176 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 15 



of tt e ground Thee are two advantages in 

 this — first, it gives ventilation; second, robbers 

 hang around the screens and d') not bother so 

 much at the door. If they get very bad at the 

 door it is tied up tight, and any one wishing to 

 get in or out raises up one side of the tent and 

 lets it fall behind him. 



Our sympathies are with the Imperial Valley 

 bee-keepers who wish to- protect themselves from 

 the intrusion of more bee-keepers than the range 

 will maintain, for this valley is about overstocked 

 n"w; and si( ce my partners and I have about 

 $10,000 invested in bees here, we and others now 

 here would hate to be crowded so as to make our 

 project a failure in the end, both for us and the 

 ones who crowded us. 



Mesilla Park, N. M., Jan. 14. 



THE QUESTION OF LOCALITY. 



Why the Bees Gnawed the Splints. 



BY LESLIE BURR. 



Why did the bees gnaw the splints on page 

 1127, Sept. 15? The editor suggests that locality 

 was the cause. The locality idea is all right in 

 a way, as certain conditions are more likely to 

 occur in some localities than others, but to solve 

 the problem fully it is necessary to know what 

 ail the conditions were. In support of my idea 

 that it was mere conditions, and not because the 

 bees happened to be located at some certain part 

 of the world, I will state that I have worked 

 bees in the canyons of California, along the coast 

 of the Caribbean Sea, among the mountains of 

 Cuba, and the hillsides of New York, along the 

 base of the Rocky Mountains, on the coast of the 

 Gulf of Mexico, and on the Illinois prairies; and 

 my observations have been that bees, under Ike 

 conditions, produce like results, no matter where 

 located. 



I judge that the reasons why "a third of the 

 combs looked like Fig. 2 and 3 " are, first, there 

 was not a heavy honey-flow; or if there was, the 

 nights must have been very cool; and, second, the 

 b<-es were given more frames than was necessary 

 under the conditions that existed. Had the bees 

 I een given only as many frames as they could 

 work upon, and the rest ot the frames added only 

 vshen necessary, I feel certain that fewer bad 

 Ci mbs would have resulted. That "Satan finds 

 some mischief still for idle hands to do" applies 

 to bees as well as boys. 



BEES DESERTING THE HIVE. 



While in the West 1 heard what then seemed a 

 strange story. It was to the effect that a Colora- 

 do bee-keeper who had business interests in Mon- 

 tana decided to go into the bee business there; 

 but on making inquiries about bees he found it 

 was not an uncommon occurrence for them to 

 dtsert the hive and disappear, leaving scarcely a 

 bee with the honey and brood. 



The person in question decided that, if bees 

 acted that way, he had no desire to own bees in 

 Montana. 



I could never account for the bees acting this 

 way until a few days ago when I was visiting 

 Claude Hill, of Chagrin Falls, Ohio, one of my 

 old Cuban friends. In the course of our conver- 



sation about Cuba he remarked, " Say, did you 

 ever know that down on the south coast of Cuba 

 at times the bees have been known to desert the 

 hive, leaving it full of honey and brood?" He 

 gave as a reason that the bees had become crazy 

 from thirst, there being no fresh water that they 

 could get. 



ENTRANCE- BOARDS. 



The editor, in his remarks about that photo of 

 T. -C. Ebrito's apiary, in the Sept. 15th issue, 

 says, "The arrangement of the hive-stands, also, 

 is very simple, and has the furtheradvantage that 

 it permits the apiarist to push his toes or insteps 

 clear under the hives. This allows him to get 

 near his work." This is all true; but let me add 

 that there should be a board that reaches from 

 the entrance to the ground; for if you do not (and 

 this is especially true in the North) a large num- 

 ber of loaded bees will become lost. I remem- 

 ber one day during the buckwheat flow in New 

 York this fall I chanced upon a hive about six 

 inches from the ground. The small board that 

 leaned against the entrance had fallen, and, as a 

 result, there was about a pint of bees crawling 

 around near the hive. They had missed the en- 

 trance; and as there was no convenient way for 

 them to crawl up, and they were too exhausted 

 to take wing, they were unable to enter the hive. 



Valparaiso, Ind. 



DO BEES HEAR.? 



Some Evidence to Show that Bees 

 tice Sounds by Feehng the Jar. 



BV I. W. BECKWTTH. 



No- 



This is a question that will not stay down, and 

 I will offer some observations that I have made 

 in regard to it. 



The " do-hear " par ty saj s, " We notice that a 

 sharp clap of thunder sends home in a hurry the 

 bees that are out foraging. Did they hear that 

 thunder? Wnen hiving a swarm, those near the 

 entrance commence humming and marching in; 

 then the others take up the hum and march. 

 When a colony is preparing to swaim, the old 

 ijueen and the unhatched one quahk at each oth- 

 er. Of what u-e is that quahk if the other queen 

 d jes not hear it? " 



H. v. Buitel-Reepen, Ph. D. , says, in his arti- 

 cle, "Are Bees Reflex Machines?" that he has 

 not the least doubt that bees have an excellent 

 sense of hearing, since observations ) ield hun- 

 dreds of proofs; but admits that no organ of hear- 

 ing has been discovered. 



But there are observations and observations. 

 1 have seen many things, however, that go to 

 show that the bees do not hear as we do, alihough 

 they are sensible to sound. I have often noticed. 

 v\hen hiving a swarm, if there should be a gap of 

 two or three inches between those bees that are 

 humming and going into the hive, and those 

 further away, they do not seem to hear that hum 

 across the gap, esiec ally if there is a little wind 

 toward the hi»e; } et I can hear it several steps 

 away. 1 hose tees did not have a very " excel- 

 lent sense of hearing." 



I set up a screen ot tissue paper about six im h- 

 es from the front of a hi\e, and shook some bees 

 from a comb on to a siuet between the hive and 



