THE BUSY BEE.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVII, Issue 4986, 11 June 1926, Page 2

THE BUSY BEE.

ITS ANATOMY EXPLAINED. LECTURE TO BEEKEEPERS. An instructive lecture was delivered at the annual conference of the NationaJ Beekeepers’ Association in Hamilton, on Tuesday afternoon, Milt. A. Gibb (Southland) briefly describing the anatomy and devenloprnent of the bee. Mr Gibb said that bees ha,d two large eyes on the side of the head, known as compound eyes, which consisted of an innumerable number of smaller eyes or facets, while there were three small simple eyes on the top of its head, so that it had no difficulties with regard to sight. Each of the compound eyes of the queen bee consisted of 4500 facets, while the working bee had 6000 facets in each c« its compound eyes. The lazy drone bed the astounding number of 13,000 eyes. The drone had remarkably sensitive smelling organs, but they were not on the tips of the antennae as was the case of the worker.

The thorax w'a.s the chest of the bee, but contained no vital organs. The lungs were situated down the side of the abdomen and greatly developed in the worker, though small in the queen. There was no intricate system of blood-vessels and oxygen was circulated through the body by respiratory tubes. The heart of the bee was in its back, and its blood was colourless. The organs which provided the means e.f locomotion were, all, afta.ched to the thorax. The hind wings were smaller than the front, to which they were hooked, and once they became detached from one another the bee wa,s unable to’ fly. The facets of the eyes acted like small microscopes.

PRODUCTION OF WAX. The hive could not do without the queen bee, which produced the. eggs. When a swarm was hived, the ffi'st thing it did was to produce wax. This Was not gathered, except from cones, and that wa,s not used in the actual producion of honey, but was secreted in the body of the, bee. The bees, after gorging themselves with nectar, hung about the hive in clusters and wi\x oozed out from four sacs under the abdomen when the heat was generated. On the bees’ legs were the. organs which passed the wax on to the mandibles, where it was worked into a plastic form, after which it was deposited at the top of the. hive by the bees. The little knobs df wa ; x formed were added to and developed into the beginning of a comb. DEVELOPMENT OF BEES. After being fed by the workers the queen bee laid her eggs to the extent of 3000 or 4000 a day when the season was at its height. She was a marvellous reproducer when it was stated that 1000 eggs were equal to the weight of her body. A gelatinous substance was produced with the eggs and stuck them to the comb. The eggs were incubated in the hive, and in three days hatched out into a grub. The young nurse bees then take a part and put food round the hatching egg, feeding the grub lavishly for three days. If it was to be a worker or drone it was given coarser food, and evidently that was responsible for the difference in a worker and a queen. If the grub was to develop into a queen bee it wa ; s fed lavishly for six days. .On the seventh day the cell was sealed over with a light Him oil wax, and in 12 days the griib emerged into the world. It crept about aimlessly for three or four days and then took up the duties of the hive. Under normal conditions bees did not begin work until 16 days old, and then only went out for pollen and water. A queen bee took only seven days to develop from the pupa, stage. B.e keepers should be careful to avoid jarring when handling frames, as the wings of the bees were injured in that manner and many queen bees were lost through being disturbed in the larva stage.

THE “BUSINESS END.’’ The sting, or “the business end of the bee,” was unerring in its precision. When it stung poison was injected and when the stipg was pulled out the pumping of the. poison into the flesh was assisted. The sting was composed of three barbed spears bound together to form a groove down the centre, from where the poison emanated. The longer a sting was left in the hand the deeper it would work itself in, a,nd the sting should be taken out as quickly as possible. The bee had a, wonderful tongue, consisting </£ four different parts, which formed a tube in which the propei' tongue worked with a long spoon-like tip which sipped up the nectar and passed it down the gullet. There it was mixed with a digestive fluid and sent on to the honey stomach. When the. cells of the hive had been completely built over the honey was "ripe” and ready tor extraction. A bee could drown in honey with its hea.d out, as it breathed through the body, and if not immediately licked dry by the other bees, died of suffocation.

ASSISTANCE TO FARMER. The bee wa f s a wonderful help to the farmer in promoting the growth of clover and flowering grasses by means of the cross-fertilisation it carried, in its search for nectar. It became covered with pollen from one flower and transferred it to the pistil of another, propagating the seed.

In reply to'a question by a listener, Mr Gibbs sajd the bee was a voluntary brea.ther and could cease breathing for just so long as it could draw on the air sacs in its body for a supply ot air. Mr Gibb answered a number of questions and was accorded a hearty vote of thanks for his lecture.