1SS!) 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



401 



RATE OF PLIGHT OF BEES. 



AN INTERESTING QUESTION. 



fkROP. COOK'S articles on entomology are very 

 ' interesting- to me. I believe he is doing- a 

 work for bee-keepers that no one else can do, 

 and we owe him well-deserved gratitude. 

 1 see that in his article on the wings of in- 

 sects, in Gleanings for April 1, he speaks of the 

 rate of flight of bees, and says, "The bee hies often 

 twenty miles an hour." 1 should like to have him 

 dwell a little more upon this special point, as it has 

 been a hobby of mine, and I have devoted consider- 

 able time during the last four seasons to experi- 

 ments upon this very point. I have found the aver- 

 age rate of flight of bees to be twelve miles per 

 hour, on trips of less than two miles: further than 

 that, about ten miles per hour. Viewed from what 

 data I have, I should say that the professor put the 

 rate of flight too high. But perhaps he meant that 

 bees often fly for short distances at that rate. I am 

 well aware that the out-going bee flies swifter than 

 the incoming, loaded bee, but as yet I have not been 

 successful in finding the difference of speed. My 

 experiments have been confined to flight from bait, 

 and of course included the round trip. 



William E. Gould. 

 Fremont, Mich., Apr. 5, 1889. 



Your rate of speed must be very low, 

 friend G. Prof. Cook's rate of flight, as re- 

 corded in his article, would seem to be rather 

 an under-estimate than an over-statement, 

 judging by the account of the experiment 

 below. If Mr. Saunders 1 experiments were 

 carefully conducted, then a bee can fly, un- 

 der favorable conditions, 45 miles per hour 

 —over twice Prof. Cook's rate, and four 

 times yours. In experiments of this kind, 

 the factor of wind, if blowing, and its direc- 

 tion with reference to the flight of the bees, 

 should be taken into account. To make the 

 experiment accurate, the air should be per- 

 fectly still. Will Mr. Saunders tell us the 

 condition of the atmosphere at the time of 

 his experiment V We presume, however, it 

 was quiet, as it was toward evening. 



ANOTHER RACE BETWEEN BEES AND CARRIEH-PIG- 

 EONS ; THE BEE DECLARED THE WINNER 



AGAIN. 



In Gleanings for March 15 are a few remarks on 

 bees vs. pigeons. I have some very fine carrier- 

 pigeons; some of them have flown 400 miles in 12 

 hours, and many times have my birds been liberat- 

 ed in New York city, and reached Gloversville at 

 noon, same day. In June of last year I sent to 

 Johnstown, which is situated about four miles, air- 

 line, or as a bird would fly, to Gloversville, six bees 

 — four drones and two workers, and six of my best 

 selected birds. They were all liberated at the 

 same time, at five o'clock sharp, in the afternoon. 

 The first bee arrived six minutes after five; first 

 pigeon, ten seconds later; second bee, eight min- 

 utes past; after that, pigeons and bees came in so 

 quickly one after the other that it was impossible 

 to get correct time. The bees, on being liberated, 

 took a perfectly straight course, as far as the eye 

 could follow them; the pigeons circled in the air 

 twice before they could see their home. This 

 proves that bees fly more by instinct than sight, 

 and pigeons by sight and observation. 



I wish you would make Gleanings a weekly 



journal. It is enjoyed much by us, and we are 

 going to have it bound and put in our library. 



A. C. Saunders. 

 Gloversville, N. Y., Mar. 35, 1889. 



The account of your experiment is ex- 

 tremely interesting ; especially so as it sub- 

 stantiates the results of a similar experi- 

 ment tried in Germany. From your experi- 

 ment it is evident that a bee can keep up 

 with the average passenger train, but it 

 would seem not with the fastest-running 

 train (i. e., at a speed of a mile a minute). — 

 Thanks for your kind words ; but if we 

 were to make the journal a weekly, we 

 could hardly illustrate or get it up in the 

 style we now do. 



In addition to what Ernest says, I wish to 

 express my surprise that the bees got home 

 at all, after having been carried four miles. 

 In bee-hunting I have frequently carried 

 bees with the bait so far from their home 

 that they scattered, one in one direction and 

 another in another, and seemed to be entire- 

 ly lost as to the direction they should take, 

 and we did not carry them four miles either. 

 I should be glad to hear from others who 

 have had experience in bee-hunting— any 

 who may have made the experiment in car- 

 rying bees dusted with flour, or painted, 

 some distance from their hives, in order to 

 let them go back. Very likely friend S. had 

 his bees so well marked there was no possi- 

 bility of a mistake. If so, he succeeded 

 better than I should have expected. 



A BEE-HIVE ON SCALES. 



HOW IT MAY BE OF BENEFIT TO THE BEE-KEEPEK. 

 TABLES OF HONEY YIELDS. 



fllE following excellent article from the 

 pen of A. E. Manum, we take plea- 

 sure in copying from that spicy little 

 journal the Bee Hive : 



How many pounds of honey will a swarm of 

 bees gather in one day? is a question that has often 

 been asked. With your permission. Mr. Editor, I 

 will endeavor to give the public my experience, 

 through the columns of your practical little Bee 

 Hive. For fifteen years I have kept a swarm of 

 bees on scales in each of my apiaries, during the 

 summer. Not only for the purpose of knowing 

 how much honey a single colony can store in one 

 day, but to assist in determining just what the bees 

 are doing, from day to day, I deem it very essential 

 that 1 should know just how much honey is being 

 gathered each day, not so much for the pleasure of 

 having a record to refer to in the future, but to 

 serve as a guide by which to govern my operations 

 during the honey-harvest. 



Those who have never kept a hive on scales can 

 not estimate the advantages to be derived by such 

 a practice. We not only have a brief record to re- 

 fer to in after years, but we are enabled to judge 

 very correctly every day what the bees are doing, 

 and also know, to a certainty, when the honey -flow 

 begins, when it is at its height, and when it is draw- 

 ing to a close. The amount of honey that a colony- 

 will gather in one day, I find to vary greatly in dif- 

 ferent localities. I find that apiaries located only 

 three miles apart vary in the amount of honey 

 stored in each. The condition of the weather has 

 much to do with the amount of honey that will be 

 gathered each day, as a few hours of unfavorable 

 weather in the middle of the day will make quite a 

 difference with our scale-hive record. Hence the 

 apiarist must take the condition of the weather in- 

 to account, and be governed accordingly in making 

 his calculations. I have observed that, in a seasou 

 when the atmosphere is well charged with electric- 

 ity, and when electric shocks are frequent, honey 



