GLEANINRR TN BEE f'ULTURE 



warm or hot spell out of season is quite 

 likely to be followed by a cliilly or a cold 

 spell of weather. It is then that the prac- 

 tice of spreading brood results in almost 

 irreparable damage to the colony. While 

 the bees may recover, the split brood-nest 

 causes a large amount of brood to chill and 

 die; and the result is very much worse than 

 if the bees had been left to their own sweet 

 will. 



anid I1E8 

 as a 



Agent 



Quite incidentally we have learned, as 

 we approached the home of Luther Burbank, 

 the plant wizard of the world, that in the 

 making of some of his new creations he is 

 in the habit of getting up at 4 o'clock every 

 morning, or before the bees get out to modi- 

 fy the results. He has often spoken of the 

 bees as a pollinating agent ; and did he not 

 recognize their power to modify plant life, 

 lie would not get up so early in the morning 

 to mingle the pollen in an artificial way in 

 order that he may secure some creations 

 that nature, if left undisturbed, Avould not 

 produce. Indeed, we are told he keeps bees 

 for the very express purpose of helping him 

 to bring out some of his wonderful works in 

 the plant world. 



How do Bees Smell? 



Just as the study of human traits and 

 faculties is based upon accurate researches 

 in the senses, the study of the josychology of 

 the honeybee should begin with investiga- 

 tions of the sense organs of bees. Unless 

 their anatomy and functions have been care- 

 fully determined, we can never reach a clear 

 understanding of bee behavior. The habits 

 may be observed, but the reason back of 

 them can never be grasped by one unfamil- 

 iar with the way they receive their im- 

 pressions of the outside world. 



If any of the three senses of sight, sound, 

 and touch can be picked out as more funda- 

 mental in man than another, it is sight. With 

 the bee the sense of smell is probably the 

 most important within the darkness of the 

 hive but outside it is of secondary impor- 

 tance. The seat of this sense, scientists 

 hitherto have been placing in the antennas, 

 one writer even claiming to have located the 

 segments in which the power of detecting 

 enemies arises. 



According to N. E. Mclndoo, Ph.D., of 

 the U. S. Department of Entomology, the 

 seat of the olfactory sense is not in the 



antennte but in certain olfactory pores, at 

 the base of the wing and the joint of the 

 leg. In a noteworthy contribution to the 

 psychology of hymenoptera entitled " The 

 Olfactory Sense of the Honeybee,'' he de- 

 tails an extensive series of experiments car- 

 ried on with normal and mutilated bees to 

 discover wherein lies their appreciation of 

 odors. Bees deprived of antennas were ab- 

 uoi'mal in every way. There was nothing 

 in his experiment to indicate that the an- 

 tennae play the slightest part in smell. On 

 the other hand closing certain of these pores 

 with varnish increased twelve times the 

 length of time the bee ordinarily took to 

 react to strong odors. From these results 

 he summarizes that the antennae can no 

 longer be regarded as the seat of the sense 

 of smell in insects. 



In a criticism in the American Bee Jour- 

 nal, Dr. Bruennich believes that these or- 

 gans which Mr. Mclndoo featured are 

 merely protective against injurious gases, 

 and that the antennae are the seat of the 

 senses detecting the presence of honey and 

 of enemies. 



1011 Be- 

 or Three 



Iweein Two Apiaries Two 



Miles Apart, and Why 



It is a well-known fact that there may be 

 a great difference in the yield of honey 

 between different outyards. One yard, for 

 example, may yield 100 lbs. of surplus clo- 

 ver, and another, not two miles away, will 

 furnish almost nothing. Sometimes the 

 difference is attributed to the soil ; but when 

 the two yards have yielded about the same 

 amount in jsrevious years, we must account' 

 for it on a different basis. 



Just a few days ago two farmers near us 

 complained of weather conditions on the 

 same day. One had had so much rain that the 

 ground was so thoroughly soaked he oould 

 not cultivate, and the other, not more than 

 a mile and a half away, said his ground was 

 so dry that he feared that his crops would 

 be short. Supjaose, for example, both men 

 had been growing alsike and white clover. 

 It is easy to see why in the one case bees 

 on one farm would get a crojj of honey 

 while those on the other farm would get 

 notliing. These local showers have a way 

 of thoroughly welting down one farm and 

 leaving the other farm high and dry. Then, 

 the failure of one beeyard and a plentiful 

 yield of honey in another can often be ex- 

 plained by the amount of moistuie in the 

 soil. 



Tlieie is aiiothei' cause: There will be 

 wiiilei' killing of cloNer on or.e farm where 



