

'0&'BUIC^ 



43d YEAR. 



CHICAGO, ILL, DEC. 10, 1903, 



No, 50. 





Editorial Comments 



) 



The National Election this Month. 



During this month the members of the National Bee-Keepers' 

 Association will be called upon to vote for several directors and a 

 general manager, whose terms of office expire witti the end of this 

 year. 



We believe it is a good thing to have the directors scattered over 

 the country as widely as possible. It would be better, we thinii, if 

 there were only one director in a State, no matter what the member- 

 ship of any State is, as the Association is National, not only in name, 

 but in influence and in extent. 



Canada should be represented on the Board of Directors by one 

 member, at least. Mr. Wm. McEvoy has been prominently men- 

 tioned. We hope he will be elected. 



But each voter should remember that he has the right to vote for 

 any member he pleases, regardless of what anybody else may say. 



Honey SuperioF to Sugar as a Food. 



Dr. J. H. Kellogg, the well known medical authority, has given 

 honey a strong endorsement in Gleanings in Bee-Culture. For the 

 sake of the health of the public at large, it would be a fine thing if 

 it could be copied by all the papers in the land. He says ; 



I consider honey much preferable to cane-sugar as a food. It is 

 practically a fruit sugar, and is ready for absorption. Eaten in mod- 

 erate quantities it ought to tax the digestive organs much less than 

 cane-sugar, and is to be commended. 



Many persons ought to be able to utilize honey who can not use 

 cane-sugar. Adults often lack the power to digest cane-sugar. Cane- 

 sugar is chiefly obtained from grasses and roots. It is a sugar adapted 

 to herbivorous animals. One of the four stomachs of the cow secretes 

 a ferment which is capable of digesting cane-sugar. Digestion of cane- 

 sugar converts it into honey, so honey is practically cane-sugar already 

 digested. 



Malt sugars are best of all, as they are adapted to the human 

 digestive apparatus, being the natural result of the action of saliva on 

 starch. I think maltose is preferable to all sugars; but honey comes 

 next, and I frequently recommend my patients to use it when they do 

 not find it convenient to use malt sugars. So I consider that you and 

 your busy bees are engaged in good missionarj' work, and you have 

 my hearty sympathy. Knowledge in health-lines is increasing at a 

 very rapid rate these latter days. 



What is a Bee-Seout? 



Some readers may wonder why such a question is asked, because 

 they are familiar with the word, and have never heard it used with 

 any other meaning than that of a bee going out in advance to select a 

 place for the future home of a swarm. The dictionary confirms this 

 view. 



It appears, however, that in England the name is applied to those 

 bees which are on the lookout against intruders, as described by a 

 writer in the British Bee Journal in these words: 



There seems no reasonable doubt that the duties of the scouting 

 bee are as clearly defined and deliberately assumed as are those of the 

 sentinel, though the elusiveness of her movements, owing to the fact 

 that they have to be performed on the wing, may lead to the notion 

 that she is nothing more than a chance member of the community 



whose temper has become upset, and habits of industry in conse- 

 quence temporarily diverted from their usual peaceful course. In 

 spring and early summer it is true her numbers are insignificant, and 

 her special duties can then scarcely be said to have been taken up in 

 earnest ; but as the season advances the ranks of the bee-scout be- 

 come recruited, and their attitude towards supposed intruders more 

 aggressive. This remark may not wholly apply to cases where undue 

 irritation has been brought about by accident or awkward handling, 

 but in a well-managed apiary it is interesting to note the strictly limited 

 area within which ihe aggressive attentions of the bee-scout are ob- 

 servable. Her function is to circle around within a few yards of the 

 hive, and, unless actually following up an attack, her threatening 

 attitude is scarcely exhibited beyond the prescribed limits. To the 

 writer it appears that the zone of the scout's greatest activity lies 

 within a distance of perhaps from two to seven or eight yards of home, 

 and what is more striking, she seems, as a rule, to pay little attention 

 to any one standing close against the hive, as, for instance, in an act 

 of manipulation. 



It will be seen that a class of bees is spoken of entirely different 

 from those called scout-bees in this country. Indeed, it is a question 

 whether heretofore the bees spoken of by the British writer have ever 

 been considered as a separate class ; and yet he may be right in thus 

 speaking of them. Any experienced bee-keeper will recall one or 

 several cross bees following him persistently about the apiary, perhaps 

 all day long. Are not such bees detailed specially for that duty? But 

 it will hardly do to call them scout-bees, so long as that term is already 

 in use for another purpose. Shall they be called picketx? or is there 

 some better name? ^^^^^___^^^ 



Sense of Location in Bees. 



This has attracted a good deal of attention. Some have thought 

 them possessed of a special sense that allows them to return with un- 

 erring certainty from any point of the compass directly to their own 

 home. In finding their home they are most assuredly not entirely 

 guided by the appearance of that home itself, for it a hive in an api- 

 ary be removed ten feet from its location, the returning field-bees will 

 never find it, although its appearance be exactly the same as before 

 removal. C. Krah, in Praktischer Wegweiser, argues that there is no 

 special sense in the case, that it is a matter of memory pure and sim- 

 ple. Observation and reflection help to establish this view. 



Note the careful manner in which a bee marks its location when 

 it takes its first fiight, as also when it voluntarily changes location at 

 swarming, or when changed a considerable distance to a new location. 

 At first thought it might appear that it is merely noting the appear- 

 ance of its hive, but its constantly widening circles favor the belief 

 that it is taking an inventory of a wider circle of objects, with its hive 

 as a central point. After the winter's confinement, or after a consid- 

 erable confinement at any other time, a fresh marking takes place as 

 if to refresh the memory. Then, after the marking is carefully done, 

 no time is wasted in recounoitering to find the right place on subse- 

 quent flights, but depending upon its memory for the appearance of 

 surrounding objects, perhaps for a great distance in all directions, it 

 goes in a bee-line direct to the central point of the objects previously 

 noted. ^^^^^^^^^^ 



Improvement of Stock. 



Under this heading, in the American Bee-Keeper, with no com- 

 ment unless it be the sub-head, " A New Idea as to Means of Facilita- 

 ting this Desirable Result," appears the following in an article by G. 

 B. Crum: 



I have combs built part way down and give these to queenless colo- 

 nies to start dummy cells on the lower edge, which I use by putting la 

 larvie, changing them again in from 13 to 20 hours; that is, taking 



