11«,0 CLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. Oct. 1 



It is true that queens which fly away from the comb just taken out of the hive usually 

 get lost because they can not find their way home. 



I made the following observation: When a queen flew away as just described, I 

 stood perfectly quiet, exactly as I was when she flew, in the hope that, if she had no 

 memory of her hive, she would surely return to the place from whi:h she flew, since bees 

 which have not before oriented themselves always go back to the place from which they 

 flew." After barely a quarter of a minute, in fact, the queen sank down again, not on 

 the comb, to be sure, but upon a little piece of board which lay in the grass a step distant. 

 There I caught her easily and put her back in the colony. In keeping quiet and not chang- 

 ing the surroundings I followed an old bee-keepers' rule, a practice developed from much 

 observation like the above. 



But it has, undoubtedly, been established many times by reliable observers that a 

 queen finds her way surely to the entrance of her hive a month after her marriage-flight. 



A young queen often errs when the hives stand very close together, if she returns 

 hastily from the marriage-flight. If hives from which flight will take place are marked, 

 therefore, for example with a twig covered with leaves,''' her return is very much more 

 assured. This is proof that the queen impresses accurately upon herself the appearance 

 of her dwelling. 



MEMORY FOR LOCALITY IN SCOUTING BEES. 



In the behavior of the so-called scouting bees we find one of the most conclusive 

 proofs against the vague hypothesis of an "unknown force." They prove most emphatically, 

 in my opinion, that an orientation truly takes place through the sense of sight, through 

 memory pictures. 



I can not here deny myself the pleasure of inserting the interesting information about 

 scouting bees which Baron v. Berlepsch, the so-called Bee Baron,"^ sent to the Bienen- 

 zeitung, VIII., No. 7, 1852. 



"Annually, about swarming time one often sees bees in considerable number at holes 

 in the walls and crevices of old buildings, walls, and trees. They creep in and out, appar- 

 ently seeking something, run anxiously outside and back, flying to and fro. They buzz 

 about as if in front of the hive, and one must have considerable knowledge of bees to 

 'tie able to distinguish these so-called scouting bees from the true colony. Even if there is 

 no room behind the hole or crevice, I have often seen them forming a cluster before one 

 from six to eight inches long, two or three inches broad, but not at all deep. In so doing 

 they were always uneasy, which does not happen, as is well known, with bees in front 

 of a real hive. These bees are usually regarded as belonging to colonies about to swarm, 

 sent out to find a good place for quarters for the next swarm, hence the name scouting 

 bees or quarter-makers. I see these bees every year at the crevices of the old knight's 

 castle, and in the garden wall and the barn gable. These crevices are often hardly one 

 inch deep, and one-half inch wide, so that there is not room for even the smallest after- 

 swarm. My observation that, although indeed no year passed in which not one but most 

 of my after-swarms escaped, a swarm never alighted here, led me to doubt the common 

 belief; and in 1844 I determined to make very exact investigations and experiments, and 

 to take careful note of everything. When, therefore, on May 12th of that year I first 

 saw bees on the edge of the wall, I had them sprinkled thoroughly with chalk toward 

 evening by my usual helpers, and the gardener and I stood in front of the hives to see 

 to which the bees belonged, and whether they were all from one or from more than one 

 hive. Soon coming in, they all entered No. ■]■] ('Solomon the Magnificent'). Early the 

 next day they were on the wall again, and so it went on for four days. Each evening 

 they were powdered, and their return carefully noted (scouting bees had in the meantime 

 appeared at many other places). They belonged, undoubtedly, to the magnificent Solomon. 

 Finally on the 17th, about ten o'clock, the powerful 'Padischah' swarmed out with a for- 

 midable host, went in the direction of the scouting bees, but hung on a dwarf tree hardly 



•* Orientation begins, therefore, at the moment of the flying out (see Box ivxperiment, p. 23). 



»' Dathe, Lehrbuch der Bienenzucht, 1892; Bensheim, p. 279. 



" As is well known, v. Siebold, demonstrated Parthenogenesis in bees for the first time upon th» 

 estate of v. Berlepsch in 1855 (sec "W.ihrc Parthcnogrnesis Ixi Sclimcttcrlingcn und Bicncn; Leipzig, 

 1S56, p. 110 and following). 



