374 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 15 



reach well up over your shoulders. The 

 sleeves cut from men's wornout shirts, if the 

 sleeves are whole, do very well, and save 

 making. If not long enough you can piece 

 them out. Have the sleeves fit rather close- 

 ly around the shoulders, so the bees can 

 not crawl inside. Fasten them together in 

 the back with a piece of white rubber tape 

 an inch wide and four or five inches long, 

 sewing each end of the tape to a sleeve. 

 Fasten in the same way in front, only, in- 

 stead of sewing one end of the tape to the 

 sleeve, work a buttonhole and sew a button 

 on the sleeve. In this way your sleeves and 

 gloves can be slipped on or off quickly, and 

 are perfectly safe so far as stings are con- 

 cerned. A big apron (one made of denim is 

 good if you don't think it too warm), with a 

 couple of good-sized pockets finishes up the 

 suit. 



Now, if you have a good bee-hat with a 

 veil sewed securely on the edge of the brim, 

 and a rubber cord run in the bottom edge, 

 and pull the veil down taut in front, and 

 fasten with a safety-pin, I think you may 

 feel pretty secure as to stings, and not suf- 

 fer very greatly from heat either. 



Write, and let me know how you like it. 



Marengo, 111. 



[A divided skirt for work among bees, for 

 women, is neat and sensible. There are 

 some who would hesitate to wear them, 

 perhaps for fear they would look "outland- 

 ish " or "mannish." The gymnasium suits 

 using the divided skirt, worn by college 

 girls in their athletic work, are neat and 

 pretty ; and for bee-yard work they would 

 add greatly to the comfort and convenience 

 of our lady bee-keepers. Perhaps some one 

 would be willing to send us a photograph 

 of a good suit. — ^Ed.] 



SHARER DEES." 



Two Possible Explanations. 



BY LT. COLONEL H. J. O. WALKER. 



On page 830, July 1, 1908, you invite opin- 

 ions as to why young worker bees are to be 

 seen gyrating on the combs. I would submit 

 at the outset, that, though they run round in 

 irregular circles, and may even, in that sense, 

 be said, as Dr. Miller terms it, to "waltz," 

 they are essentially "shakers." It must, I 

 think, be evident to any one who observes 

 them closely that they are restless and un- 

 comfortable, and anxious to shake off some- 

 thing disagreeable. Their action closely re- 

 sembles that of a dog just out of water. I 

 am at a loss to imagine what may be the in- 

 dications from which, according to the edi- 

 torial note, p. 880. it has been inferred that 

 the discovery of a fresh source of honey or 

 pollen is beintr announced to the hive in so 

 clumsy a fasliion. From the first spring 

 day's yield of pollen, and on through the 

 summer honey-flow till quite late in autumn, 

 vou may see the shaking, and it continues 

 long after the sun has set and bees have 



ceased to fly. I have seen a bee shaking 

 briskly on the surface of a swarm cluster. 



Three annoyances suggest themselves as 

 possible causes — parasites, wax scales, and 

 pollen. In our temperate climates the first- 

 named so seldom affect the healthy worker 

 that they may be dismissed. The first ob- 

 server, I believe, to suggest wax scales as a 

 cause was the celebrated English surgeon, 

 John Hunter. In his "Observations on 

 Bees," published by the Royal Society in 

 1792, he writes: "We very often see some 

 of the bees wagging their bellies as if tickled, 

 running round and to and fro for only a little 

 way, followed by one or two other bees as if 

 examining them.' I conceived that they were 

 probably shaking out the scales of wax, and 

 that the others were ready upon the watch 

 to catch them, but I could not absolutely de- 

 termine what they did." Except that, in my 

 humble opinion, the thorax is thoroughly 

 included in the shake, the description is 

 (juite accurate, and, in spite of constant 

 watching, my own observations have been 

 no more successful than Hunter's. Your 

 correspondent, p. 830, "saw one of the bees 

 pick up a small wax scale after the shaker 

 had passed away." He does not say where 

 the scale was lying, and, as I understand 

 him, did not see it leave the bee. At certain 

 seasons loose wax scales are plentiful in a 

 hive. 



I do not understand why a worker should 

 seek to remove wax scales in so rough a 

 way, when, provided they are so far devel- 

 oped as to admit of mechanical removal, it 

 can be effected as usual by employing the 

 hind-leg pincer. But my chief reason for re- 

 fusing the wax-scale theory is that shaking 

 is quite common at the close of autumn, when 

 even voluntary wax secretion has ceased for 

 the season, and loose wax scales are no long- 

 er to be found on the floor-board. In em- 

 phasing the word voluntary, I admit that, in 

 the season of swarming and abundant honey- 

 flows, wax is secreted independently of all 

 clustering by the young workers. It may 

 be remembered that, in his treatise, Melissc- 

 logia, London, 1744, the Rev. John Thorley 

 tells us how he was led by the unusually 

 bulky appearance of a home-returning bee 

 to capture it and so discover the adherent 

 wax-scales; and others have since then con- 

 firmed his observation. But no foraging 

 worker bee will be found in autumn secret- 

 ing wax. 



Turning then to pollen, we find, in my 

 opinion, a plausible explanation of the puz- 

 zle, and I suggest that the vigorous shaking 

 is the bee's effort to get rid of minute grains 

 of pollen which are interfering with the ac- 

 tion of the spiracles in thorax and abdomen 

 by means of which it breathes. Shaking be- 

 gins with the opening of the pollen season, 

 and ceases with the end of it, and traces of 

 pollen can be detected on most of the 

 shakers. Indeed, many of those workers 

 that come in thi^h-laden with it can not 

 wait to deposit their burden, but turn at 

 once to shaking. Then, more than at any 

 other time, are the neighboring bees most 



