FEBRUARY 35, 1915 



toiious little workers. To tliis day the active 

 work ot' a colony duiini'- the day, and the 

 contented hum (song shall 1 call it?) after 

 niiihl fall has an attraction 1 caimot describe. 

 This fascination lias always remained with 

 me from mj' boyhood days to the present, 

 thonyh 1 am nearly on the eiuhty-four-year 

 mark. 1 have spent many an hour of rest- 



161 



ful companionship with the dear little fel- 

 lows, and love to think of them as friends 

 and admire their resentful bravery in de- 

 fense of the treasure garnered from the 

 storeiiouse of nature in the distant fields. 

 Who does not profit by their lessons of un- 

 seltish industry for their kind"? 

 Seattle, Wash. 



THE FALLACIES IN THE "QUEEN ODOM" AND DISTRESS THEORIES 

 Another Explanation of ftlhie Snuioke Metliod of letrodliuiciinig 



BY KLVIN jr. COLE 



The " thread of the truth " that theciueen 

 gives the colony its individual odor, Jay 

 Smith, page 97."), Dec. 1.5, is slender and 

 easily broken. " Why will queenless bees 

 readily unite with another colony?" Not 

 because they have no queen odor, but be- 

 cause the}' have no queen. Bees do not live 

 an individual life, but a colony life, and 

 their hopes of life center in the queen. 



Kobber bees are not always from nearby 

 colonies, as Mr. Smith seems to imply, but 

 sometimes from, a distant apiaiy. Accord- 

 ing to his theory they should have lost their 

 queen odor and be made welcome. 



If this theoiy were correct, the Alexander 

 plan of placing a weak colony above a 

 strong one could never succeed, as the bees 

 having the odor of the queen in the upi)er 

 story must pass directly through the lower 

 colony having a different queen odor. 



The '• distress " theory of queen introduc- 

 tion, by A. C. Miller, page 977, Dec. 1.5, is 

 no stronger than Mr. Smith's theory; and 

 its author, so far as I know, has never 

 advanced a single reason as to why " dis- 

 tress" will cause bees to accept a strange 

 queen. 



In the same issue, of Gleanings Mr. 

 Miller gives us a number of conditions 

 under which his '' distress " theory fails — 

 namely, with " ciacked, warped, leaky, un- 

 painted hives," " hives of two or more cham- 

 bers," or " if much of the hive is unoccu- 

 pied." 



" Unpainted " hives is doubtless a cruel 

 shot at Dr. C. C. Miller, a young but prom- 

 ising beekeeper of Illinois. 



All these exceptions which Mr. Miller 

 notes may be easily supplied with a fertile 

 queen by the smoke method when we under- 

 stand the real principle on which the oper- 

 ation is based. 



Those who hold to the idea that, in intro- 

 ducing by the smoke method, the colony 

 odor is destroyed and bees and queen are 

 scented alike, are equally hard pressed to 

 explain many things. There ought rarely to 



be a failui'e it the udor theory is true; and 

 it is hardly possible that J. L. Byer failed 

 to impart plenty of smoke to his bees and 

 queens, or that he failed to have them in 

 distress, or that at Dr. Miller's they failed 

 to distress a single colony, or impart to them 

 the odor of smoke. 



None of these theories explain the fact 

 that a yellow queen may be introduced into 

 a colon J' from which a black queen has just 

 been removed, or that a large queen may 

 replace a small one, and under conditions 

 where the bees may see the newly introduced 

 queen. If one doubts that bees are able to 

 tlistinguish betw^een yellow and black let him 

 turn to Gleanings, Feb. 15, 1914, and read 

 the article " Color Sense of the Bee." So if 

 the "transmission of odor" or the "distress" 

 were true, when their distress is over, or the 

 odor of smoke has passed away, they would 

 be aware that the queen in the hive was a 

 stranger. 



When a colony is prospering, but little 

 precaution seems to be necessary in intro- 

 ducing a fertile queen to a colony from 

 which a queen has just been removed. The 

 odor of a laying queen is usually sufficient, 

 and I believe it to be the only odor that 

 plays any part in queen introduction ; also 

 that it is a protection to her in any form 

 of introduction. 



But if the harvest is slack, or robbers 

 begin to trouble, some method of introduc- 

 tion must be emjiloyed. One such method 

 employed is known as the smoke method, 

 sometimes misnamed the " ]\'Iiller smoke 

 method," and I believe most failures when 

 this method is employed are due to follow- 

 ing too closely A. C. Miller's instructions, 

 as he seems to have failed to grasp what he 

 calls the "basic principle" of the method. 



Tf instead of closing the hive a certain 

 length of time, as advised by Mr. IMiller, 

 you will follow G. M. Doolittle's plan and 

 depend on your ear to guide you, and intro- 

 duce the queen when you have the bees roar- 

 ing loudly, you will meet with reasonable 



