EIGHTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK-PART X. 671 



instinct, for he doesn't know anything about it and I profess to know 

 but little. 



That bees as well as other animals do certain things instinctively is 

 too evident to be discussed, but what we now need, above all else, in the 

 study of habits is to recognize the fact that the word "instinct" is too 

 often a confession of ignorance and we must look for other and more 

 fundamental causes where possible. 



I have enumerated at some length the difficulties and liabilities of 

 error in a study of the habits of the bee, and if I could but impress on 

 every beekeeper the fact that these really exist I would be thankful. On 

 the other hand, I know of no more favorable animal for study than the 

 honey bee, and if I spend more time on the difficulties than on the 

 advantages it is because the favorable side is better known. 



The work of others in the past makes it possible for us to begin where 

 they left off, and this advantage applies particularly to work on bees, 

 where so much has already been done. The interest which we have in 

 the bee from a commercial standpoint makes the work easier, for a 

 person working on bees is doing something of interest to many people, 

 and but few of us have reached that height of scientific perfection where 

 we do not care for at least some popular interest in our work. Lastly, 

 the numerous modern appliances of apiculture make it possible for us 

 to study bees under many varied conditions, and these changed conditions 

 bring out peculiarities in the habits which would not be seen, except with 

 difficulty, under ordinary conditions. Movable frames, observation hives, 

 mating nuclei, and swarm boxes are of inestimable value in the study 

 of habits. 



In discussing the habits of the bee it is hard to know where to begin. 

 Perhaps there is no better way to arrange what is to be said than to 

 follow a colony through a season, taking up the various phases of their 

 activities in the order in which they occur in nature. We can thus 

 avoid unnecessary repetition and still get in all the desired points. 



In the spring of the year the colony consists of a queen, whose duties 

 consist in laying the eggs in the cells of the comb, and many workers 

 or undeveloped females. At this time there are no males or drones. 

 During the winter the bees remain quiet, and the queen lays no eggs, so 

 that in the spring there are no developing bees in the hive. The supply 

 of honey is then also low, for they have eaten their stores all winter and 

 none has been collected and placed in the cells. As soon as the days 

 are warm enough the bees begin to fly from the hive in search of the 

 earliest spring flowers. From these flowers they collect nectar, which 

 is transformed into honey, and pollen, which they carry to the hive on 

 the pollen baskets on the third pair of legs. The nectar is taken into the 

 bee's mouth and then passes to an enlargement of the alimentary canal, 

 known as the honey-stomach, where it is acted upon by certain juices 

 secreted by the bee. On its arrival in the hive the bee places its head 

 in one of the cells of the comb and deposits there the nectar which it 

 has carried in. By this time the nectar has been partially transformed 

 into honey, and the process is completed by the bees by fanning the cells 

 to evaporate the excess of moisture which still remains. When a cell 

 has been filled with the thick honey the workers cover it with a thin 



