234 



July, 19U;. 



American Hee Journal 



not see. A second so-called organ of 

 hearing is found in the head at the 

 base of each antenna, and a third one 

 in the tibia (fourth segment) of each 

 leg. 



Bees can usually tell when a thunder 

 shower is coming up, and they seem to 

 have a sense of humidity. Unless 

 humidity is sufficiently connected with 

 temperature, bees need a special sense 

 organ to tell dry air because they can- 

 not feel moisture through the hard out- 

 side covering, judging from the fact 

 that water does not pass through this 

 covering. 



Bees seem to have a sense of temper- 

 ature, but since heat readily passes 

 through the outside covering they do 

 not need special organs for this sense. 



Bees, like people, need a sense of 

 direction, but they probably do not 

 have such a sense. Instead of this 

 sense, the landmarks that they know 

 seem to answer this purpose. 



The honeybee has been called a reflex 

 machine. By reflexes we mean those 

 actions which are involuntarily per- 

 formed, or those actions which are 

 performed without thinking. Most of 

 our daily actions in dressing, eating 

 and working are reflexes, but when- 

 ever we care to we can think of doing 

 all of these actions before performing 

 them. The bee, according to psycholo- 

 gists, cannot think, and therefore all 

 its actions are reflexes. But when we 

 consider all the strange things that bees 

 do in emergencies we must admit that 

 bees are more than reflex machines; 

 how much more we do not know, but 

 in this respect there is probably a dif- 

 ference between the various races, and 

 even between individuals of the same 

 race. 



If bees cannot think, they do not 

 have a memory, and consequently have 

 no conscience. If this statement is 

 true, how do they find their hives, know 

 their queen and hive-mates, etc.? All 

 this is accomplished by what psycholo- 

 gists call association of ideas. Two 

 examples will be used to explain what 

 is meant by association of ideas. A 

 field bee, ready to return to its hive, 

 flies high into the air, and after seeing 

 a landmark travels in a bee-line. The 

 sight of the landmark called forth an 

 idea concerning this object which had 

 previously been fixed in the nervous 

 system of the bee. This idea was then 

 associated with another idea concern- 

 ing its hive. After having had several 

 ideas concerning various landmarks 

 called forth, and after having associated 

 these ideas with other ideas, the bee 

 returns to its hive perhaps without 

 making a single mistake. The same 

 method may be used to explain how a 

 worker knows its queen and hive mates, 

 but in this case the queen odor and 

 hive odor are the chief stimuli used in 

 calling forth the ideas concerning these 

 two odors. In turn these ideas are 

 associated with other ideas. Psycholo- 

 gists tell us that the ideas in the nerv- 

 ous system of a bee do not associate 

 with one another until some of them 

 are called forth by a stimulus, and even 

 then these associations are not suffi- 

 ciently organized to recall past experi- 

 ences. This is why bees do not have a 

 memory, while with us a stimulus is 

 not always needed in order to cause 

 our ideas to associate with one an- 



other, and further more the associations 

 in our minds are so highly organized 

 that they are able to recall past experi- 

 ences. 



According to the above way of rea- 

 soning, bees do not experience pain, 

 but when we carefully consider the 

 behavior of injured bees we are almost 

 convinced that bees do feel pain. Bees 

 with antennje either cut off or pulled 

 ofT live only a short time. They seem 

 to die from a shock to the nervous 

 system. Another form of shock may 

 even be cited. Bees confined in obser- 

 vation cases without food or water 

 begin to die within an hour after being 

 put in the cases, and all of them are 

 dead within four hours. Bees confined 

 in the same cases with water Ive the 

 same length of time. Bees confined in 

 the same cases with honey covered 

 with cheesecloth so that they can smell 

 it, although they cannot touch it, live 

 from 43 to 67 hours with 50 hours as 

 an average. There seems to be only 

 one way of explaining such behavior, 

 because the question of starving to 

 death can have no weight. The first 

 two sets of bees soon died because 

 their case was hopelessfrom the begin- 

 ning. The third set lived 50 hours on 

 "hopes" only. During all this time 

 they smelled the honey and tried to get 

 it, but their efforts were in vain. Other 

 cases might be cited to show that the 

 " mind " of a bee is more highly devel- 

 oped than psychologists would have us 

 believe. 



In conclusion it may be said that if 

 we understood the senses of the bee 

 better we would know how to handle 

 bees better; we could unite them and 

 introduce queens more successfully; 

 we would better understand the condi- 

 tions governing successful wintering ; 

 in short, if we thoroughly understood 

 the senses of the bee, we would thor- 

 oughly understand the bee itself and all 

 its activities. 



Washington, D. C. 



Home QueenRearing 



BY D. E. LHOMMEDIEU. 



IT is now 40 years since I commenced 

 working with bees. I have tried 

 rearing queens for my own use, the 

 various ways advocated from time to 

 time, more or less successfully. Last 

 summer I succeeded in rearing larger 

 and better queens outside of natural 

 swarming than by any other plan, as it 

 comes nearest to the natural cell. The 

 bees that start the cells are not excited 

 more than with natural swarming. 



The plan is not new, but ought to be 

 brought forward oftener in the bee 

 journals, as some who keep bees depend 

 mostly upon them for their information. 

 Just a little ahead of natural swarm- 

 ing, when the weather andflowof honey 

 is right, take a full set of brood from a 

 good colony with no hatched bees, 

 place them in an extracting super, set 

 the brood over a strong colony just 

 above its brood-nest, with queen- 

 excluder between, and if all goes well 

 at the end of nine days look up your 

 crop of big queen-cells. If any should 

 not suit you, destroy them. There 

 should be two or three to eight, large 

 and fine, and I cannot discover that 

 they are inferior to the natural cells. 



the bees having not been excited or 

 lost any time. Give the good colony 

 from which the brood was taken either 

 combs, brood, starters, foundation or 

 what you think best at the time their 

 brood is taken away. About one colony 

 in ten fails to start cells. 



To finish up your large fine cells, 

 there needs to be plenty of bees and 

 heat to carry the cells until the queen 

 is laying, and then she will look almost 

 as large as a bumblebee. Take two 

 combs, bees and all with one cell, place 

 them in an empty hive on a new stand, 

 not closing the hive until evening of 

 the second day; making five or more 

 such nuclei. 



The accompanying cut shows how 

 the rear and front boards of bodies 

 may be grooved to supply from 3 to 

 7 nuclei in one body, by using a rabbet 

 plane 5-16-inch wide, cutting perpen- 

 dicularly, so that when you slip in the 

 division-boards, it cuts the bees off 

 from passage. These must be full 

 length and depth of hive. 



No. 1 will make three small 3-frame 



LHOMMEDIEU METHOD OF GROOVING BACK 



AND Fbont Boards of Hive so as to 

 Make Several Nuclei 



hives out of one 10 frame body, to be 

 left on the parent colony, if wire screens 

 are used. This should be set above a 

 second story with an excluder above 

 the main body so the queen may not 

 get to the new queens. 



No. 2 can be used for one to five 

 queens, or let the bees fill the center 

 apartment and rear two queens at each 

 side. 



No. 3 is designed for seven queens to 

 be reared simultaneously if desired. 



No 4 will do for a honey-storing 

 space in the center and one queen 

 apartment on each side. 



No. 5 will supply four queens with 

 two combs each. 



Each nucleus should have a separate 

 entrance, and a part of them may be 

 placed at opposite ends or at the sides. 



Colo, Iowa. 



Breeding Queens 



BY ADRIAN GETAZ. 



CHOOSE for breeding queens the 

 very best you have, that is the 

 rule. But which are the best ? 

 Evidently those whose colonies have 

 given the liest returns. We rear queens, 

 not for their "personal " qualities, if I 

 I may use the expression, but for the 

 qualities of the workers they produce. 

 That is not all yet. We want bees 



