The book of bee-keeping : a practical and complete manual on the proper management of bees ... / by W. B. Webster.

  • Webster, W. B.
Date:
[1901]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The book of bee-keeping : a practical and complete manual on the proper management of bees ... / by W. B. Webster. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    as, when stung on a garment, where the poison evaporates quickly, and thus gives forth its odour, others, until then well-disposed, will instantly commence to buzz around, and insert their weapons where not needed. The worker has most of the generative organs as in the queen, but in a very rudimentary form. The compound eyes are set well apart, the ocelli, or simple eyes (three), being easily discernible, with a strong magnifying glass, on the forehead, between the two compound eyes. It has pollen-baskets, one on each of its two posterior legs, in which it carries pollen and propolis to the hive. The tongue of the worker is much longer than either the queen’s or drone’s; hence we see its adaptability for gathering the nectar from the innermost portions of the flowers. On the underneath, and under the articulations of the abdomen, there are receptacles called wax-pockets, in which, when comb building, the wax is secreted, in the form of small scales looking not unlike fish scales ; these are removed by the bee, and kneaded by its jaws, assisted by its anterior legs, into ribbons before forming into comb. It has a receptacle in the anterior portion of the abdomen, called a honey-sac, in which the nectar from the flowers is collected, and transformed, by a chemical action, into honey; it is also there partially separated from its watery element while the bee is gathering; this can be easily observed by watching a bee on the wing voiding the water so abstracted. Although in a normal condition the worker bee does not breed, there are exceptional instances where a worker or workers, in a queenless colony, will partially usurp the queen duties, and lay eggs ; but in every such case these eggs produce drones. They are then called “fertile workers.” Whether the drones thus produced are capable of fertilisation is a moot point, and has not yet been satisfactorily determined. 29. Duties of Workers.—What a multiplicity of employ- ments ! A perfect “Jack of all trades!” All the various and multifold duties appertaining to the well-being of a colony are performed by these industrious little labourers. Directly, or within a few hours of emerging from the cells, work is their portion, continued without intermission until the time when, with tom and battered wings, they are cast out as of no more use. They have worked and worked, living only for work, and dying only when nature is completely exhausted and worn out. When a worker egg is laid in the cell by the mother bee, it hatches in three days ; it is then fed, in the larval stage, for seven days. Having grown to its fullest size, it is capped over by the bees with a mixture of pollen and wax ; this being of a porous nature, allows the immature insect to obtain the requisite amount of oxygen to support its existence. At the end of twenty-one days —twenty days in warm weather—it issues forth, a lightish-coloured,