16 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 



an adroit series of twists, turns, and tum- 

 bles, even though three or four bees have 

 hold of him at once. Some of these fellows. 

 by a sudden and unexpected dash, will liber- 

 ate themselves in a manner that is also won- 

 derful, and then, as if to show their audaci- 

 ty, will wheel about and come back close to 

 the noses of their retainers of a minute be- 

 fore. 



But in case the bee gets his load, and 

 makes his way out unobserved, he gets home 

 very quickly, you may be sure, and under 

 the influence of this new passion for easily 

 replenishing his hive with the coveted 

 sweets, he rushes out with a vehemence nev- 

 er known under any other circumstances. 

 Back he goes and repeats the operation, with 

 several of his comrades at his heels. Does 

 he tell them where to go V I wish to digress 

 enough here to say, that I do not believe in 

 a so called language among bees, or animals 

 in general, further than certain simple 

 sounds which they utter, and which we may 

 learn to interpret almost, if not quite, as well 

 as they do. When a bee comes into the hive 

 in such unusual haste, podded out with his 

 load in a way also rather unusual where it is 

 obtained from ordinary stores, his comrades 

 at once notice it, and either from memory or 

 instinct, they are suddenly seized with the 

 same kind of passion and excitement. Those 

 who have had experience at the gambling 

 table, or in wild speculations of other kinds, 

 can understand the fierce and reckless spirit 

 that stirs these little fellows. Patent hives 

 illustrate the matter very well. A man who 

 afterwards became editor of a bee journal 

 once held up before my untutored eyes, a 

 right to make a patent hive, saying : 



"Mr. Root, I get $o.00 for these rights, and 

 they do not cost me more than the paper 

 they are printed on— less than half a cent 

 apiece." 



The idea that fto.OO bills could be picked 

 up in that way, compared with the slow way 

 I was in the habit of earning them, so im- 

 pressed itself on my mind that I could hard- 

 ly sleep nights ; but after I had taken that 

 amount from several of my friends and 

 neighbors for the "right," I concluded that 

 money without a clear conscience is not just 

 the thing after all. Can we blame the poor 

 bees, for being so much human? Well, the 

 bees, when they see a comrade return in the 

 way mentioned, seem to know without any 

 verbal explanation, that the plunder is sto- 

 len. Anxious to have "a finger in the pie," 

 they tumble out of the hive, and look about, 

 and perhaps listen, too, to find where the 



spoil is to be had. If they have, at any for- 

 mer time, been robbing any particular hive, 

 they will repair at once to that ; but if it is 

 found well guarded, those used to the busi- 

 ness will proceed to examine every hive in 

 the apiary. As an illustration of the way in 

 which they communicate, or rather observe 

 the movements of each other, see account of 

 bees getting into the honey house, given in 



POLLEN. 



Of course, they have particular notes, as 

 of joy, sorrow, anger, despair, etc., which are 

 produced by the wings, usually when on the 

 wing, but I am quite sure they are unable to 

 communicate to each other more than a sin- 

 gle idea. In other words, they have no fac- 

 ulty of telling their fellows that a lot of hon- 

 ey is to be had in a feeder at the entrance, 

 and that it would better be brought in quick- 

 ly, or other bees may find it. A bee goes 

 out in the spring, and by smelling around 

 the buds, discovers honey and pollen ; when 

 he comes into the hive, the others see it and 

 start out, and hunt it up in a similar way. 

 For more on this subject, see swarming. 



If you will turn back and read anger of 

 bees, you will get a very good idea of the 

 causes that start bees to robbing. Read al- 

 so, bee-hunting, feeding, etc. As a gen- 

 eral thing, bees will never rob so long as 

 plenty of honey is to be had in the fields. 

 During a bountiful flow, I have tried in vain 

 to get bees to take any notice of honey left 

 around the apiary. At such times, we can 

 use the extractor right in the open air, close 

 to the sides of the hives, if need be. On one 

 occasion, I remember leaving a comb of un- 

 sealed honey on the top of a hive, from morn- 

 ing until noon, and not a bee had touched 

 it. It seems, they preferred to go to the clo- 

 ver fields, in the regular way, rather than to 

 take several pounds from the top of a neigh- 

 boring hive. I can readily suppose that they 

 did not have to visit anything like a hundred 

 blossoms at this time, and perhaps they se- 

 cured a load in going to not more than a 

 half dozen. Such a state of affairs is not 

 very usual in our locality. We have very 

 few days during the season, when it would 

 be safe to use the extractor for a whole day 

 in the open air ; the bees will generally learn 

 to follow the freshly uncapped combs about, 

 and that it is easier than going to the fields. 

 The first indication of robbing which you 

 will have, will probably be the cool and 

 wicked way of stinging, that I have de- 

 scribed in ANGER OF BEES. 



After the season begins to fail, you may 

 expect that every colony in your apiary will 



