742 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Nov. 3, 1904. 



Flight of Bees— Experiments Examined. 



BY ALLBN LATHAM. 



THERE frequently appears in print some statement re- 

 garding the rapidity of the honey-bee's flight, but as 



yet I have never seen anything approaching satisfac- 

 tory evidence which fixed the limit of the speed which bees 

 attain. The problem is one difficult of solution, and almost 

 any experiment devised to get at this rate of flight is so 

 beset with difficulties that one is little wiser at the close 

 of the experiment than at the beginning. Still, there are 

 some facts that we all can observe, and from which we have 

 the privilege of drawing our own conclusions. 



Considering the difficulty besetting this problem, one is 

 a little surprised at the boldness of the assertions to be 

 found on page 629. The statement referred to relates to 

 experiments tried by Mr. Philip Prior. I am surprised that 

 the Editor allowed the statement to go unchallenged. I am 

 unable to assert that bees do not fly ISO miles per hour, but 

 I mean in this article to state a few facts which I think will 

 lead most of my readers to doubt the truth of the observa- 

 tions of Mr. Prior. I believe for one, that more care should 

 be shown in writing and in printing facts relating to bees. 

 We ought not to blame the press in general for its comb- 

 honey lies while we make such rash statements about the 

 habits of bees. 



I wish first to show that Mr. Prior's experiment is false 

 on the face of it, not that I mean to say that Mr. Prior is 

 untruthful — far from it — but that there were doubtless weak 

 premises in the form of unreliable observation. 



Mr. Prior floured bees, his assistant 2j-2 miles away 

 watched for the same, each had a stop-watch agreeing per- 

 fectly in time ; Mr. Prior watched for return of bees/u/l of 

 Golden Gate Park honey. 



Let us ponder a moment. Flour was the only identifi- 

 cation of the bee. Did Mr. Prior let one bee out, or two, or 

 three, or many ? If one, then his assistant had to see one 

 bee in that vast park — had to see that bee with no loss of 

 time, so that Mr. Prior could see it return after an absence 

 of two minutes. (I wonder how many times Mr. Prior had 

 to try this one-bee flouring before he and his assistant got 

 satisfactory results. ) Suppose two bees were let out. Then 

 the assistant had to see both, or else the experiment was of 

 no avail. Suppose many bees were floured (as was likely 

 the case), then how was Mr. Prior to know that any particu- 

 lar bee had been to G. G. Park. Whatever the number of 

 the bees let out, the assistant must see the first bee to get 

 back. Well, well, I am getting all mixed up with those 

 bees. 



If any one wishes to try this simple experiment let him 

 do so by all means, and find how easy and simple it is ! The 

 fact is that the experiment as tried is practically impossi- 

 ble. What chance is there that a single bee let out and 

 floured will be immediately spotted by an observer in a 

 great park 7 Even if a floury bee is seen, the proof is not 

 there, for that bee may have been otherwise floured. 



What sort of flowers grow in G. G. Park ? Is it gen- 

 erally known that a bee uses up 40 seconds in filling herself 

 with thin honey ? This when the honey is all in one spot. 

 Is a bee to consume no time in getting together the load of 

 honey in G. G. Park ? Let Mr. Prior's bees take the mini- 

 mum of time and use 40 seconds. This will leave 1 min- 

 ute and 20 seconds for the bees to cover the 5 (five) miles to 

 and from the park. The rate of flight of Mr. Prior's bees is 

 225 miles per hour, not ISO. 



I think that I have shown the weakness of the experi- 

 ment. I think that it was a shame that any credence should 

 ever have been given the canard, more the shame that it 

 should come from a school-teacher. Mr. Prior should have 

 used more care, and should have eliminated the chances for 

 error. What probably happened, is that floured bees were 

 seen by the assistant ; that Mr. Prior did see the same bee 

 come back loaded after an absence of two minutes. But 

 thai bee had never been to Golden Gate Park and back. She 

 had simply gone to the bees' watering-place and filled her- 

 self with water and returned, all in two minutes. We will 

 believe the Prior story when Mr. Prior directs his assistant 



to feed the particular bee with a honey of special flavor, or 

 else marks the same in some unmistakable way so that Mr. 

 Prior will know that the bee has returned from the Park, 

 and not from some other place. 



Eest I take too much space I will now drop the Prior 

 experiment and relate some of my own observations. These 

 observations are free to the bone-picking of any and all of 

 my readers. 



It is my belief that bees can fly only a little over SO 

 miles per hour at the most, and that they are unable to fly 

 even that fast when loaded. 



Let any one take his place on a roof or other elevated 

 position between an apiary and a field of buckwheat some 

 morning. The bees will be passing by the thousands. Let 

 the observer compare their flight with that of objects whose 

 speed he knows. I venture to say that 30 miles an hour 

 will satisfy most observers. The bees will seem to go about 

 as fast as leaves blown by a gale, not so fast but one can 

 see that they are honey-bees. 



I have bees in my cottage at the beach. There are no 

 trees within a mile. The wind has free sweep. Many a 

 time have I studied the bees and the winds, and from those 

 observations am forced to believe that bees find it difficult 

 to fly over 30 miles an hour. Though the flowers may be 

 secreting to their full capacity, a breeze of 20 miles causes 

 the work to lag, and the bees appear very tired as they come 

 back to their hives. When the wind gets up to 30 miles the 

 work almost stops, only a few bees of possibly bolder or 

 stronger flight continuing to seek honey. When the wind 

 gets up to 40 miles no bee that wishes to get back to the 

 hive leaves the same, for it is driven hopelessly away, and 

 will tire itself out trying to beat back against the wind. 



Right here I ought to say that when bees are about to 

 alight they slacken their flight, and so might find it difficult 

 to get to the entrance of the hive, though they might be 

 able to fly right into the wind. But that this will account 

 for only a few miles more of their speed I judge because of 

 two hives whose entrances are amply sheltered from the 

 prevailing wind. The bees from these hives continue work 

 after the others have stopped, but they also stop when the 

 wind gets over 30 miles. 



The contents of the preceding paragraph will be clearer 

 if one stops to think that a bee flying SO miles per hour 

 could just stand stationary if flying into a SO-mile gale. 

 Bees flying 150 miles per hour would still go 100 miles an 

 hour into a gale of SO miles. If bees can make 100 miles an 

 hour in the face of a 50-mile gale, it would seem that an 

 ordinary sailing breeze would only serve to keep them cool 

 in their exertions, and not tire them all out. 



Let us approach the problem from another standpoint. 

 The wing of the worker is fs of an inch long. Its sweep in 

 flight does not exceed '4 of an inch on the average for tip, 

 middle and base. Is it possible for the bee to move forward 

 any faster than the backward sweep of the wings ? Yes, a 

 little, allowing for leverage. Probably not more than twice, 

 to be generous. Well, then, how many times per second 

 must a bee move her wings to make them move at the rate 

 of 30 miles an hour, that is, to allow the bee's body to move 

 forward 60 miles per hour ? I figure that the bee's wings 

 would have to vibrate 3872 times per second. The pitch of 

 a note with a vibration number so large is very high, much 

 higher than that of bees in ordinary flight. 



Here is a chance for some' painstaking observer, who 

 has a good ear for sound, to find out approximately the true 

 flight of the bee. At present it will be safer for us to put 

 it not much above 30 miles per hour, at least until we have 

 proof to the contrary New London Co., Conn. 



The Rietsche Comb Foundation Press. 



BY ADRIAN GETAZ. 



THE statement has been made recently that there are in 

 use in Germany 17,000 Rietsche comb foundation 

 presses. I don't know how many are in France, Bel- 

 gium, Switzerland, and elsewhere. There is a factory in 

 France making them. These presses are made of metal 



