July, 1!)I6. 



2:n 



American Hee Journal k 



'^<n^^^ 



From this definition it is,«asily under- 

 stood why no two colonics have the 

 same hive odor. The hjve odor of a 

 queenless colony is perhaps, consider- 

 ably diflferent from thaC^of a queen 

 right colony. The abserfffe of a queen 

 odor in the hive odor probably explains 

 why the workers in a queenless colony 

 are irritable and never work normally. 

 All the bees — workers, queens and 

 drones— in a colony carry the hive 

 odor of that colony on their bodies 

 among the hairs. This odor serves as 

 a sign or mark by which all the occu- 

 pants of a hive know one another. 



Since the queen and drones are 

 aristocrats, they seem to disregard the 

 sign that has been forced upon them, 

 but whenever a queen enters the wrong 

 hive, she soon realizes that she wears 

 the wrong badge. Bees carry the hive 

 odor wherever they go. Bees return- 

 ing to the hives from the fields pass 

 the guards unmolested, because they 

 carry the proper sign, although the 

 hive odor that they carry is fainter 

 than when they left the hive, and it is 

 also partially masked by the odors 

 from the nectar and pollen carried by 

 these bees. A nectar carrier from a 

 strange hive is often admitted because 

 the bees are willing to tolerate a worker 

 carrying a foreign hive odor for the 

 sake of getting its load of nectar. 



Bees kept in the open air for three 

 days lose all the hive odor carried on 

 their bodies, but each bee still emits 

 its individual odor. When a colony is 

 divided, the hive odor in each half 

 soon changes so that after the third 

 day one-half possesses a hive odor so 

 different from that of the other half, 

 that the workers from the two halves. 



when put together in observation 

 cases, fight one another as though they 

 had been separated all their lives. 



When bees are united we are dealing 

 altogether with the hive odor. The 

 mixture of two or more hive odors and 

 more or less smoke so confuses the 

 workers that they do not offer to attack 

 one another. 



While a foreign hive odor calls forth 

 the fighting spirit in workers, the queen 

 odor always seems pleasant to workers 

 regardless of whether the queen be- 

 longs to their hive or to another hive. 

 This is shown in introducing queens 

 by the cage method. By the time the 

 introduced queen has emerged from 

 the cage she has taken on the hive odor 

 of the workers around her, and for this 

 reason she is perhaps accepted chiefly 

 on account of her peculiar odor not 

 being partially masked by a foreign 

 hive odor. Even if the queen odor 

 forms a part of the hive odor, it is 

 probable that this odor to the workers 

 stands out quite prominently from the 

 hive odor. That workers do not miss 

 their queen for some time after she has 

 left the hive, indicates that her odor 

 thoroughly permeates the hive odor, 

 and that whenever this odor grows 

 faint the workers know that she is not 

 among them. 



When a queen is introduced by the 

 smoke method, the hive odor is changed 

 by the smoke, the workers are confused 

 and excited, and by the time they have 

 become reconciled, the introduced queen 

 has taken on enough of their odor to 

 allow her to remain in their hive with- 

 out being attacked. 



Perhaps every beekeeper has wit- 

 nessed what happens to queens when 



SECTION THROUGH A NEW WORKER-COMB, THROUGH AN OLD WORKER 

 COMB, AND THROUGH AN OLD DRONE-COMB 



they are held too long between the 

 fingers. Odors from the fingers change 

 the hive odor on the queen, and as a 

 result the workers ball the queen. In 

 such a case only a little foreign odor 

 Is needed to overbalance the pleasant 

 queen odor. This is further shown 

 when a finger is rubbed over the back 

 of a worker. In observation cases the 

 worker thus treated is immediately 

 attacked by its hive mates. 



There has been much speculation 

 concerning the ruling spirit or pow.er 

 in a colony of bees. In the writer's 

 opinion a normal hive odor serves such 

 a purpose. The hive odor is a means 

 of preserving the social life of the bees 

 from without, and the queen odor per- 

 petuates it within. As already stated, 

 the workers know their hive mates by 

 the odor they carry. This odor insures 

 harmony and a united defense when an 

 enemy attacks the colony. The queen 

 odor constantly informs the workers 

 that their queen is present. Even if 

 she does not rule, her presence means 

 everything to the bees in perpetuating 

 the colony. Thus, by adopting the 

 stimuli of these two odors and being 

 guided by instinct, a colony of bees 

 perhaps could not want a better ruler. 

 The sense of smell of the honeybee 

 is much keener than that of man, and 

 perhaps no other animal, except ants, 

 can compare with it in this respect. 

 The ability of the bloodhound to fol- 

 low scented trails is only one of the 

 many uses of the sense of smell in the 

 bee. Bees do not follow scented tracks 

 as much as ants, but it is quite probable 

 that queens in flying leave scented 

 trails behind them, and these trails may 

 aid the drones in overtaking the queens. 



The sense of smell of the honeybe^'2- 

 is poorly developed compared with that, ■> 

 of smell. It is still a disputed questionj 

 as to whether bees can distinguish 

 colors, but from the many experiments 

 performed it seems that they can, 

 although perhaps not as we do. It is 

 also doubtful whether they can tell 

 whether objects are round, square, flat, 

 rough or smooth, by sight, although 

 this is easily done by touch when the 

 objects are small. It is certain that 

 bees see long distances, but how dis- 

 tinctly, we do not know. The only use 

 of sight inside the hives is perhaps to 

 tell light from darkness; outside the 

 hives it is perhaps the most important 

 sense used in mating, in finding flowers 

 and in returning to the hives. The 

 writer believes that bees find flowers 

 by seeing them from considerable dis- 

 tances, but when within a few feet of 

 them, they are able to select the ones 

 they want primarily by the odors from 

 these flowers. 



We still know practically nothing 

 about the sense of hearing in the bee. 

 Perhaps every beekeeper has heard 

 queens pipe and workers squeal. A 

 worker is almost sure to squeal every 

 time it is pinched or caught in a tight 

 place and cannot escape. When the 

 wings are pulled oflf the workers con- 

 tinue to squeal, showing that they have 

 special organs for producing these 

 sounds. No such organs have ever 

 been described, but three special organs 

 for receiving sounds have been found. 

 The pore plates in the antennae have 

 been called organs of hearing, besides 

 special devices to prevent the insect 

 from flying against objects that it can- 



