2o6 



(il.KANINGS IN Bi:i-: CTI/I nil 



Al'K. 15 



lain sajie, of California, 

 we can realize the ini- 

 jMirlanee of this i)artic- 

 ular plant to the l)ee- 

 koeper. Without this 

 f r OSS -fertilization the 

 l)lant would undoubted- 

 ly '■ run out," as we say. 

 In Fig. 1<» we have a 

 still more remarkable 

 ease, as shown in the or- 

 chid. This llower is a 

 little different in that 

 the anther-sac has a 

 sticky substance on the 

 end, as shown at /• in A. 

 This ])od adheres to the 

 bee's forehead as shown 

 at K and <). With this 

 ((ueer ai)i)eiulafi;e con- 

 taining its sac of i^ollen. 

 the bee visits other IjIus- 

 soms, and. as seen at H. 

 butts its head against 

 the stigma and dusts it 

 over with ])()llen. ("has. 

 Darwin ])oints out that 

 this beautiful exi)eri- 

 ment can be accom- 

 l)lished with the point of a lead-jiencil; but 

 as it is not i)resumed that any foreign ob- 

 ject should come in contact with the blos- 

 som except the insects we can see how in- 

 sect cross-fertilization is accomplished in 

 this most remarkable manner. 



SIGNS MADE OF HONEY. 



A REAL HONEY SIGN. 



[The plan you describe, though good, is 

 quite old. It is an old trick to most honey 

 exhibitors. Our back volumes will show a 

 number of engravings of raised and depress- 

 ed letters in comb honey that have been 

 shown at honey exhibits. It takes a good 

 honey-flow and good bees to make a nice 

 job. Not all bees will do nice work. — Ed.] 



How to Teach Bees to Write. 



WATER REQUIRED BY BEES. 



BY HENHY W. KKITTON. 



For a number of years I have been study- 

 ing the bee. and it seemed to me that they 

 could l)e educated to write, print, cut, and 

 curve or engrave letters or characters upon 

 the frames or sections of honey made by 

 them so as to V)e used as a trademark. 



With this idea in view I began trying to 

 educate them; andafter the first lesson given 

 them, they spelled my name, Britton, back- 

 ward, as you will see in the i)icture in the 

 frame resting upon the hive; but after a few 

 more lessons they spelled it all right as you 

 can see by the frame I hold in my left hand. 



This frame of honey is all cai)ped o\er, 

 having my name on it in raised letters. 



These raised letters were made by the 

 bees, and consist wholly of honey ancl wax. 

 1 have never seen any thing like this in any 

 t)f the bee books or magazines, and believe 

 it to V)e something new, and submit it to the 

 readers of this magazine for their perusal. 



At the Brockton. Mass., agricultural fair 

 last year I received a special prize for this 

 novel frame of honey, and also a i)remiimi 

 for my observatory hive of "educated Ijees." 



Stoughton. Mass. 



Some Interesting Experiments to Show the Ex- 

 act Amount of Water Taken by Average Col- 

 onies in a Season. 



BY B. J. WOliSEEY, 



From my experiments I have found that a 

 good fair-sized colony of bees will take from 

 8 to 12 quarts of water during a season. I 

 use watering-troughs made of concrete, sim- 

 ilar in form to the Alexander feeder. I used 

 five troughs, four of them for the bees and 

 the other one screened so the bees could not 

 get to it. The screened trough was for the 

 purpose of determining the loss of water, 

 during the ])eriod. l)y e\ai)oration. There 

 is a river about 20 rods from the a])iary. The 

 rainy days I had to disregard, as I had no 

 control over them. 



I once ])laced a new Alexander feeder un- 

 der a good colony, in 1 he mont h of May, imt 

 in it half a pint of clear water, and found 

 that the bees took it in just two liours and 

 twenty minutes. The greatest amount of 

 water is used during the breeding season, 

 for there is a large amount of water in the 

 young brood. 



I tried the exi)eriinent of i)lacLng frames 

 of candied honey in an emi)ty hive and con- 



