54 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



February- 



do so and their wonderful adaptation 

 to their out-of-door life. 



We see the need of four wings in 

 place of two, because they can be 

 quickly hooked together for flight, giv- 

 ing them a larger wing surface, for 

 they have not only to carry themselves 

 through the air as a fly does, but they 

 have to carry heavy loads of nectar 

 and pollen. When entering the hive 

 the wings may be separated and folded 

 in a small space so as not to interfere 

 in their movements in the hive or in 

 entering the cells. 



Have you ever noticed the strong rib 

 at the front of the forward wing, 

 which appears to explain the secret of 

 the bees flight ? If the wings are united 

 and their surface parallel with the body 

 of the bee, we see how with wings 

 thus spread they go through the air 

 with little exertion. Then if the wings 

 are turned so their surface be at right 

 angle to the body and quickly forced 

 backwards we can readily see how the 

 body of the bee will be forced forward, 

 just as a small boat is pushed forward 

 by the oars. If the wings when spread 

 are forced downward, or upward, or 

 forward, the body moves in the oppo- 

 site direction. 



Have you ever seen a bird fly back- 

 ward ? Think quickly, "No !" "Yes!" 

 There is the humming bird ; have we 

 not seen it fly to a deep- throated flower 

 to get a sip of nectar, or perhaps a 

 choice tit-bit of insect and then back 

 out and rising an instant in the air to 

 see who is watching, dart away ? 

 Evidently the flight or wing motion of 

 these tiny birds is much like that of 

 the bees, and so we call them humming 

 birds. 



Have we ever stopped to think of the 

 number, variety and power of the mus- 

 cles required to produce the varied 

 motions of the four wings in the flight 

 of a bee ? Have we ever thought how 

 these powerful muscles are enclosed 

 in a little somewhat globular case, the 

 thorax, but little more than one eighth 

 of an inch in diameter, already occu- 

 pied with the muscles required for the 

 movement of the six legs of the bee ? 

 Have we ever thought of the rapidity 

 of their movements ? Not far from 40 

 miles an hour, with 500 vibrations of 

 the wings each second it is estimated. 

 Have we ever inquired what sustains 

 such energy ? What kind of food can 

 they use to give them such power ? 

 We surely get a new idea of the value 

 of honey as food when we notice what 

 it does for the bees, how it sustains 

 them during long flights, perhaps over 

 hills and against a heavy wind, while 

 carrying half of their own weight of 

 honey and pollen. We can realize 

 something of the muscular energy re- 

 quired for such flights when we see the 

 bees drop on the alighting-board pant- 

 ing for air and stopping to rest before 

 they enter their hive. Again we learn 

 something of the exhaustion of such 

 flights from the rapid loss of bees or 

 the decrease in population of a hive 

 when no young bees are emerging. 



We have sometimes found the bees 

 in a new colony to decrease from one- 

 half to two-thirds in three weeks. This 

 is more noticeable if honey is scarce 

 or the bees have to fly a great distance 

 to find it. I have many times found it 

 a decided advantage to give such colo- 

 nies, a few days after hiving, two or 

 three combs of emerging brood that 

 young bees might take the place of 



those that have worn themselves out 

 and died. 



It is interesting to note how bees are 

 guided in their flight. Birds have tails 

 to assist them, and boats have rudders, 

 but bees have neither ; consequently 

 bees have to guide their flight by their 

 wings much as a man in a row boat 

 guides it by his oars, one a little faster 

 or slower than the other when the 

 direction is changed. As a result the 

 flight of bees is not as accurate as we 

 have sometimes thought, and a bee line 

 is not a straight line. If we stand upon 

 a little eminence or hill with the bees 

 coming toward us in the late afternoon, 

 we may see them for a long distance 

 and observe their flight with ease. We 

 can see how a bee flies first on one side 

 of a straight line and then on the other. 

 It would seem as though they set their 

 wings as nearly as they can for a 

 straight line, but are not quite accurate 

 and are carried to one side ; then 

 change their flight to correct the error 

 which carries them to the other side of 

 the line, thus making their line full of 

 gentje waves. 



It is interesting to note the intelli- 

 gence bees exercise, in flying, to save 

 their strength. If it is windy they fly 

 low where the vegetation or other ob- 



jects obstruct the wind to some extent. 

 Or they may keep in the shelter of a 

 fence or a forest, although the distance 

 to travel is farther. They have been 

 known even to go around a hill when 

 they knew the way rather than over it, 

 because it was easier; their instinct 

 teaching them how to save the hard 

 labor of climbing the hill. Their in- 

 stinct, if it is instinct, seems to serve 

 them even better than the reasoning 

 powers serve man, for we have found 

 roads laid out over hills when it would 

 have been no farther and much easier 

 to have laid them around the hills. 

 Middlebury, Vt. 



Beekeeping in the Imperial 

 Valley 



BY HOMER MATHEWSON. 



IMAGINE yourself in a level country, 

 a valley situated in southern Cali- 

 fornia, about 150 mi'es long by 

 50 wide, and the greater part below the 

 level of the sea, the lowest point being 

 268 feet. At some period in ages past 

 this was a great inland sea. 

 In this countrv the annual rainfall is 



NO. i.-LOOKING DOWN THROUGH A "RAMADA" 





NO. 2.-THE REAR OF THE EXTRACTING HOUSE WITH HONEY TANK IN 



THE EXCAVATION 



