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The Worker Bee · American Bee Journal

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  Section five of the American b Journal, Volume one, number one, January
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  eighteen sixty one. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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  the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot
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  org. The American b Journal, volume one, number one, January eighteen
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  sixty one, by various Section five. The worker b If we examine a
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  hive in the months of May, June or July, the busy season of
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  the year, when the population has attained its fullest development, we shall find
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  therein three distinct kinds of bees, a queen, a large number of drones,
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  and many thousand workers. Later in the season, usually after the first
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  of September, the population will be found to consist of the queen and workers
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  exclusively, as drones are not then tolerated in healthy colonies. It were superfluous
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  to describe the worker bees minutely, as all who take an interest in the
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  subject have doubtless frequently observed them in the vicinity of the hive or when gathering
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  honey or pollen from flowers of the field. They are not inappropriately called workers,
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  though the queen is by no means an idle or an active inmate of
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  the hive and lays all the eggs from which the young bees spring. The
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  workers perform all the other labors of the colony. They cleanse the interior of
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  the dwelling by removing thence all impurities. They close with propolis the cracks or
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  crevices which might harbor worms or moths, or allow the escape of heat from
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  within. They build the combs, nurse the brood, guard the hive,
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  and provide all the honey, pollen, propylis, and water needed in the
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  economy or essential to the prosperity of the colony. Though each individual worker is
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  or can become qualified to perform in an emergency, all these several labors,
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  yet ordinarily there is a subdivision of employment among them. Their duties may properly
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  be classified under two heads, the internal or domestic, such as the production
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  of wax, the building of combe, the nursing of brood, the capping
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  of cells, and the garnering up of honey and pollen. And the external
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  or fort such as the gathering of the substances and materials requisite for the support
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  and welfare of the associated body. Those bees which attend to the domestic deuse
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  rarely leave the hive except for exercise, whilst the others are almost constantly on
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  the wing from morn to dewy eve gathering stores. When such are to be
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  found and the weather permits them to go in quest of the coveted spoil,
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  they scarcely take time to deposit their appropriated suites in the destined receptacle, but
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  hastily transferring them to the charge of their home keeping sisters, they speed forth
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  anew to forage the inviting fields and sip the nectar of each expanded flower.
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  He who fancies that the bee which is just returned from a successful excursion applies
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  its contribution of pollen or honeyed directly to their destined use. Elaborating wax,
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  building cells, or preparing chime for the brood, entertains erroneous views. The
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  gathering bees would for the time be almost wholly unfitted for such tasks as these.
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  To prepare crime or secrete wax, the bees must previously consume a portion
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  of pollen mixed with diluted honey, and then await in the elevated temperature of
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  the hive the gradual processes of digestion and conversion. At such times their stomachs
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  are so surcharged with these substances that they are scarce able to fly, and
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  they feel no disposition to sting when on opening the hive, other workers rush
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  out on warlike deeds intent. These retire timidly to the interior, and their
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  entire deportment resembles that of the timid and fugacious queen, whose more constant attendants
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  they are. These drudges of all work are the younger bees on them during
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  their minority, As it were, all the cares and toils of the home
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  department are devolved, and for them as yet, the beauties of external nature
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  have no attraction. Even honey, that coveted nectar to appropriate, which they
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  will subsequently hazard. Life itself is for them, at this early stage of
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  existence, no enticing lure. The overweening foddenness for it displayed at a later
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  period, is with them literally an acquired taste. A bee just hatched will
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  turn from it with decided unconcern, if not real disgust. The older and
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  far more numerous portion of the population are in fair mild weather, engaged from
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  dawn to dusk in outdoor pursuits exploring the surrounding country. In search of stores.
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  The stomachs of these more actively employed bees are nearly empty when they leave
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  the hive, and their bodies are hence lighter and better fitted for rapid flight
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  and distant excursions. Returning with laden thighs and well gorged honey bags, their
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  flight is obviously slower and their motions more sluggish. At night and sometimes during
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  the day, when the weather prevents them from going abroad, they hang in
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  clusters from the combs, or, if the heat within be great, they
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  crowd about the entrance of the hive and gather in masses on its front.
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  When disturbed or annoyed, they do not, like the others, timidly retire,
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  but at once assail the intruder intrepidly and repel him with their stings.
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  But they rarely manifest any interest in the domestic concerns of the family, and
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  if separately hived and deprived of their queen, they can scarcely be induced to
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  rear a successor to replace their lost sovereign. Even when furnished with suitable brood.
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  They have, it is true, a home which they love and check,
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  which they delight to replenish with nature's most luscious sweets, and for the
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  defense of which they are ever ready to sacrifice life itself. But it is
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  a home swept and garnished for them by the rising generation, whose habits and
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  instincts are as yet almost entirely dissimilar to theirs. Who divides these workers thus
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  into two distinct classes. Who orders the subdivision of their labors. Who inspires
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  one portion with home keeping propensities and directs their attention to domestic duties, and
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  impels the others to roam abroad for supplies and provides stores for autumn and winter.
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  He who framed their bodies and infused their instincts. Their actions are not
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  the results of reflection and choice, but of those innate impulses with which the
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  Creator has endowed them. What they do they do unbidden, impelled thereto by
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  an inborn industry, actuated by different predilections and assuming different tendencies at different stages
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  of life, yet co working from first to last for the common good.
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  The younger, more delicate and more sensitive of atmospheric changes, attend by preference
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  to the domestic employment, and as they advance in age, they pass gradually
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  over into the rank of the elders. Recruiting their diminished hosts by supplying the
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  place of the multitudes which daily perish. At first, they come forth only
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  during the warmer hours of the day, when the drones sally out and young
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  queens make their nuptial excursions. Subsequently they join the foraging parties. New propensities
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  begin to be developed, their earlier habits are transformed, and instead of mainly
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  creeping and crawling, they now mount and fly. Though it would seem that
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  to the aged bees whose wings have become mutilated and whose bodies are toil worm,
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  the domestic duties might now properly be assigned, such is not the fact,
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  and these precisely are the most indefatigable purveyors, the most sedulous laborers abroad,
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  perishing ultimately for the most part from sheer inability to fly owing to the
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  lacerated condition of their wings. A knowledge of this difference in the department of
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  the workers at different periods of life is of much practical importance, because it
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  can be advantageously availed of in many operations in bee culture. When, for
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  example, a portion of the workers are to be transferred from a strong stock
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  to an artificial colony, it would be highly injurious to the parent stock.
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  If the removed portion were composed mainly or altogether of old bees, which for
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  the time constitute its most active and reliable gathering force, these which would at
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  all events not long survive, had better remain and be allowed to labor on
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  their old foraging ground in their accustomed range or beat. Comb building will for
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  some time be the main business of the new colony, And for this department
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  of labor the old bees are comparatively valueless. The younger bees will answer better,
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  and these, besides, having for the most part never left the parent
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  hive, will all the more readily adhere to their new home, wherever that
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  may be placed. They will also turn their attention to honey gathering much sooner
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  than they would have done if they had not been removed. Hence, the
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  bees needed for such transfer should be taken at a time when the workers are
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  flying briskly and large numbers are engaged in foraging. Nor need it be apprehended
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  that the brood and the parrot hive will suffer or any an the essential labor
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  be neglected in consequence of such removal. Though the larger portion of the worker's
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  bee transferred in a strong hive, many more bees will still remain than are
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  absolutely necessary. The work, also, which previously occupied the time and attention
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  of perhaps twelve thousand bees, will now easily be performed by six thousand,
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  laboring with redoubled zeal. The older bees among those transferred will also return to
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  the parent hive, and the brood emerging from day to day will soon adequately
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  replenish its population. Thus the equipoise will speedily be restored, or rather the
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  proportion of producers and consumers will be more suitably adjusted. For. The smaller
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  the number of bees by which the internal concerns of the hive are managed,
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  the less will be the proportion of the stores consumed, and the more can
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  be garnered up. When a pretty strong swarm is driven out of a populous
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  hive and removed to a distant stand, scarcely any diminution of activity will be
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  perceptible. If the parent hive be left on its old stand. The older
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  bees, accustomed to foraging, will not confine themselves within if pasturage abounds and
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  the weather be favorable to their labours, and the younger portion, though greatly
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  reduced in number, will still be able by increased exertions to nurse the larvae,
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  while the heat of the hive will suffice to mature the sealed brood.
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  These younger bees, thus occupied with domestic duties, may easily be known by
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  their somewhat lighter color and their perfect wings, but they may be still more
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  readily distinguished in a hive of common bees whose queen has been removed and replaced
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  by an Italian queen. In about twenty days after the substitution, young Italian
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  bees will begin to imorre urge, but another week will elapse before these will
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  show themselves outside the hive, and then at first only among those which,
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  at about noon on fine days, issue for exercise. If the hive be
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  now opened, Italian workers will be found within almost exclusively occupied in building and
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  repairing cones, whilst the elder or common bees are almost en masse abroad engaged
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  in foraging. But thenceforward, the number of Italian bees participating in outdoor labors
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  will increase from week to week, or rather from day to day, and
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  the common bees will be continually decreasing in numbers, till in the course of
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  three months they will have almost altogether disappeared. This process likewise furnishes the most
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  convenient opportunity to ascertain the comparatively brief duration of the worker's life, because the
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  period at which the old race becomes extinct or has been entirely supplanted by the
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  new can thus be determined with much precision. It is, however, not
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  a definite period, but occurs earlier or later according to the season and circumstances.
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  If, for instance, an Italian queen be substituted in September, the
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  old race will probably not entirely disappear before the ensuing May or June. But
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  if the substitution be made in June, scarcely an individual of the old race
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  will be found in the hive after September, though during the first three weeks
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  none but common bees emerge from the cells. For in the months of June,
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  July, and August more workers are used up by incessant toil in their
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  ordinary labors, thus exhausting their physical strength than in the seven months succeeding in
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  autumn and winter. There remain, for the most part inactive, enjoying uninterrupted
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  repose after a protracted season of wearying toil. Their bodily vigor like that of
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  the queen which lays few eggs during this period, remains untaxed and unimpaired,
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  and they may hence be said not to grow older in the interval, though
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  really advancing months in age. The question how long may a worker live does
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  not consequently admit of a precise and definite answer. Under favorable circumstances, as
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  for instance, in a queenless colony in which the bees, even in summer,
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  are comparatively inactive and may be said to vegetate rather than live, the
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  worker might possibly survive for a year, unless perishing from accidental causes. Those
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  bred in autumn usually live about nine months, whereas those bread in the spring
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  rarely live more than three months. Hence, we may assume six months as
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  the fair average duration of the worker's life. In busy seasons, the wings
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  soon become lacerated and unfitted longer to subserve their proper functions, and the poor
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  bee must then as certainly perish as any animal whose vital organs are diseased.
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  When Baron Ernephels conjectured that if the worker escaped the common casualties and constantly recurring
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  dangers to which it is necessarily exposed, it might live as long as a
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  queen. He would have been right if he had simply added that such would
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  be the case if the worker were a queen. A queen may undoubtedly be
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  reared from any worker egg. But if the larva be reared as a worker,
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  it will have the instincts correspondent to its mission, and the duration of
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  its life will be determined by its habits and labors. Even the period of
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  development is different in each and is an ease in the reverse order of the
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  duration of life. The queen, attaining to much greater age, is perfectly
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  developed in the brief term of sixteen days. The worker requires twenty one days
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  for its maturation, and yet lives barely as many months as the queen does
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  years. The drone needs the still longer term of twenty four days, and
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  yet is literally cut off after a shorter existence than either of the others,
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  many being doomed to premature destruction, as the last generation is frequently torn from
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  its cells as larvae and cast out of the hive. The habits and mode
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  of life of the worker differ likewise essentially from those of the queen. The
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  latter feeds only on pure honey, never like the workers consuming pollen in its
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  crude state, and she never suffers from dysentery or foul brood, even when
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  the entire colony is affected by those diseases. Certainly, no reliable inference can
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  be drawn as to the possible duration of the worker's life from the actual age
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  which queens are known to attain. If Baron Ernfels had enjoyed an opportunity to
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  institute experiments with Italian bees, he would speedily have changed his opinion. As
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  it has been demonstrated for more than a century past that a queen can be
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  reared from any work or egg. It is certain that all the workers are
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  originally of the female sex, though undeveloped, or rather checked or arrested in
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  their development. Dissection has moreover shown that they possess mere rudimentary ovaries and scarcely
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  a trace of a seminal sac or spermatica. They are consequently physically unsusceptible of
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  fecundation. In rare instances. However, some of them, from causes or
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  influences not yet clearly ascertained, are enabled to lay eggs which produce drones.
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  Only these have been denominated fertile workers, and as they are commonly found only
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  in queenless colonies or in second swarms. It has been supposed that they may,
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  while in their larva state, have received, either accidentally or otherwise a
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  portion of the peculiar pabulum prepared for the larvae reared as queens in royal cells,
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  but this is mere conjecture. The fact, however, that their eggs
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  produce drones only shows that in their essential nature they resemble the queens, and
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  it is well ascertained that the eggs of unfecundated queens also produce drones exclusively,
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  as will be shown hereafter, be is provided with a sting, which is
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  universally dreaded as a formidable weapon of offense. The mere fear of it suffices
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  to deter many from engaging in bee culture. Though this admirable insect is by
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  no means so irritable and vindictive as it is generally supposed to be. It
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  seldom or never stings without cause or provocation. Still, its anger may easily
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  be excited by improper treatment or rough usage, rapid motion in front of the
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  hive, obstructing the flight of departing or returning bees, breathing on them when
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  clustered and beating against their hive or its bottom board, or annoyances which excite
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  their ire and should be carefully avoided. Various odors, the natural exhalations of
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  some persons, and the effluvium of their own poison when discharged, rouse their
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  animosity and inflame their rage. Though they may usually be subdued by the use
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  of smoke, such as is produced from rotten wood containing the larvae of insects,
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  it is exceedingly offensive to them and should never be employed. Nor are
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  bees equally irritable at all times or seasons. In the cool of the morning,
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  in the dusk of the evening, and during rainy weather. Though they
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  are not likely to become assailants, it is not advisable to undertake protracted operations
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  among them, as they are more apt to become unmanageable when roused to full
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  consciousness and life from temporary repose. The foraging bees also, being then at
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  home and more disposed to sting than the others, there is danger of having
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  to encounter the ireful displays of a more numerous and fiercer host. When it
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  becomes necessary to work among them, it is best to select noon or the
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  time of their busiest flight for the operation, unless there is reason to apprehend
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  that robbing bees may be attracted to the scene. Every ebullition of anger,
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  however slight, should be instantly repressed and subdued by the use of smoke,
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  which, if properly employed, will keep them in subjection. Bees are likewise
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  peculiarly irritable and much disposed to sting when their colony is queenless or they are
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  engaged in rearing queens. Interference with them at such times, especially if the
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  brood combs which contain the royal cells, are disturbed, will excite their anger.
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  The entire colony is during such periods in a state of comparative uneasiness,
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  which culminates when the young queen is emerging from her cell or making her nuptial
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  excursion. But the genuine apiarian must have no fear of the bee's sting,
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  to which, moreover, his system will soon become accustomed to such an extent
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  that the infliction is rarely followed by unpleasant consequences. The speedy removal of the
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  sting and the frequent application of spittle to the wound are all that is really
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  needed in most cases. Some persons, indeed are constitutionally liable to suffer greatly
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  from the pain and inflammation. These should either avail themselves of the protection afforded
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  by a bee dress, or forego the pleasures of apiarian pursuits unless they can
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  procure a stalk of the more peaceably disposed Italian bees. End of Section five.