

The comb partition is composed of a multitude of little rhombs, or four-sided figures, with equal and parallel sides, and two obtuse and two acute angles, the obtuse angles being angles of 109° and the acute angles of 71°, agreeing with the results of mathematical analysis, applied to the difficult question of the form of the facets of a three-sided pyramid, which should terminate a six-sided prism, so as to combine the greatest economy of materials with the greatest strength. On looking at a piece of empty honeycomb, placed between the eye and the light, we readily perceive that the cells are not opposite to each other, cell to cell; but that the point of meeting of three sides of three cells, on one side, is opposite to the centre of a cell on the other side—a circumstance which is calculated greatly to increase the strength of the whole fabric. It follows also from this that the terminating pyramids of the cells on the one side do not interfere with the form of the cells on the other side; but the three rhombic facets, which terminate each cell, belong likewise to three distinct cells on the opposite side of the comb.

The only departure from perfect regularity in the form of the cells is in the transition from the smaller or workers' cells to the larger or drones' cells, which, when it takes place, is managed with great simplicity and beauty of contrivance.

Beeswax.—The material of which cells are built is chiefly wax (see ), which is at first of a white color, but becomes brownish-yellow with age, and in very old combs almost black. Although wax exists as a vegetable product, yet beeswax is now known to he produced in the bodies of bees: and it has been found that they produce wax and build combs when supplied only with honey or saccharine substances. The bees which are about to proceed to wax-making suspend themselves in clusters in the hive, attaching themselves to each other by means of hooks with which their feet are provided; and while they remain motionless in