Effect Of Retarded Impregnation On The Queen Bee
I shall now mention a fact in the physiology of the Queen Bee, more
singular than any which has yet been related.
Huber, while experimenting to ascertain how the Queen was fecundated,
confined some of his young Queens to their hives, by contracting the
entrances, so that they were not able to go in search of the drones,
until three weeks after their birth. To his amazement, these Queens
whose impregnation was thus unnaturally retarded, _never laid any eggs
but such as produced drones_!!
He tried the experiment again and again, but always with the same
result. Some Bee-Keepers, long before his time, had observed that all
the brood in a hive were occasionally drones, and of course, that such
colonies rapidly went to ruin. Before attempting any explanation of this
astonishing fact, I must call the attention of the reader, to another of
the mysteries of the Bee-Hive,
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A DIG AT THE EVOLUTIONISTS
To rear a caterpillar-eater on a skewerful of Spiders is a very innocent thing, unlikely to compromise the security of the State; it is also a very childish thing, as I hasten to confess, and worthy of the schoolboy who, in the mysteries of his desk... A Honey Bee Never Volunteers An Attack Or Acts On The Offensive When It Is Gorged Or Filled With Honey
The man who first attempted to lodge a swarm of bees in an artificial hive, was doubtless agreeably surprised at the ease with which he was able to accomplish it. For when the bees are intending to swarm, they fill their honey-bags to their utmost c... A MEMORABLE LESSON
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The dangers of the exhumation are not the only ones; the Bluebottle must be acquainted with others. Life, when all is said, is a knacker's yard wherein the devourer of today becomes the devoured of tomorrow; and the robber of the dead cannot fail t... A TRUFFLE-HUNTER THE BOLBOCERAS GALLICUS
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The queen bee, (as has been already stated,) will live four, and sometimes, though very rarely, five years. As the life of the drones is usually cut short by violence, it is not easy to ascertain its precise limit. Bevan, in some interesting stateme... AN INVADER - THE HARICOT - WEEVIL
If there is one vegetable on earth that more than any other is a gift of the gods, it is the haricot bean. It has all the virtues: it forms a soft paste upon the tongue; it is extremely palatable, abundant, inexpensive, and highly nutritious. It i... ANOTHER PROBER (PERFORATOR)
What can he be called, this creature whose style and title I dare not inscribe at the head of the chapter? His name is Monodontomerus cupreus, SM. Just try it, for fun: Mo-no-don-to- me-rus. What a gorgeous mouthful! What an idea it gives one of ... Artificial Rearing Of Queens
The distress of the bees when they lose their queen, has already been described. If they have the means of supplying her loss, they soon calm down, and commence forthwith, the necessary steps for rearing another. The process of rearing queens artifi... Artificial Swarming
The numerous efforts which have been made for the last fifty years or more, to dispense with natural swarming, plainly indicate the anxiety of Apiarians to find some better mode of increasing their colonies. Although I am able to propagate bees ... Bee-dress
Timid Apiarians, and all who are liable to suffer severely from the sting of a bee, should by all means furnish themselves with the protection of a bee-dress. The great objection to gauze-wire veils or other materials of which such a dress has been ... Bees Cannot Under Any Circumstances Resist The Temptation To Fill Themselves With Liquid Sweets
It would be quite as easy for an inveterate miser to look with indifference upon a golden shower of double eagles, falling at his feet and soliciting his appropriation. If then we can contrive a way to call their attention to a treat of running swee... BRAMBLE-DWELLERS
The peasant, as he trims his hedge, whose riotous tangle threatens to encroach upon the road, cuts the trailing stems of the bramble a foot or two from the ground and leaves the root-stock, which soon dries up. These bramble-stumps, sheltered and pr... Breeding Cage Observations
<p>After you have learned all you can about the habits of the grasshopper in the field, catch a few of them and take them home and put them in a glass fruit jar. Collect green leaves for them and watch them feed. Watch their method of feeding close... Breeding Work
<p>Collect a few of the worms and put them in a glass jar with a piece of cabbage leaf. Examine them carefully and watch them crawl. How many legs do they have? Where are they placed on the body? How can they use so many legs while crawling? How m... CHANGE OF DIET
Brillat-Savarin, when pronouncing his famous maxim, "Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are," certainly never suspected the signal confirmation which the entomological world would bestow upon his saying. Our gastrosopher was speaking ... Comb
Wax is a natural secretion of the bees; it may be called _their oil or fat_. If they are gorged with honey, or any liquid sweet, and remain quietly clustered together, it is formed in small wax pouches on their abdomen, and comes out in the shape ... Directions For Collecting
<div> <img src="/images/010.png" alt="" title="" height="350" width="307" /> A convenient home-made net for catching insects; note the broom-stick handle, heavy twisted wire and mosquito net bag.</div> <div> <img src="/images/011.png" alt="" title=""... Directions For Feeding Bees
Few things in the practical department of the Apiary, are more important and yet more shamefully neglected, or grossly mismanaged, than the feeding of bees. In order to make this subject as clear as possible, I shall begin with the Spring examin... ECONOMY OF ENERGY
What stimulus does the insect obey when it employs the reserve powers that slumber in its race? Of what use are its industrial variations? The Osmia will yield us her secret with no great difficulty. Let us examine her work in a cylindrical habitati... Effect Of Retarded Impregnation On The Queen Bee
I shall now mention a fact in the physiology of the Queen Bee, more singular than any which has yet been related. Huber, while experimenting to ascertain how the Queen was fecundated, confined some of his young Queens to their hives, by contractin... EXCHANGING THE NESTS
Let us continue our series of tests with the Mason-bee of the Walls. Thanks to its position on a pebble which we can move at will, the nest of this Bee lends itself to most interesting experiments. Here is the first: I shift a nest from its place, t... EXPERIMENTS
As the nests of the Mason-bee of the Walls are erected on small-sized pebbles, which can be easily carried wherever you like and moved about from one place to another, without disturbing either the work of the builder or the repose of the occupants ... Feeding To Make A Profit By Selling The Honey Stored Up By The Bees
For many years, Apiarians have attempted to make the feeding of bees on a large scale, profitable to their owners. All such attempts however, must, from the very nature of the case, meet with very limited success. If large quantities of cheap West I... Fertile Workers
It has already been remarked, that the workers are proved by dissection to be females, all of which, under ordinary circumstances, are barren. Occasionally, some of them appear to be more fully developed than common, so as to be capable of laying eg... HEREDITY
Facts which I have set forth elsewhere prove that certain dung beetles' make an exception to the rule of paternal indifference--a general rule in the insect world--and know something of domestic cooperation. The father works with almost the same ze... Honey Pasturage Overstocking
In the chapter on Feeding, it has already been stated that honey is not a natural secretion of the bee, but a substance obtained from the nectaries of the blossoms; it is not therefore, made, but merely gathered by the bees. The truth is well expr... INDUSTRIAL CHEMISTRY
Everything happens sooner or later. When, through the low windows overlooking the garden of the school, my eye glanced at the laboratory, where the madder vats were steaming; when, in the sanctuary itself, I was present, by way of a first and last ... INSECTS AND MUSHROOMS
It were out of place to recall my long relations with the bolete and the agaric if the insect did not here enter into a question of grave interest. Several mushrooms are edible, some even enjoy a great reputation; others are formidable poisons. Sh... INSTINCT AND DISCERNMENT
The Pelopaeus (A Mason-wasp forming the subject of essays which have not yet been published in English.--Translator's Note.) gives us a very poor idea of her intellect when she plasters up the spot in the wall where the nest which I have removed use... Instincts Of Bees
This treatise has already grown to such a length, that I must be exceedingly brief on a point peculiarly interesting to all who delight in investigating the wonders of the insect world. In the preceding parts of the work, numerous proofs have been g... LARVAL DIMORPHISM
If the reader has paid any attention to the story of the Anthrax, he must have perceived that my narrative is incomplete. The fox in the fable saw how the lion's visitors entered his den, but did not see how they went out. With us, it is the conve... Loss Of The Queen
That the queen of a hive is often lost, and that the ruin of the whole colony soon follows, unless such a loss is seasonably remedied, are facts which ought to be well known to every observing bee-keeper. Some queens appear to die of old age or ... MATHEMATICAL MEMORIES: MY LITTLE TABLE
It is time to start our analytical geometry. He can come now, my partner, the mathematician: I think I shall understand what he says. I have already run through my book and noticed that our subject, whose beautiful precision makes work a recreatio... MATHEMATICAL MEMORIES: NEWTON'S BINOMIAL THEOREM
The spider's web is a glorious mathematical problem. I should enjoy working it out in all its details, were I not afraid of wearying the reader's attention. Perhaps I have even gone too far in the little that I have said, in which case I owe him s... MORE ENQUIRIES INTO MASON-BEES
This chapter was to have taken the form of a letter addressed to Charles Darwin, the illustrious naturalist who now lies buried beside Newton in Westminster Abbey. It was my task to report to him the result of some experiments which he had suggested... MY SCHOOLING
I am back in the village, in my father's house. I am now seven years old; and it is high time that I went to school. Nothing could have turned out better: the master is my godfather. What shall I call the room in which I was to become acquainted ... Natural Swarming And Hiving Of Swarms
The swarming of bees has been justly regarded as one of the most beautiful sights in the whole compass of rural economy. Although, for reasons which will hereafter be assigned, I prefer to rely chiefly on artificial means for the multiplication of... OBJECTIONS AND REJOINDERS
No idea of any scope can begin its soaring flight but straightway the curmudgeons are after it, eager to break its wings and to stamp the wounded thing under foot. My discovery of the surgical methods that give the Hunting Wasps their preserved food... On The Advantages Which Ought To Be Found In An Improved Hive
In this chapter, I shall enumerate certain very desirable, if not necessary, qualities of a good hive. I have neither the taste nor the time for the invidious work of disparaging other hives. I prefer inviting the attention of bee-keepers to the i...