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The Worker: Propolis

Propolis is greenish-yellow, and glistening in appearance when first gathered, but soon changes to a dark brown. It has a strong balsamic odor and is gathered and carried on the thighs like pollen.

Propolis was formerly valued in medicine, and in some countries is still used, men going about and cleaning it from the hives.

The Worker Pliny says, - "Propolis has the property of extracting stings and all foreign bodies from the flesh, dispersing tumors, ripening indurations, allaying pains of the sinews, and cicatrizing ulcers of the most obstinate nature."

Keeping the hive clean is not one of the least arduous labors of the bee, yet it is done with scrupulous nicety, as Aristotle says, - "If any bees die in the hive, they carry them out; and in other respects the bee is a very clean creature. For this reason they also eject their excrement when in flight, for the smell is bad. .. "It has been already observed that they dislike bad smells and the scent of unguents and that they sting persons who use such things."

Bees were believed by the ancients to have a particular dislike to the smell of cooking crabs and the bee-masters are advised to keep far from them the "crabs reddening in the fire," for as Pliny says, "The smell of crabs if they happen to be cooked in their vicinity is fatal to them."

Where bees cannot remove obstructions in the hive they often cover them over with propolis, and there is a story of a venturesome mouse that entering a hive for honey was stung to death. Having slain their foe the bees found the corpse too large to move, and to protect themselves from the effects of its decomposition encased it in a tomb of propolis.

It is also related that a snail having crawled into one of M. Réaumeur's hives and retired into its shell at the approach of the foe was firmly glued to the hive floor. Even to the slow comprehension of a snail the situation must have been amazing, not to say agonizing, when it found its house had become its sepulchre.

The queen and drones, feeding largely upon a concentrated food, have little excretion and that of an inoffensive nature, so although they do not, like the workers, leave the hive, their presence there is unobjectionable.

This and the habits of the workers account for the marvellous cleanliness of everything in the hive, and for the exquisite purity of the honeycomb. During the winter the bees are almost dormant, eating comparatively little, the workers being able to retain the residue of their food until they can take their spring flight.

According to the ancient writers when bees flew abroad on windy days they carried a little stone in their feet for ballast. But modern bees do not do this, and probably the ballast of the bees of the ancients was a misconception on the part of the observers.

Bees were also said to lie on their backs to keep their wings dry when belated and obliged to lie abroad all night, but this too is foreign to the habits of modern bees. Bees hatched early in the season when there is much honey to gather often wear themselves out by excessive labor in six weeks or even less time, while if they would but take life easily they might linger for several months, nine months probably being the maximum period of a worker's life.

During a great honey flow one colony of bees has been known to store seven hundred pounds of surplus honey in one season. This is very unusual, though it is not unusual for them to store a hundred pounds. A hundred pounds of cured honey means fifty gallons of nectar brought drop by drop from the flowers to the hive. No wonder such a task wears out the bees. In the frenzy of their desire to get all there is they sometimes work by moonlight when the lindens are in bloom or other easily obtainable nectar is flowing in abundance. There is nothing in a bee's mind The Worker so unpardonable as the wasting of nectar; it prefers unceasing work and an early death. Much floundering about in flowers and flying against the wind tear and disfigure the wings so that an old field-bee is sometimes a sorry-looking sight.

Moffett says of these : - "Oftentimes being over-wearied, they faint in their return to their own private cottages, not being able to attain them. And because some of them in regard of their roughness are unfit to labour, by rubbing their bodies against stones and other hard matter they are smoothed, afterwards addressing themselves most stoutly to their business." This whimsical remedy for old age is matched by their reputed manner of performing their toilet. "When they have refreshed themselves with flying about, then they bath and wash themselves clean, and afterwards they lightly rub themselves smooth with leaves."

The queens live several years, but the drones like the workers have a brief span of life, which, short as it is by nature, by art is made yet shorter.

Although bees are intolerant of disease and helplessness they are not unkind to those upon whom misfortune has fallen, and a bee with a full honey-sac is always ready to feed a hungry sister.

It is amusing to watch the bees on a window pane feed each other, particularly when new arrivals are introduced to those already in confinement.

As soon as they recognize each other as from the same hive the bee fresh from the fields is invited to share her spoils and she stands with raised head, open jaws, and presumably open mouth while her hungry sister inserts her long tongue and sucks the honey disgorged on her account.

Sometimes the begging bee is a little too exacting or perchance the supply falls short, when, if the feeding bee is teased too long she loses her temper, or is it a sense of humor that causes her suddenly to close her jaws upon the importunate and sensitive tongue of her sister?

Whatever the cause that prompts the action there is no doubt of the effect. The bitten bee winces and jumps back, doubtless feeling inexpressible things, and begs no more for honey.

Bees are quick to fly to the rescue and avenge the wrong of a sister bee when she is being hurt and cries for help. Every bee-keeper knows how much more likely he is to get stung if he inadvertently crushes any of the bees during his manipulations.

Although the worker bees are undeveloped females and as a rule are unable to produce eggs, yet if a hive loses its queen and is unable to replace her a very curious thing happens.

Some of the better developed of the worker bees acquire power to lay eggs ! --- The origin of these "fertile workers" as they are called is uncertain. They may exist when there is a queen and then be destroyed by the bees, or the longing for young for combs filled with eggs and young bees - their particular care and the hope of their race - may affect the physical life of the bee so that it is possible for it to perform maternal functions.

As it is impossible for a worker bee to mate because of her imperfect structure, all of her eggs are unfertilized and of course hatch into drones.

The fertile workers are therefore a greater misfortune even than the loss of the queen since the swarm of drones that comes forth hastens the destruction of the colony by quickly consuming the stores.

The old method of obtaining the honey was to smoke The Worker the bees to death with brimstone, - a custom which has justly merited the censure of all fair-minded people. Langstroth warmly exclaims: "Killing bees for their honey was, unquestionably, the invention of the dark ages, when the human family had lost-in apiarian pursuits, as well as in other things-the skill of former ages. In the times of Aristotle, Varro, Columella, and Pliny, such a barbarous practice did not exist. The old cultivators took only what their bees could spare, killing no colonies, except such as were feeble or diseased. "The modern methods have again done away with these customs among enlightened men, and the time has come when the following epitaph, taken from a German work, might properly be placed over every pit of brimstoned bees: - 'Here rests, cut off from useful labor, A colony of Industrious Bees basely murdered by its ungrateful and ignorant Owner.'" "With Thorley inveighs against the brimstoning of bees : the utmost Cruelty, Injustice, and inexcusable Ingratitude, destroying them, if not with Fire and Sword, yet with Fire and Sulphur, by Thousands and Ten Thousands, without the least Remorse. "Thus at once to despoil them of their Riches, and sacrifice their dear Lives, must be barbarous indeed; and to famish them to Death, is far worse than simple Suffocation." And again he says: - "The common, but cruel method of taking Hives, at this Season of the year, is by burning with Fire and Brimstone, to which I can by no means be reconciled; and here in this public Manner protest against, preferring to it Fumigation; whereby with safety we may become Possessors of their Treasure."

Thomson has given us the following pathetic appeal against the destruction of bees by sulphur : - "Ah! see where robb'd and murder'd in that pit Lies the still heaving hive! at evening snatch'd, Beneath the cloud of guilt concealing night, And fix'd o'er sulphur.

Sudden the dark oppressive steam ascends, And us'd to milder scents, the tender race By thousands tumble from their honey'd dome, Convuls'd and agonising in the dust."

Butler wants a law made as unalterable as that of the Medes and Persians : -- "That they which feloniously break open these true labourers' houses, shall, like other house-breakers be deemed and judged as guilty of burglary, and so have no benefit or favour by the muses, that thus violate the Muses' sacred favorites."

Shakespeare, in "Henry IV.," refers to the killing of the bees when the king awakens, finds his crown gone, and inveighs against the prince thus, - "For this the foolish over-careful fathers Have broke their sleeps with thoughts, Their brains with care, their bones with industry.

For this they have engrossed and pil'd up The canker'd heaps of strange-achieved gold; For this they have been thoughtful to invest Their sons with arts, and martial exercises:

When, like the bee, culling from every flower The virtuous sweets, Our thighs pack'd with wax, our mouths with honey, We bring it to the hive; and, like the bees, Are murder'd for our pains."

The Worker Bee-hives are now so constructed that they can be opened and their contents removed or changed about, and examined without materially interfering with the actions of the bees that frequently continue their labors even when the comb is held in the hand of the bee-keeper. The chief excellence of the modern hive is in the movable frames, which are fitted with grooves, so that when the hive is opened, the frames containing the comb can easily be removed, the combs examined, changed in any way the bee-keeper pleases, and returned quickly. The movable frame hive, which has revolutionized bee-keeping, was invented in 1852 by Lorenzo Lorrain Langstroth, who is known as the "father of American apiculture."

Langstroth was born in Philadelphia in 1810, and from childhood was deeply interested in studying insect life. Later he devoted himself to the study of bees and to the development of the industry of apiculture, having done more than any one else in this country to give it the place it now holds here. He is the author of "The Honey Bee," one of the most interesting and best practical books on bee-keeping.

One of the great improvements in modern bee-keeping is the use of smoke to calm the bees instead of killing them. In the up-to-date apiaries a little instrument for puffing smoke is used for this purpose; and the astonished tenants of the hive find not only the roof mysteriously, suddenly, and silently removed from their habitation, but a stream of smoke pouring over their forms and stupefying them into stingless acquiescence in the depredations or changes made by some power from without.

A slight smoking applied to the bees when the hive is opened, and before they have time to recover from their surprise enough to use their stings, enables the skilful beekeeper to examine the combs, take them out and put them in, handle the bees like flies, and, in short, do as he pleases without danger.

Some bee-keepers are able to handle their little subjects with no protection whatever; with bare hands and face and without smoke they perform the necessary operations. The bees continue working as if nothing unusual were happening; those in the way of the operator often crawl harmlessly over his hands, taking all he does in good part, as though they understood that his efforts were directed to their ultimate good.

There is no doubt that bees become accustomed to the manipulations of their owner and soon learn to know him.