CHAPTER XXX
THE NECTAR GATHERERS
IN this chapter I propose to relate to you the day’s work of a nectar gatherer, or forager. These are perhaps the most important workers in the hive. If you look it up in your dictionary you will find that nectar is described as being “any pleasant liquid.” I want you to understand that the bees do not actually gather what we call honey. What the bees gather, and what the flowers secrete, is nectar, which is a thin watery liquid, containing among other things a large proportion of cane sugar.
Arrived at the meadow the forager alights on the first suitable flower she comes to, and dips her tongue down to the nectaries. Even the tiniest droplet of nectar can be collected by means of the spoon at the tip of the proboscis. She visits flower after flower until her honey-sac is filled, and then she sets out on the return journey to the hive. Whilst she flies a change takes place within the honey-sac. First of all the nectar is strained, to separate the pollen, and in the manner we have already seen. Then some juices are added to it which are supplied by glands in the bee’s body. The cane sugar is changed into another form, called grape sugar.
Cane sugar is not good for either us or animals to eat, but on the other hand grape sugar is beneficial. You will know that we cannot derive any nourishment from our food until it has been acted upon by the saliva of the mouth and by certain juices in the stomach. The food is then said to be digested. Practically the same change is carried out in the bee’s body, the nectar being converted into honey. In her case, however, the change is not made only upon the food she consumes herself, but also on that contained in the honey-sac. Many people think that the honey they eat is just in the same state as it is in the nectaries of the flowers from which it has been gathered, but now you will know that this is not so. The reason that honey is good for us is that it has already been partly digested by the bees, and therefore our stomach is saved a certain amount of work.
Our bee has now arrived at the hive, and as she passes the guard bees she is recognised as being one of themselves, and her entry to the hive is not delayed. The guards may salute her as she passes, with a wave of their antennæ, and she hurries off to the storehouses. Here the warehouse bees are kept busy storing away the honey brought in by the foragers, and to one of these bees our little friend hands over her load. At least she does not “hand” it over, but passes it from her tongue to that of the other bee, who in turn swallows it. This bee then climbs to the cell she is filling, and placing her tongue therein, empties the honey into it. No sooner has the forager been relieved of her load than she makes her way to the hive door, pushing and struggling, butting with her head here, or crawling over her sisters there, until she at last forces her way through the crowd and flies off to gather further supplies. A bee that is one day gathering nectar will probably collect pollen the next day, and vice versa. By this arrangement the organs which change the nectar into honey are given a rest.
We cannot tell how bees are able to find their way home to the hive so cleverly. They may fly two, three, four, or even more miles away to the flowers, but they are always able to return. If a forager bee is imprisoned in a box, and carried a couple of miles away and released, she will reach the hive long before we could; in this respect you will see that bees are something like homing pigeons.