238 A SOCIAL INSECT— THE HONEYBEE 



to their orchards to pollinate the crops. Proper pollination will usually 

 increase a crop two- or threefold and occasionally as much as tenfold. 

 Many beekeepers make more money from pollination contracts than they 

 do from their honey. 



Just as squirrels store nuts, bees instinctively store honey to tide 

 the colonies through the winter. Therefore a beekeeper must leave 

 forty to fifty pounds of it in the hive for winter use. However, since a 

 strong hive during a good season will store five to ten times more than 

 is needed to winter the colony, we can harvest the surplus without harm 

 to the bees. Some beekeepers feed their bees on sugar water during the 

 winter, especially when they want to start early brood rearing in the 

 spring. 



Wintering 



When winter approaches, the bees change their habits. Since the 

 drones are no longer needed, they are dragged from the hive and left 

 to starve. The presence of drones in the winter would only use up 

 stores, and they would not help in the work of the hive in the early 

 spring. The workers form a ball around the queen and they generate 

 enough body heat to keep the group from freezing. Those on the out- 

 side of the ball are constantly crawling inward where it is warmer. 

 The queen remains near the center where it is warmest. In extremely 

 cold weather some of the bees on the outside may be so numbed with 

 cold that they fall off, but the indispensable queen is protected at all 

 times. Even in the winter the queen will lay a few eggs on the combs 

 which are kept warm by the mass of bees so in this way a few young 

 bees are constantly being added. Bees cannot defecate in the hive, but 

 because of the purity of most honey, there is little waste to accumulate. 

 On every warm day in the winter, however, they make a cleansing flight 

 during which any indigestible materials that have accumulated in their 

 intestines are discharged. Impure sweets such as fruit juices will kill 

 the bees during prolonged cold weather since the bees cannot fly out 

 and rid themselves of the feces which accumulate. 



Bee Learning 



Various studies of the honeybees have been made which seem to 

 indicate that they are among the most intelligent of the invertebrates. 

 They can be trained to visit a blue card on which there is a drop of 

 odorless sugar solution, and they are able to select this particular colored 

 card from a variety of cards of other colors no matter how often its 

 position is changed. Although they cannot reach the nectar in the long 



