r^ // J '* «f»^**\ ^ - 4 « -l^ + ** * ( . -.t^aSS^mnrmmn^yi'^'^^ S-rfSIWllBIBWWiHIII^^ ALBERT R. MANN LIBRARY New York State Colleges OF Agriculture and Home Economics AT Cornell University EVERETT FRANKLIN PHILLIPS BEEKEEPING LIBRARY CornelUJnjy|jjji!y Library The bee people. 3 1924 003 652 637 The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924003652637 THE BEE PEOPLE BY MISS MORLEY A Song of Life. 12mo . . . . $1.25 , Life and Love. 12mo . . . . 1.25 The Bee People. 12mo . . . . 1.25 The Honey-Makebs. 12rao . 1.25 Little Mitchell. -12rao . . . 1.25 The Renewal of Life. 12rno . 1.25 Grasshopper Land. 12rao . . . 1.-25 Each fully illustrated A. C. McCLURG & CO. Chicago THE BEE PEOPLE BY MARGARET WARNER MORLEY Author of "A SONG OF LIFE," "LIFE AND LOVE," ETC. f Huistrateti bg tbe JCutbot EIGHTH EDITION CHICAGO A. C. McCLURG & CO. 1909 ^ Copyright By a. C. McClurg & Co. A.D. 1899, 1905 This present edition is the eighth edition of this book E 593 UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A. Contents. Page EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION 7 AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION 9 Chapter I. APIS MELLIFICA, OR THE HONEY-BEE . .17 II. APIS MELLIFICA AND HER EYES 23 III. HER TONGUE 28 IV. HER HONEY-SAC 41 V. AMBROSIA AND NECTAR 45 VL HER LEGS 48 r VII. HER WINGS 61 VIII. HOW SHE HEARS AND SMELLS 65 IX. HER STING 74 X. MISS APIS AND HER SISTERS 85 XI. THE BROTHERS 88 Xn. THE QUEEN 93 XIII. THE WORK IN THE HIVE. — THE MANUFAC- TURE OF WAX 102 XIV. HONEY-COMB 108 XV. HONEY AND HONEY-DEW 120 XVI. CRADLE-CELLS 128 XVII. THE FAMILY EXODUS 144 XVIII. THE NEW QUEEN 147 XIX. FANCIES AND FACTS ABOUT BEES .... 155 XX. BOMBUS, THE BU.MBLE-BEE 163 Introduction. Introduction. BEES and flowers belong together. We cannot understand the one without the other. For, you see, bees get their food from the flowers, and the flowers need the bees to enable them to form their seeds. The flowers that we like best have bright- colored petals. The petals of a rose are pink or white or yellow. The petals of a violet are purple, and those of a forget-me- not are blue. Sometimes the petals are separate, as in a rose or a buttercup, and you can pull them ofT one by one. Sometimes they are all grown into one piece, like the funnel-shaped flower of the morning-glory. The bees can see the bright colors of the flowers a long way off. They can also lO The Bee People, smell them, for bright flowers are generally fragrant. Flowers make a sweet juice on which bees and other insects feed. We call this The Wild Rose, with five separate petals. The Morning-Glory, with the petals grown together into a funnel. sweet juice nectar, and the bees take it home and make honey of it. The flowers like to have the bees come and take the nectar. Why, do you sup- pose? If you have studied flowers, you will know ; if you have not, I must try to tell you. You know there is a yellow dust in some flowers. It gets on your face when you smell of them. Sometimes flower dust is Introduction. 1 1 brown and sometimes it is white. If you shake a golden-rod in the fall, a cloud of yellow golden-rod dust will fly out.|yThis dust is called pollen. Nearly all flowers havej it. It grows in little box- es called anthers; and] when the anthers are ripeX they burst open and pollen. You know how the anthers in a lily look. They swing on the ends of the six long slender stems that stick out of the lily flower. Nearly all flowers have anthers, but some do not have stems to the anthers. Some- times the anthers grow right against the inside of the flo\yer, but wherever they may be they always contain pollen. jw^^l^Jn the centre of the flower is another part thm looks a little like an anther ; its stem is IpngXand it is marked stigma in the picture. This stVigma is not filled with pollen. It is just a stNfticky knob. stigma 12 The Bee People. When it gets ripe it gets sticky. If any pollen touches it, the pollen sticks fast. If you take away the petals and the anthers and their stems from the lily, this is what you will have left. You see it is the stigma and its long stem, and there is another knob at the other end of the stem opposite the stigma. This other knob is hollow. It is a seed-cup and is filled with seeds. The seeds cannot grow without pollen. If the pollen gets on the stigma, then all goes well. The sticky stigma holds it fast. It finds its way down through the long stem to the little seeds. It nourishes them, and they grow. But if the pollen does not come, the seeds die. Flowers do not like their own pollen. One lily prefers the pollen from another lily. It is better for the seeds. But how to get this pollen ? Why, the hairy- coated bees bring it, to be sure. Introduction. 1 3 And now you see why the flower makes nectar. It wishes to coax the bees to come. When the bees go down to the bottom of the flower after nectar, they will be sure to get their coats dusty with pollen. Then they fly to another flower, and some of the pollen on their coats is rubbed against the stigma and stuck fast there. The nectar is always placed so that the bees have to touch the anthers and the stigma of the flower on their way to the feast. Many flowers have bright lines or spots leading to the nectar that the bee may lose no time in finding it. These are called nectar guides, and you can see them very plainly in the morning-glory. Many other insects besides bees visit flowers. Butterflies and moths and flies and even some beeties are fond of nectar and pollen, and they all carry pollen about from plant to plant. i 14 The Bee People. When insects carry pollen to the stigmas, we say they fertilise the flowers. Unless a flower is fertilized, it will bear no seed. Bees eat pollen as well as honey, and while gathering it from different flowers they are sure to dust the stigmas. Flowers can be fertilized only by pollen from other flowers of their own kind. Lilies can be fertilized only by pollen from other lilies, and roses by the pollen of other roses. Lily pollen cannot fertilize a rose, nor can any pollen fertilize any flower but one of its own particular kind. The three chief parts of a bee are the head, the thorax, and the abdomen. The head bears the antennae, tongue, and eyes. The thorax has attached to it the wings In the abdo- men are the -\.:Lnysting and the honey-sac. The Bee People. The Bee People. I. APIS MELLIFICA, OR THE HONEY-BEE. 'T'HE honey-bees are buzzy, fuzzy little ■*■ pepper-pots. They have pretty, shining wings, but if you so much as touch one of them you will see what happens 1 You cannot wonder that they do not like to have you come too near, for they are such little creatures that even a small child must seem to them like a tremendous giant. How would you like to see a great warm creature as large as a hill come lumbering up and try to put a finger the size of a church steeple upon you? 2 17 iS The Bee People. I am sure you would do anything to keep it away, and if you had a good sharp sting you would use it. So we must not blame the Bee People for stinging us. It is the only way they have of telling us to keep away and let them alone. They are friendly enough to their own relations, as you will agree when you learn that there are sometimes as many as sixty thousand of them living happily together in one family. Sometimes we build houses, which we call hives, for them, and sometimes they live in a hollow tree in the woods. The hives we usually make in these days are square-cornered boxes that can be opened Modert Hives. The Honey-Bee. 19 to take out the honey or to attend to the bees. In some parts of the country an old- fashioned hive called a Bee Gums. " bee gum " is still used. If you go to the mountains of North Carolina, you will see a great many bee gums. Nearly every cabin has a row of them in its yard, and they are made by chopping down hollow sweet- gum trees and cutting off lengths of about three feet. Sometimes other hollow trees are used, but they are all called " gums." The moun- taineers stand the " gum " on a board or a stone, and put another board or stone on top for a roof. All the holes are plastered 20 The Bee People. up with mud except those near the bottom, where the bees go in and out. The mud is used to keep out moths, which otherwise might get in and spoil the honey-combs. A row of bee gums standing beside a log cabin on a mountain-side is very pretty. A skep is a hive made twisted straw, and '^in old times was 'i* used more than jf;-."- any other, particularly , in England, skeps. It had a pe- culiar shape, and to this day when we say a thing is hive-shaped, we mean it is shaped like the skep. Once in a while honey-bees make their home in the hollow walls of a building, and there is a house in a New England city where bees have lived for a number of years. They are under the roof somewhere, and there they stay safe, and year after The Honey-Bee. 21 year store up honey which nobody can reach. Stories are told of old houses whose hollow walls, when they were pulled down, were found to be filled with honey-combs. It is not easy to get honey that is stored in the walls of houses, as the bees fight bravely for their property. Honey-bees are small people, being only about twice as large as common house-flies. Some are brown all over, and some that were brought here from Italy have tan-col- ored abdomens, but all of them, the brown bees, the Italian bees, and the other kinds of hive bees in this country, are called by the same name. Apis Mellifica. Apis is the Latin word for bee, and mellifica is the Latin word for honey-making; and they have this pretty name because they make and store up quantities of good honey, which we like to eat. The Bee People are sun-lovers, and all summer long on bright days you may see them hurrying about. But in the winter- 22 The Bee People. time you would look in vain for them, no matter how brightly the sun might shine, tor they are the Friends of the Flowers and seldom leave home except when there are blossoms for them to visit. Many flowers keep a dainty table spread for the bees. Cups of nectar and dishes of ambrosia are ready for them to eat and drink and carry home. If it were not for these gifts from the flowers , the l l honey-bees could not live, as ^^^^ ^SKfe.'^^fc^et all their food from their flower»| / f rien \ds. White Clover, from which a great deal of honey is made. 11. APIS MELLIFICA AND HER EYES. HERE comes a little brown lady whose name is Apis Mellifica. She is mak- inglier wings go so fast that they buzz like a humming-top. Straight as an ar- row she goes to that morning-glory flower. All at once the buzzing stops; little Miss Apis has landed feet down and right side up on the nectar guide. Such great eyes as stare at you when you look her full in the face 1 No wonder she saw the, bright flower a long way oiT and came' to it. She has more eye-space for her 24 The Bee People. than an owl, which is saying a good deal. In fact, her head looks as if it were nearly ali eyes, — for two large ones cover the sides. And if you will believe me, in the space between the two large eyes, right on top of her head, are three small ones! Unless you shave Miss Apis's head you can see but one of |these small eyes at a time, as '^there is a tuft of hairs in front Miss Apis's face, of each, which hides it unless you are looking right down into it. In the picture Miss Apis's head has been shaved. Five eyes! But that is not all. Each of her two large eyes is made up of about six thousand three hundred very small ones. Really, Miss Apis, twelve thousand six' hundred and three eyes are a goodly supply for one bee. It is fortunate that she does not have to Keep count of them, for if she counted an Miss Apis and Her Eyes. 25 eye, every second it would take almost four hours to gti to the end, without stopping to take a sip of honey, or even to say, Oh, dear me I How would you like your mother to look at you out of more than twelve thousand eyes when you had been doing something naughty? Two eyes are bad enough at such times. Let us hope that young bees never do wrong. Just imagine a naughty little bee looking up to find twelve thousand six hundred small eyes and three large ones solemnly staring at his wickedness ! The truth is, all the thousands of small eyes that make up each large eye work together and act as one eye. Miss Apis's large eyes are called "com- pound eyes " because they are made of so many small eyes, or "facets." The facets are so very small that you cannot see them except by the aid of a microscope ; and here is a picture showing 26 The Bee People. you a portion of the eye considerably magnified. Whoever goes as far as Miss Apis does in search of flowers needs good eyes that can see a long distance. She has been^ known to fly four or five miles in^ search of flowers; just think of going/ back and forth from hive tog flowers and flowers to hivei any such distance as that! As a rule, however, Miss Apis goes o'nly^a little way, half a mile or so, but even for this she needs good, far-seeing eyes. And she has them, — for her compound eyes are very far-sighted. This is probably the reason she needs the three small eyes, which are near- sighted and enable her to see things close at hand. Although she possesses such a prodigious number of eyes. Miss Apis has no eyelids. No, indeed ! she has eye-hairs instead, that point outward and do not prevent her see- Miss Apis and Her Eyes, 27 ing, but keep dust and pollen from getting into her eyes. If you look back at the picture of the facets, you will see some of these hairs. She combs her eyes every time she combs her head, and this does not seem at all funny to her, for, you see, she is used to it. III. HER TONGUE. MEANTIME, while we have been gos- siping about Miss Apis's eyes, she has gone off. There she is, just landing in another morning-glory blossom. She strikes the fshot strikes the bull's ifdown she tumbles to 1 bottom of the nectar guide as eye, then the flower. nectari them full _ sweet clear nectar, for it is early in the morning, and Miss Apis is the first to arrive. She wants this nectar to carry home and make into honey, but how is she going to 28 Miss Apis's Tongue. 29 get her head into the tiny openings that lead to the nectar? You need not worry about that. She knows what to do, and all at once produces /a long shining brown tongue and (thrusts it deep down into the nectar. Here is a morning-glory that must yhave had an X-ray turned upon it, s^for we can see right through it to ^where Miss Apis is reaching her brown tongue down to the nectar. This tongue is almost as queer as her eyes. Not that she has twelve thousand six hundred tongues. Oh, no; one tongue like hers is quite enough, as you probably will agree when you know -^- AjAiHffk-.vb( more about it. ^j^'—^r-^— ^^^^ It is a long tongue and a"^ ^droTo/honV strong tongue, and curls about, lapping up the sweetness, as you can see for yourself if you catch her and give her a drop of honey. 30 The Bee People. But now she has licked the mornfng-glory dry and— but what has she done with her tongue ? It was almost as long as her body a moment ago, and now it is gone. Miss Apis, what have you done with your tongue? Inhere is your tongue, Miss Apis? MISS APIS, MISS apis! YOUR TONGUE, MISS APIS? But she only looks at us out of her twelve thousand six hundred large eyes and her three small eyes, and says not a word. Her tongue is all right, and she knows how to hold it. There, she is going to speak! Buzz — b-u-z-z-zz. No, that is her wing music; her tongue is still silent. Off she goes and leaves us in despair concerning it. Now she has deposited herself in another flower — and sure enough — yes — there is that 1-o-n-g, b-r-o-w-n tongue wriggling around in the nectar cup. Miss Apiss Tongue. 31 I will catch hold of it and pull it, Miss Apis, if you do not tell me what you did with it. Will you? she seems to say, solemnly looking at us out of her twelve thousand six hundred and three eyes. No, we will not, because it is gone again. I think, in spite of her solemn and owl- like looks, she is laughing at us. Saucy Miss Apis, what do you do with your tongue ? " I know what you do with yours," she seems to say, and flies off. But now 1 know. • 1 saw her do it. She pulled it in, just as you do yours when you have put it out of your mouth. But hers is such a large tongue it could not be pulled into her mouth at all. The best she could do was to pull it up as short as possible, and then fold it back into a nice little groove under her head. It is a very useful tongue and a very queer one. It has to reach down into long 32 The Bee People. flower-cups, and so it must be long. It has to lap up honey, and so it must be flexible. It has to find its way through very small ^.^-f^^WH^^openings, and so it must be as I slender as a thread. It often has to come into con- tact with the hard parts of flowers 'and plants, and so it must be I protected. It is protected by two hard horny "'' sheaths, — one covering the upper side of the tongue, (T) ; the other covering the lower side. The lower sheath is made of two long pieces, x,-x, that can >"''"*'°"''V be separated, as you see in the picture. Each has a little feeler F at the end. Usually they lie side by side with their edges over-' lapping, underneath the tongue. TheyJ make a little trough in which tongue lies, as you see in this next»^ picture. They protect the under side of the tongue. Miss Apis's Tongue. 33 The upper sheath is also made of two horny pieces Y, Y, that can be separated from each other. They lie side by side when not separated, and their in-,.--Vv ner edges overlap, so that they/ form a covering to the upper side of the tongue. So, you see, when the two sheaths are their right places they make a tube about the tongue, and the tongue is run out at the point of the sheaths when the bee wants to lick up nectar. Miss Apis has her tongue-sheath sepa- rated into so many parts for a very good reason. If the sheath were a closed tube, pieces of honey-comb or grains of pollen or other substances might get wedged in, when she was licking up honey or nectar, and give her a great deal of trouble. But as it is, if anything gets caught, all she has to do is to separate the parts of her tongue-sheath and clear it out. 34 The Bee People. Miss Apis's tongue is surrounded by rings of hairs whicli hold fast the nectar and enable her to draw it up into her mouth through the tube made by her tongue- sheaths. The very tip of her tongue is like a little round plate and .helps her to lick up the honey. You see by now that Miss Apis's tongue is a very sweet tongue, in fact, a honeyed tongue, as we might say. We speak of poets and orators as having honeyed tongues, but 1 leave it to you if an3^f them can equal Miss Apis in this^ If you look in Miss Apis's face when she is not eating, you can- not see her tongue at all, as it is folded back under her head. You can see her tightly closed jaws, J, J, and her upper lip, but not her tongue^ Here she has opened her jaws and let her tongue down between them, but you Miss Apis's Tongue. 35 can see only the upper sheath and the two little feelers that grow on the points of the lower sheath. In this next picture she has pushed her tongue out below the sheaths, as she does when licking up honey or nectar that is easily reached. If the nectar is hard to get at^ she needs a longer tongue, and therefore shoots the under sheath out below the upper one. \yhen she does this her tongue is not so ^ell protected, but^N^^i^nlf|,|f it is longer, as you' ^iV ,can see in thisy^>( (next picture. When the tongue is/ not in use, it is drawn up as short as possible, S'^« ^j^w and then is folded back into a groove on the under-side of Miss Apis's head, something Apis's held with the tongue (t) folded back. 36 The Bee People. as a boy shuts his knife-blade into the handle. Getting honey is very easy where it is in open cups, but sometimes the flower sweets are in the bottoms of tubes too long for the bee's tongue to reach them. What is she to do in such a case ? When she smells a delicious meal which she can- not reach, shall she pass by with a sigh because she can- Madam BombuMhe ^ "ot get it? Sometimes Bumbie-Bee. sj^g jj obliged to, but some- times she is helped by the bumble-bees. These are much larger than honey-bees; and you will know them because they are covered all over with hair, as if they had on furry coats. Honey-bees have very little hair on the body below the waist. Bumble- bees have broad bands of yellow hairs across their bodies, and sometimes the whole thorax, or part between the head and waist, is bright yellow. Bumble-bees can always be found in red clover fields* Their horny tongue- Miss Apis's Tongue. 37 sheaths are larger and stronger than the sheaths of the honey-bee. Indeed, they make quite a strong little dagger with which Madam Bombus, the bumble-bee, can cut a hole in a flower. When Madam Bombus finds a flower with sweets which she cannot reach without taking too much trouble, she goes to the spot beneath which the sweet she wants is concealed, and, with a downward blow of her convenient dagger, rips open the interven- ing membrane. Then she unfurls her flag in triumph. In this case her flag is her tongue, you understand. She inserts it in the hole she has made and licks out the sweet juice. After she is gone, comes the turn of Miss Apis, who puts her tongue through the hole that her larger and stronger friend has made, and takes her share also. Since the nectaries of the flowers usually fill up as soon as the bees have licked them out, Miss Apis may get. as much honey as though Madam Bombus had not taken any. 38 The Bee People. So you see that the bees help each other to get at their food. But I do not think Miss Honey- Bee knows who has cut open the flowers for her. It is the flowers with spurs that Madam Bombus most often cuts into in this man- I myself have seen her go up to a tidy little touch- me-not cup, and j)assingstraight by the open door in front, cling to the yellow spur at the back, which The tidy litt'le holds the uectar, and with no hesitation what- //ever thrust her sharp little dagger into the spur, slit a hole there, and take out the nectan It is difficult to believe this of a very respectable-looking being with several thou- sands of solemn eyes that make her look many times as wise as an owl, but it only proves how little one can rely upon appear- ances in this world. Miss Apis's Tongue. 39 It seems to be unwise for Madam Bbm- bus to do such a thing ; for by going in at the front door she would preserve the lives of the flowers that feed her. When she goes about slittiiig open necta- ries, she injures not only herself but all her fellow-bees ; for bees carry pollen from flower to flower, as you very well know, and this pollen is necessary to the forming of the seeds. When the bees go into a flower as they ought, they carry some of the pollen that has rubbed off against their hairy bodies to the next flower they visit, which is just what the flowers need. But when they break open the nectaries from the outside, they do not get dusted with pollen, and do not carry it to other flowers. No pollen, no seeds; no seeds, no more plants; so now you understand why the bees do harm when they cut nectaries open. The honey-bees seldom do this, because they cannot. Their dagger sheath is not strong enough. 1 once saw a honey-bee 40 The Bee People. try very hard to cut a hole in the long tube of a purple azalea. She could not reach the nectar from the front of the flower, because the tube was too long and slender, so she tried to break in the back way. But she could not do it, and all the azalea nectar she got she sucked out of holes which the bumble-bees had made in some of the flowers. The az /alea did not make honey for the bees; its long and slender tube was fitted to the tongues of large moths and butterflies. IV. HER HONEY-SAC. WHAT do you suppose becomes of the nectar Miss Apis gathers with her hairy tongue ? She swallows it, you say, and that is true. She does swallow it, but that is not the end of the story. When it is swallowed, it passes into a little honey- sac which is not as large as a sweet- pea seed, and is so delicate that it looks like a little soap- bubble. This honey-sac is in the big end of the abdomen, and in the picture it is shown by a dotted circle. It holds less than a drop of nectar, and we may call it the jug or bottle in which Miss Apis carries the blossom nectar home; for she does not swallow 41 42 The Bee People. it for her own use, but that she may bear it to the hive for the baby bees to eat. You can see this honey-sac by feeding a hive bee as much as she wants, and then letting her fly to the window. The light shining through the delicate body makes the clear honey in her little "bottle" plainly visible. The Italian honey-bees, whose ab- domens are a light tan color, at the upper end, show the honey-drop better than the common brown bees. Some of the honey passes on into the true stomach of the bee, which is just beyond the honey-sac, and is digested ; but the most of it Miss Apis carries to the hive in her honey-sac. It is curious that everything Miss Apis eats has to be swallowed into the honey- sac before it can get into the stomach, and yet the honey is always clear and pure. Honey and pollen go together into the honey-sac, yet the honey in the comb contains almost no pollen. Miss Apis's Honey-Sac. 43 The reason is, Miss Apis strains her honey before she puts it in the comb. In her honey-sac is a little strainer which is very wonderful and very beautiful. It looks, as you can see in the picture, something like a flower-bud. Honey and pollen grains go together \nio/CI^ the honey-sac, but they== do not stay together, for the pollen grains are gathered up by the action of muscles in the walls of the honey-sac, and passed through the strainer into the stomach. The strainer opens its mouth to let them pass, but as soon as they have done so, it closes. Of course a good deal of nectar passes through with the pollen, but this is squeezed back by the muscles of the stomach into the honey-sac through the closed mouth of the strainer. The mouth of the strainer is fringed with hairs that point backwards and cross each other when the strainer mouth is closed. So, though the nectar can squeeze through, 44 The Bee People. the pollen grains cannot. They are kept back in the stomach by this clever little strainer, and only pure nectar or honey can get back into the honey-sac. When Miss Apis gets to the hive, she makes the muscles of her honey-sac squeeze the honey into her mouth, and she then puts it into the honey-comb. Miss Apis swallows nectar, as the sweet juice of the flowers is called, but when we take ho^l^ney from the honey-comb, it has jm^^ un^Lfci. dergone a change and is no longer nectar, but "honey. In some way the nectar has been changed into V. AMBROSIA AND NECTAR. OF course no one, not even Miss Apis nor the lovely Venus herself, eould live entirely upon nectar. We know that the gods and goddesses, when they had a party on Mount Olympus, always had ambrosia as well as nectar. They sat around and had it passed, to them by the graceful goddess Hebe. She was as beautiful as the springtime, and 1 have no doubt they often ate and drank more than was good for them, just for the sake of having her bring them one more cup of nectar or one more slice of ambrosia. The nectar of the gods was like honey ; some say that nine-tenths of it was honey. 45 46 The Bee People. Just what ambrosia was, I am not able to say, but I suppose it was like the best bread that ever was made on earth, only a great deal better; and like the most delicious cake that ever was concocted for Christmas time, only a great deal more delicious; and like all the bonbons and good things rolled into one, only a great deal sweeter and finer than anything we can possibly imagine. Miss Apis, too, takes ambrosia with her nectar, though hers is not at all like that of the gods and goddesses. She gets it from the flowers, and is very fond of it, though we do not agree with her con- cerning the excellence of her feast. But then we might not like the ambrosia the gods were so fond of. Tastes differ. Her ambrosia just suits Miss Apis. In fact, she finds it so much to her mind that she seldom eats anything else. She drinks nectar and eats ambrosia. Her nectar is the sweet iuice of the flowers, and her Ambrosia and Nedar. 47 ambrosia is the pollen of the flowers, — a very precious ambrosia indeed. Miss Apis not only eats all she wants when she visits the flowers, but she mixes nectar and pollen together and carries them away with ■ her. %wbe-.'. She is able to do this, for shea/- '^S^^ ^^y^ carries baskets on purpose. I^^^^She never yet was known to go away I from home and forget to ,^^ I take her pollen baskets. ^^^!i'.'-r^ VI. HER LEGS. THE reason Miss Apis never forgets her - baskets ij, that they are fastened on to her. For, I must tell her legs are as remarkable as her twelve thousand six hun- dred and three eyes, her folding tongue, and her very peculiar honey- sac. Sh^ has six legs fastened to her thorax, which you re- member is the division of her body next back of her head. Although she is so well supplied with legs, she has no arms; since she has no arms," she has no hands. 48 •'veu^ "^ Qj^f^jmjt/v Miss Apis's Legs. 49 That seems rather unfortunate, and we are inclined to be sorry for her, but I doubt if she would thank us for feel- ing so. She probably feels sorry for us because we have not six legs, and wonders how we get along with only two to prop us up and help us to go about, with not even wings to help. For besides six legs, Miss Apis has four wings. They are wonder- ful wings ; but we must return to legs. Since Miss Apis has no hands, she uses all six legs", or rather the claws at the ends of them, for clinging fast to things. She also uses all six legs to walk and run with, and once in a while, when under great excitement, to jump a little. The claws at the ends of her legs are not ordinary claws such as cats or hens have ; there is nothing ordinary about Miss Apis, I must remind you, not even her claws. 50 The Bee People. dtaAi/\ In this picture you can see Miss Apis's foot and the claw at the end very plainly. The truth is, she has been sitting with her foot under the microscope, and if you will believe me, picture \ number 11. is just what you see in the circle in picture number 1., °^ only number 11. is very much / magnified. The claw at the end, as you see in picture number 11., is made of four sharp points, two long and two short ones. There is a claw like this at the end of each of Miss Apis's six feet. They are as good as a whole box o{ tools, being a great deal better than hands and fingers for doing some of the things she is in the habit of doing. Between the points on each foot is a small pad (+), that can stick fast to smooth sur- faces like the pad on a fly's foot, and Miss Apis's Legs. 51 so enable Miss Apis to walk on slippery places if she wants to do so. Her foot is made of four very mov- able joints besides the claw, and this enables her to curl it about objects so as to get a better grasp of them. When she pleases she can turn up her claws and use them as hooks by which to suspend herself. You will see later that it is very important for her to be able to hang herself up when she wishes. But what have her legs to do with pollen baskets? you are asking. They have a great deal to do with them, for Miss Apis carries her baskets on her hind legs. Oh, well, laugh if you want to. I have known people before who laughed too soon. I wonder where you would fit pollen baskets to Miss Apis if you had it to do? 52 The Bee People. Probably you would put them on her head, where she could not see because of them, and where she could not reach them, and gj^j^ where the pollen would be always spilling out, she ever succeeded in getting any in. can tell you, you might look Miss Apis over from top to toe, and l^-you would not find another place as good as her hind legs for disposing of pollen baskets. Each of her legs has ten joints. There I'" are two small ones (1, 2) close to the body, which are very much alike on all the legs. Then comes a long joint (3) which is quite similar in all six legs ; then comes a second long joint (4) which is very curious. The fifth joint is also interesting. 6, 7, 8, 9, are the small joints forming the foot, and 10 is the last joint of all, or the claw. Miss Apis carries her pollen baskets on the outside of the fourth joint of each of Miss Apis's Legs. 53 her hind legs. As she walks about, they are not in her way She does not spill the pollen, and she can easily reach the baskets with her other legs when she wants to fill them. The outside of the joint is hollowed a little, and along the outer edge of this hollow space are stiff hairs that turn towards the middle and make a very com- plete little basket to hold the pollen that is put into it. Miss Apis has been kind enough to sit with her left hind leg under the micro- scope and have its picture taken, so we can see the pollen basket very clearly. The large leg at the left of Miss Apis is the magnified picture of the leg in the circle. If you look at her with a little hand- magnifying glass, you can get quite a good view of her pollen baskets. How do you suppose Miss Apis gets the pollen which she puts into her baskets ? 54 The Bee People. If you look at her body and at the upper part of all her six legs, you will find them covered with long hairs. If you look at the hairs under a magnifying glass you will find them branched, as you see in the picture. When Miss Apis wants pollen she scrapes it from the anther cells with h^r claws, and 'gathers it together with her legs. ^ Very often her whole body becomes dusted with it, and wherever the pollen grains touch the branched ^ hairs they cling fast to them. Miss Apis wriggles about in the flowers, scraping out the pollen with her feet, and collecting it on her branched hairs. Then she carefully brushes it together, and by means of her legs transfers it to her pollen baskets. For you must know she has a num- ber of brushes on her legs to help her to gather up the pollen. Miss Apis's Legs. 55 These brushes are tufts or rows of stiff hairs that are not branched. If we look on the under side of her hind leg, the same that bears the pollen basket on the fourth joint of its upper side, we shall see two kinds of brushes or combs^ for gathering the pol- len together, the stiff hairs on the edge of the fourth joint, and the sharp teeth that cover the fifth joint. Each hind leg is supplied with these use- ful brushes, and one hind leg scrapes the pollen into the basket of the other. The first chance you get you must watch Miss Apis gathering pollen. Sometimes she looks as if she were running about over a head of flowers to find something she had lost,— now this way and now that she goes in a great hurry, then turns around and around. But she has not lost anything, arid she has not gone crazy ; she is merely collecting pollen as fast as she can, and if 56 The Bee People. you have sharp eyes you will see her rub, rub, rubbing it with her legs back into her baskets. It is astonishing how much she can carry. When her baskets are full she goes about with a ball of pollen , attached to each of her hind legs. If she goes into morn- ing-glory blossoms, this pollen '^ /.m foiled bas^ei ^all is whltc ; if she happens to jbe visiting wood-lilies, it is dark reddish brown ; and if she has been going to see the sweet-peas, it is bright yellow. She carries it to the hive and stores it up there Sfor the young bees and for winter use, and fiii it soon assumes a uniform dark brown color. There is nothing neater than a bee. It disturbs her terribly to have a dirty face or a dusty wing, and she is forever cleaning herself. If you look along the outer edge of the fifth joint on her front leg, you will see her Miss Apis's Legs. 57 eye-comb. She has to keep the pollen and dust combed out of her eye-hairs — or else how could she see? And when she is combing ^erv^eyesshe^^^ evidently thinks she^-^^^i^^^^pmay just as well, being/^^W'l ^pa very neat person, co I ^^Kjlmb her^^head also. She cleans off her vel Cyety thorax with the brushes on her middle%>legs, where she also carries a prong for preening her wings, and for prying the pollen out of her baskets. You can see this prong on the inside of her middle leg at the bottom of the fourth joint. You see the pollen is really the flour from which she makes her bee- bread, or ambrosia, as it is/ ^ \ '^ sometimes called. As she collects it she moistens it with honey so that it can be kneaded into a sticky mass, like dough, and thus packed securely in her baskets. All her legs have brushes, and when she is pollen-gathering you can see her 58 The Bee People. dusting every part of her body with these brushes. Over her head she passes the brushes on her fore legs, over her back and under her body she passes the brushes on her middle legs. Then she rubs her legs together to collect the pollen on the combs of the hind legs. Since she gathers the flour for her bread on the hair of her body, she is obliged to keep herself very, very clean, so all the leg brushes are also toilet brushes, and are used to keep her clean as well as to gather pollen. The most remarkable of her toilet articles are her antenna cleaners, but their story comes later. It is much easier to watch Miss Apis per- forming her toilet than it is to distinguish her various combs and brushes. If you wet her a little, then dust her lightly with flour and put her on the window, you can see the whole operation. Miss Apis's Legs. 59 She generally cleans her antennae, and combs her head and eyes first. She turns her head from side to side, and puts her front leg up over it and draws her .g^^^^ convenient comb through the^^^^^ hairs. She turns her head about, using first one front leg and then the other, until she has it as clean as a bee's head ought to be. She generally puts out her tongue and gives that a good rubbing too, grasp- ing it in both her fore feet. ^ When you watch a bee performing her toilet you will understand why her legs are so beautifully jointed. She must be able to move them in all direc- tions, and put them over her back or under her body. She generally cleans her back with her middle legs; and her abdomen, as the last division of the body ^' is called, with her hind legs. -^""^ She also uses her hind legs to -^5^^^^- clean her wings, drawing down te?^ 6o The Bee People. one wing at a time and holding it tightly against her side while she polishes it with her brushes. She spends a great deal of time rubbing her hind legs together, and sometimes she performs the ^Ss-difficult acrobatic feat of standing on her two front legs and rubbing the other four together. She looks very cunning as she rubs and scrubs every part of her fuzzy little body; and if you want to see her do_-^ it, all you need do is to look. -"^ No matter how dirty she may have become, if she is allowed to stand still for a few minutes she will look as if she had on a new suit of clothes and had never known what it was to touch a speck of dirt ; so effective are her numerous brushes and combs. Bee's Brush and Comb. VII. HER WINGS. POLLENLESS and honeyless Miss Apis leaves iiome. She returns with her sac full of honey and her baskets full of pollen. That is, if she is fortunate she returns, for I regret to say that certain birds, being fond of honey, take it, bee and all. They do not stop her and say, "Your honey or your life I " but swallow her whole and talk about it afterwards; that is, if they talk about it at all. Down their throat she goes, honey-sac and long brown tongue, twelve thousand six hundred and three eyes and curious legs, all at once. Not so much as an eye escapes, so far as I have ever heard. 6i 62 The Bee People. Then these birds sit on a branch and " look as innercent as yer mammy's mockin' bird," as Uncle Remus would say, just as if they had never eaten a bee in their lives, nor even thought of such a thing. But if js fortunate she gets home. She does not w^alk home, |nor yet run ; she flies. For, as you know, she has %ings. Dainty wings they are too. They are transparent and [/colorless like glass, and are very thin and "delicate. They shine in the light, or you would scarcely notice them. Miss Apis seems to have only two wings, though really there are four of them. Whatever Miss Apis has she appears always to have in abundance ; and when wings are in question, she must needs have four, although birds and dragons and such economical creatures are content with two. She can fold her four wings down very neatly over her back when she wants to Miss Apis's JVings. 63 walk about, but when she starts to fly, she spreads them out, a pair on each side If !>flp' the two wings^ji^^on either side tPwere to separate/ Wifromeach other and let the air between them, her flight would be spoiled, and she would go tumbling along in an ungainly and mortifying manner. ^That this may not happen, she ^hooks the upper winffs imhooked .large wing^^5;^::^and the lower small one together, when she raises them for flight, so that the two are as firm as though they were but one. She is enabled to do this by a row of hooks on the lower wing which fit into a groove on the , upper wing, as wings hooked you can see in the picture. The wings fit so closely together when hooked that you would not discover there were two, unless you looked very carefully indeed. 64 The Bee People. With her wings safely locked together, away she goes, sure and swift. When she closes them, the smaller ones slip under the larger ones out of the way. You see, four wings are handy when one wants to close them and have them out of the way, but two are best to fly with. So, being a somewhat eccentric and withal ingenious individual, as you may have observed for yourself before this, Miss Apis has two wings to fly with, but four to fold away. VIII. HOW SHE HEARS AND SMELLS. A/{ ISS APIS can hear and she can smell, -^ '^ *■ though just how she hears, since she has no ears, and just how she smells, since she has no nose, puzzled people for a long time. The truth is, she is able to do these things because of her antennas, which, you remember^i^Ki^re the two feel- ers that standM^^i^Kout from her face. These/^|^^C'Jlf|antenn2e or feel- ers, are jointed,e ^^p»^ I having one long joint next the face, and a number of short joints forming a very movable tip. The long joint serves especially as an arm to move the many-jointed end about. If Miss Apis's eyes seem to us wonder- ful, what shall we think of her antennae? For though she has no ears, she has thou- s . 6s ' 66 The Bee People. sands of what we might call "hearing- spots " on the short joints of. her antenns. She also has thousands of " smell-hollows " on these remarkable antennae joints. The hearing-spots and smell-hollows are very, very small, so that we can see them only by means of the microscope. The antennae are also covered with short, sensitive hairs which make them very good #\fc feelers, able to tell Miss Apis 'w '% what kind of substance she is ^touching. They thus serve for End of An- gygs 1,1 fhe dark hive. You would tenna showing -' hairs. j-iQt think Miss Apis needed any more eyes, but one cannot expect absolute perfection in this world, even in eyes, or even in Miss Apis, and the truth is that Miss Apis's many eyes are probably unable to help her in the dark. Some creatures, like cats, can see in the dark, but Miss Apis is obliged to rely upon her antennae for information when she goes into a dark place. How She Hears and Smells. 67 So you see these antennae are very im- portant and valuable. But you have not yet heard all. When bees have anything to say to each other they say it by means of their antennas. Just how this is done I cannot say, as I do not know. But they manage it somehow. When two bees meet they cross antennae in a friendly way, instead of shaking hands and asking after each -^^^^p^Jl^^i other's health ; that is, Howdoyoudol ^" if they are friends, they do. If they are not members of the same family, 1 am sorry to say they fight. Two sisters, however, never fight. Miss Apis's very life depends upon her antennae. By means of them she hears, smells, discovers the nature of objects about her, and communicates with her fellow-bees. When she is awake her antennae are almost always in motion, and she is con- stantly touching the flowers with them, 68 The Bee People. or examining" everything with which she comes in contact. If anything happens to them, if they get broken off, or badly injured, poor little Miss Apis behaves very much like a rudderless boat at sea. She does not seem to know how to get anywhere, but moves about in an aimless sort of way. She does not eat or do her work, and in a short time she dies". Naturally these priceless helpers need to be well taken care of. Dust and pollen must not be allowed to clog up the hearing and smelling organs, nor interfere with the sensitive hairs. Since you have found Miss Apis provided with so many toilet articles, you will not be surprised that she has combs and brushes on purpose to keep her antennae clean. Yes, she has a comb and a brush on each front leg for that very purpose. You can see these curious little " antennas cleaners," 3.S they are called, with the naked eye on How She Hears and Smells. 69 the bumble-bee, and you can see them very well indeed with an ordinary magnifying glass. They are on the inside of the leg at X and A. There is a circular opening at A just large enough for the antennae to fit into. It is. bordered by a sort of round comb, that reminds us of those' combs little girls sometimes wear, ^; Only this comb is very small and the teeth point outward. At the end of the joint above, at x, a stiff flap hangs down. When the leg is bent the flap is brought down in front of the cir- cular opening, as you see in the picture. When Miss Apis wishes to clean Her antenna, which is very often, she raises her leg above her head, and draws it down over her antenna, which slips into the circular opening. Then she bends her leg, the flap holds the antenna in place, and she draws that precious organ through the 70 The Bee People. cleaner. The teeth in the round comb on one side and the sharp edges of the flap or brush on the other clean off every particle of dust. You can see her almost any time draw- ing first one antenna, then the other, ^through the useful and remarkable ■f'yX\\i\t cleaners provided for the ■purpose. She will often kstop in the middle of her honey- Antenna. gathering to do it, for she seems to feel uncomfortable if her antennae are not as clean as clean can be. The brush at s is used to clean out the round comb on the opposite leg. As you ■ can imagine, it was a long time before people understood the uses of Miss Apis's antenna; but about two hundred years ago Mr. Francis Huber, a Swiss gentleman who loved bees, found out a part of the secret. He discovered that the honey-bee smells and feels with her antennae. How She Hears and Smells. 71 All who love bees ought to know and love Huber, for he spent many, many years studying the bees and finding out wonderful things about them. I think you will like to hear his story. When only a boy he was very fond of nature, and very fond of study. He read so constantly that he ruined his eyes and when still a young man became blind. This did not stop his work, however, for he had two friends who were eyes for him. One was the young lady to whom he was engaged to be married. When he became blind, her friends tried to persuade her to leave him, but she would not. She insisted upon marrying him and tak- ing care of him. Huber and his wife lived in happiness for a great many years, and Huber said that he did not realize he was blind until his wife died. Huber's other friend was a man named Francis Burnens. Huber would tell Burnens just how to perform an experiment and just 72 The Bee People. what to look for, and Burnens would do exactly as he was told, and then tell Huber all about it. In this way, Burnens did the seeing and Huber the thinking. Burnens was very patient and careful, and once he spent eleven days, scarcely stopping to sleep, in examining every bee in two hives. Think what a task that was! 1 believe he drenched the bees with water so they would not sting, and then examined them one by one. It was owing to the careful work of Burnens that Huber was able to make a number of important discoveries about bees. A good many of the interesting facts we know to-day about bees we owe to blind Huber. He invented a hive which opened like the leaves of a book, so that he could at any time see what was going on inside, — or rather Burnens could see and tell him. People to-day sometimes use narrow hives with glass sides, so that everything the bees do can be watched. Some schools have How She Hears and Smells. 1Z such a hive fastened in a window; this is very interesting for the children. Bees do not willingly work in a light place, and they do not seem to enjoy being watched, so often they smear the sides of the glass hive all over with bee glue, which prevents curious eyes from looking in. Where bees are handled a good deal, they become quite tame. They seem to recognize their keeper. Bee-keepers very often have little machines by which they can puff smoke upon the bees. This does not hurt them, but makes them quiet, so the honey can be taken out and the bees handled. IX. HER STING. ^THER things than birds sometimes catch Miss Apis, toads and frogs, for ''stance, and sometimes boys do it ; but boy catches her in his fingers with- ^out being punished for it. She has a dagger for such occasions, and it is not her tongue dagger either. It is as far from that as it can be, for it is at the extreme tip of her abdomen. Of, course, belonging to Miss Apis, it is a remarkable dag- ger. Sharp 1 My! If 'I you do not believe me, / just touch it. Sharpness, however, is not unusual in dag- " Be careful, Miss Apis I 74 Miss Apis's Sting. 75 gers; all daggers are more or less sharp, though few as sharp as Miss Apis's. But the thing that distinguishes her dagger, and makes it more terrible than any other, is its barbs. Generally daggers are smooth, and make a clean cut, coming out as easily as they go in. Not so Miss Apis's dagger. Al- though it is so tiny that we cannot see any barbs with the naked eye, still they are there. Instead of being smooth, it is fuller of barbs than a fish-hook, as you can see in the pic- ture, which is a very much enlarged ^'^a„gPJ.^'^ view of Miss Apis's sting. For "^gnifi^d. 9 while an ordinary fish-hook has but one or two barbs, this little stinger has \j) ten pairs ! It is not an easy matter to dina°y %^^ ^ fish-hook out of your finger if hook, it gets in beyond the barbs, as those of you who have ever had such an unpleasant experience know very well. If one pair of barbs hold so well, think how well ten pairs 76 The Bee People. must hold ! They hold altogether too well, as we shall see presently. Miss Apis's sting is not all in one piece, although it seems to be, and it requires very careful examination to discover that it is made of three parts. It is a sort of sheath with a groove run- ning its whole length. Into this groove fit two lances that can move up and down in the groove. When Miss Apis decides to sting you, she first drives the sharp point of her sheath into you. This has a few barbs to keep it from slipping out again. Then one after the other the lances, each with its ten strong barbs, are thrust in. Deeper and deeper they are forced until they are as deep in as they can go. After all, the wound they make is very, very small, no worse than the prick of a fine needle, in fact. Then why does it hurt so ? Ah, that is another question. Miss Apis's barbed sting reminds us of the ugly weapons sometimes used by Miss Apis's Sting. 77 ' savages, and like the cruel savages ^she too poisons her weapon. That is why it hurts us .so. A jet of poison is pumped down the hollow (sting from a poison bag "^ in her body, and is forced into the wound through an opening in the five lower barbs on each lance. So when Miss *^Apis stings us, we get ten jets of poison jpumped into the little hole she makes in ; our skin. Miss Apis's pleasant weapon is IVy her constant companion, and she is very free to use it, excepting when the aforementioned birds snap her up so quickly, and swallow her down so fast, that she has not time to get over her surprise •j8 The Bee People. sufficiently to use her sting before slie is a dead bee. You may think she never stings when she is dead, but I have heard otherwise. However, that is another story. The birds that swallow her must sometimes get stung, but they do not seem to object; perhaps they enjoy it. If you really want to know whether Miss Apis is willing to sting if she gets the chance, pick her up some day when she is getting nectar from a flower. You will learn several things. First, that the best thing >you can do under the circumstances is to let her go as soon as possible, and pursue some other path to knowledge. But if you are a philosopher, you will not fail to observe what a very convenient position her sting occupies, as convenient for its purpose as the pollen-baskets are for theirs. She twists her jointed abdomen Miss Apis's Sting. 79 about so that you will have hard work to take hold of her where she cannot plunge her sting into you. The entrance of this little sting gives rise to sensations out of all proportion to its size, A sting so small that you can hardly see it produces a pain so large that you do not seem to have room for any other feeling. Presently the spot about the tiny hole made by the sting begins to swell until it may be- come several times as large as Miss Apis her- self. That, you know, is because she takes good care to pump poison into the wound. This poison of hers is a reliable, warranted- never-to-fail irritant. If a whole hive of bees were to set upon you and sting you at once, youi might be made very sick by it, as well as have to suffer great torture. It is said that people have even died from such' mishaps. We see that little Miss Pepper-pot is not so innocent as she looks flying about among the flowers. 8o The Bee People. Still, as I said, you cannot blame her for using her sting, and if she ever does use it on you, do not get angry, but pull it out, then put some mud on the place and try to remember that when it stops hurting, you will feel better. Mud is a very good remedy, and, like Miss Apis's sting, is generally at hand. There is another consolation about get- ting stung; if it happens often enough, the sting in time ceases to poison you 1 Your system seems to become used to the poison, so that it gradually loses its effect and its power to injure. Still, I should not advise any one to try this remedy; it is too hard on the bees, — to say nothing of its unpleasant conse- quences to yourself. For poor little Miss Apis, with her many eyes, her honey-sac, her complicated tongue and legs and all the rest, pays a terrible pendty for losing her temper and stinging people. Miss Apis's Sting. 8i You remember her sting is barbed like a fish-hook ; and if you have gone fishing much, you know how hard it is to pull a fish-hook out of anything into which it happens to get fastened. Well, when Miss Apis recklessly plunges ten pairs of barbs into the tough skin of your finger, she cannot pull them out again; and in her efforts to do so, out comes sting, poison-bag and all, and off she goes, hurt much worse than you are, for she will surely die as a result of her loss. She has left her poor savage little sting in your finger, much against her will, how- ever ; and your first care should be to extract it so as not to press out any more poison from the poison bag. This you can do by pressing . the flat edge of a penknife against your skin close to the sting, but not touching it, and then drawing out the sting, just as you might take out a tack with a tack- hammer. sting should be extracted at once, because if rem \ju ains in your finger its |/^ muscles continue to *wot/rk, '^even though the sting is now entirely separated from the bee, every bit of poison will be pumped 'out of the poison bag into your finger. So you see Miss Apis's sting continues to do the best it can, and to hurt you as much as possible, even after it has been completely torn from her body. In fact, if you touch a sting newly removed from a bee, you will get stung by it. There is no doubt that it is a very reliable weapon. In her fright and anger, Miss Apis does not stop to consider what will happen if she stings you, but stings first and thinks afterwards. 82 %