Jantarv. 1919 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



35 



HEADS O F GRA IN ¥?FROM)apDiFFRPKNT~FrFT^ 



The Bees and While stationed last 



the Soldiers. spriugf at Camp Mc- 



Clellan, Alabama, the 

 bee fever seized those of us who at our 

 homes had been amateur bee-farmers, and 

 our thoughts were often diverted from sol- 

 diering and "squads east" and "squads 

 west ' ' by reports that swarms of bees had 

 been observed in some particular corner of 

 the camp. At such times the most enthusi- 

 astic veterans of Langstroth frames and 

 various kinds of smokers availed themselves 

 of the earliest opportunity to find the alleged 

 swarms. On May 27 there appeared to be 

 an pjiidemic of swarming. One lot of golden- 

 striped beauties had taken refuge in a pile 

 of empty drainpipe quite near my tent, and 



The horseshoer soldier and his two swarms of bees 

 safely hived in nail-kegs. 



had lost no time in setting up housekeeping. 

 Some small pieces of comb were construct- 

 ed; but several days later these bees va- 

 cated their new house, leaving no "new ad- 

 dress ' ' at which they might be found. 



But we had better luck with two swarms 

 which one of our horse-shoers (Pyrhus D. 

 Shelor) installed in a couple of old empty 

 horseshoe-kegs. Both colonies went to work 

 without delay, and before we entrained for 

 a port of embarkation they were safely 

 transferred one night to a farm near by. 



"While my home is in Spottsylvania Coun- 

 ty, Va., and three summers have passed since 



my own bees have h;id my attention, yet 

 wherever I happened to camp I have been 

 on the lookout for some of my pets. At 

 Brownsville, Tex., in the fall of 1916, some 

 most primitive hives' were found and photo- 

 graphed. Over here in France so far but 

 three colonies have been seen. They were 

 in the province of Vienne, near Portiers, in 

 August; and even the hives, like nearly all 

 the buildings, were roofed with red tile. The 

 bench on which they rested was perched on 

 the rocks above the roadside along which I 

 hajipened to be traveling. 



Wm. D. Kichardson, 



No. 1,296,437, Sgt. Co. E, 104th Amm. 

 Train, American E. F. 



France, Nov. 6, 1918. 



Foundation— Do the Occasionally it is 

 Bees Discriminate? claimed that the bees 

 will draw out one 

 make of Weed Process foundation quicker 

 than they will another make of the same 

 process. Are the bees not governed by ex- 

 isting conditions as embodied in the foun- 

 dation, rather than by a discriminating in- 

 stinct that some claim for them? The hu- 

 man being may be led to believe that a cer- 

 tain brand of merchandise excels another 

 brand that is identical in quality, and that 

 is produced from the same materials by the 

 same identical machinery in each instance; 

 liut the bees are not subject to human per- 

 suasion, and, therefore, not influenced in 

 this manner. 



We have carefully tested out the founda- 

 tion of different manufacturers, our own in- 

 cluded, as well as that of one manufacturer 

 in particular who claims that the "bees 

 take to theirs first," the tests being con- 

 ducted in neighboring apiaries as well as 

 our own. These tests utterly disprove any 

 such claim. We find that the age and weight 

 of the foundation used are foremost among 

 the determining factors. If foundation 

 fresh from the mills is used alongside of 

 foundation that is several years old, the 

 bees will naturally select the freshest foun- 

 dation first. Nor would it be a fair test to 

 use heavy foundation of one "make against 

 lighter foundation of another make. These 

 conditions being equal, our experiments are 

 highly gratifying, as we find the bees do 

 not use the discrimination that is claimed 

 for them. The charm that is claimed for 

 certain foundation did not cause the bees to 

 ' ' take to theirs first. ' ' We shall be pleased 

 to have others verify these results with 

 personal experiments of their own. While 

 we do not claim that our foundation will 

 charm the bees, we do claim that they will 

 recognize its high quality as quickly as they 

 will that of any other make that is manu- 

 factured anywhere in the United States. To 

 state that they will draw it out quicker than 



