THE BEE-KEEPERS* REVIEW 



189 



the strange odor acquired throug-h the 

 handling, says our author. 



It is possible that each colony has a 

 distinctive odor; it would be difficult to 

 prove otherwise; but it is very easy to 

 prove that queens will be accepted 

 without waiting for them to acquire the 

 characteristic odor of a colony— if such 

 exists. Time and again have I picked a 

 queen from a comb in one colony, or 

 nucleus, and immediately placed her 

 upon a comb in another colony, and had 

 her accepted. In the Simmins method 

 of introduction, the queen, after half an 

 hour's fast, is allowed to immediately 

 run down into the brood nest, just about 

 dusk; and that this method is a success 

 I know from repeated trials. I remember 

 once of introducing 40 queens to as many 

 colonies in Northern Michigan, and the 

 work was done by putting each queen 

 in a cylindrical, wire-cloth cage, stopping 

 one end with soft candy, and putting in 

 the cage immediately upon the removal 

 of the old queen. As a rule, I think the 

 new queen was out on the combs in half 

 an hour. It is doubtful if those colonies 

 ever knew that their old queen had been 

 removed. 



It is my opinion that odor plays a very 

 small part in the introduction of a queen, 

 if it has any bearing whatever; other 

 conditions, particularly the behavior of 

 the queen herself, have a more important 

 bearing. I recently clipped the queens 

 in the apiary here at Flint (40 queens) 

 and when I dropped one queen back on 

 the comb she started to run, with bees 

 after her, trying to ball her. I shook 

 the bees from a comb down in front of 

 the entrance, and, as the bees were 

 running in I rescued Mrs. Queen and 

 dropped her down with the bees that 

 were entering the hive, and all was 

 well. Bees that have been shook from 

 a comb and are entering a hive will pay 

 no attention whatever to a queen dropped 

 down among them. The queen entering 

 with this crowd is unnoticed, and is soon 

 back on the combs attending to her 

 duties. If it was the scent acquired 



from handling that made the bees attack 

 this queen, then the dropping of her 

 down among them did not change the 

 scent. 



Bro. Lyon says that robber bees are 

 recognized and repelled on account of 

 their strange odor. Possibly. It is 

 difficult to prove or disprove this asser- 

 tion. It has always seemed to me that 

 robbers were recognized from their 

 behavior. 1 have often made up a colony 

 by taking a comb of brood and bees from 

 each of several colonies, yet such a 

 colony would at once repel robbers. 

 Some of the robbers might have come 

 from the very colonies furnishing bees to 

 make up the new colony. Besides this, 

 it seems to me that the mixing of half a 

 dozen different odors must have been 

 somewhat confusing. 



The strongest scent-argument that 1 

 ever saw was when a small, stray swarm 

 of blacks attempted to force its way 

 into a colony of Italians, and the latter 

 turned in and killed every last one of the 

 intruders. How they recognized them 

 I don't know. It would not seem possible 

 that color played any part. 



The only moral that 1 can draw from 

 all of this is that in introducing queens 

 we can entirely disregard odor as a 

 factor in the problem. 



Choosing a Lens for a Camera. 



While this is not a photographic journal, 

 many of its readers are interested in 

 photography, and more are taking an 

 interest. I know this from the many 

 inquiries that come to me, particularly 

 from those who wish for hints in regard 

 to the purchase of a camera. 



One point is the choice of a lens, and 

 much that is written on the subject is 

 confusing to a beginner. The kind of 

 lens needed depends upon the character 

 of the work that is to be done. If you 

 are going to photograph street scenes, 

 railroad trains in motion, and take snap 

 shots of other moving objects, like race 

 horses on the track, etc., then one of 

 the expensive anastigmat lenses is 



