JULY 15, 1913 



487 



General Correspondence 



BEES AND THE RAINBOW— A COLOR STUDY 



A Reply to John H. Lovell on Page 60, Jan. 15 



BY ARTHUR C. MILLER 



I know that I am quite likely to have a 

 Lovelly time, but I like 'em. I am a most 

 peaceable man, and dearly love a " scrap." 

 There is only one thing finer than a Don- 

 nybrook Fair, and that is another one. If 

 you never attended one it is high time you 

 did. You will get a jolly good broken head. 



Well, my coat is off. Are you ready, 

 boys ? Go ! " Why do bees dislike black? " 

 They don't ! No, sir ; they don't ! Did you 

 get that ? 



Who said they did? Well, Lovell said 

 that Crane said that it was " the almost 

 universal opinion." I knew it, I knew it ! 

 — just plain hearsay evidence — the kind 

 they hanged witches on. And here are some 

 of the hearsay proofs : " Twelve chickens 

 running in a bee-yard ; seven black ones are 

 stung to death while the five light ones es- 

 eai3ed." Do you know where the light ones 

 came from? I'll tell you. Their feathers 

 turned white from fright and saved their 

 lives. 



" A dog with a black rump is badly stung 

 on that part." Sure, why not? The bees 

 were after that wagging tail. " Never strike 

 at a bee." 



A white dog and a black dog ran among 

 the bees. The wliite one did not attract 

 much attention, while the black one was 

 furiously stung. Please, how many stings 

 are embraced in that " much ? " To have 

 that proof good for any thing, the dogs 

 must swap either skins or dispositions. 



Then there is cited a black hat " literally 

 decollated with stings." Humph! Probably 

 out of style, and the lady bees resented such 

 a thing in their midst. A black hatpin 

 caught it. Probably longer than the law 

 allowed. Black stocking-s peppered. Men's 

 or women's? Whole or darned? Those 

 points should be specified, for they have a 

 bearing on the pepper. 



So much for your whacks. Now take 

 these : 



Bees like black. They just revel in it. 

 They get so tired of sailing on the waves of 

 light in their search for grub that they 

 rejoice to get into the black where there are 

 no waves. We enjoy sailing on the bright 

 blue waves ourselves; but the bees find too 

 much of them depressing. Now, red they 

 rather like. " Red in moderation is a warm 

 and stimulating color, but in excess it be- 

 comes an irritant." I've heard it said of 

 " wine when it is red," and all you beekeep- 



ers know how fond the bees are of ferment- 

 ed drinks. Obviously, after a surfeit of the 

 " reds " black is most soothing. But look 

 out for their tempers " the morning after 

 the night before." 



" Way down East " the bees voice no 

 antipathy to black winter cases. Being in- 

 side of them in the winter, naturally they 

 do not. 



" A black surface in bright sunshine is 

 several degrees warmer than a white one. 

 This additional heat may also exert some 

 influence in attracting the attention of the 

 bees, though it is doubtful." Do you hear 

 that, E. R. ? Just reread it. It has only 

 a little to do with the bees' consideration 

 of black, but a whole lot to do with good 

 wintering, as I've told you a lot of times. 

 We are not talking on wintering, so you 

 are not to mention it in your footnote; 

 only just remember " I told you so." 



Down in this locality we have our tele- 

 scope covers black — a real pretty dead 

 black, both summer and winter, and sitting 

 right out in the sun too, which is the exact 

 opposite of what all the Solons of beedom 

 say should be, and that is why I did it. 

 Oh! they are a success, and the bees fairly 

 love those black boxes. On their return 

 from an early morning scramble in the cold 

 dew-covered blossoms you will find them 

 warming their chilled toes on those nice 

 warm black covers. As I said before, bees 

 just dote on black. But they dislike brown 

 and blue and white and red and a whole lot 

 more colors. Oh, yes! it is so, and I'll 

 prove it. 



My friend 'iggins (his real name is Hig- 

 gins, but he is EngUsh, and his haitehes 

 bother him, so he drops them), well, as I 

 was saying, 'iggins has a real nice soft 

 brown felt hat — one of those mellow wood- 

 sy browns at the start, and more mellowed 

 by the wind and the sun till it so resembles 

 brown leaves that, when he throws it down 

 in a corner of the beeyard, 'tis hard to see 

 — at least for him, and he is always looking 

 for " that bloomin' 'at," for he keeps it any- 

 where but on his head when in the beeyard. 

 That hat is so full of stings that he had to 

 sandpaper the points from the inside in 

 order to wear it. 



If you will come on here I'll get 'iggins 

 to let you try his precious hat for a few 

 minutes. Two or three minutes will be quite 

 long enough to suit you. 



Pat, the friendly helper at one of the 

 yards, usually wears a black shirt and a 

 pair of old blue overalls. Pat is a pretty 

 good beekeeper, and the bees are kind to 

 Pat. A bright small boy on the place was 



