GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Exception must also be taken to the state- 

 ment that it is doubtful whether a sudden 

 change from dark to light or vice versa af- 

 fects a bee's vision at all as it does ours. 

 The eyes of bees are of great size, and arc" 

 highly developed. I know of no one else in 

 America Avho has so carefully investigated 

 their structure as Dr. E. F. Phillips, of the 

 Bureau of Entomology at Washington. His 

 figures show that each eye tube of the com- 

 pound eye is connected by a nerve fiber to 

 large and powerful optic lobes. There is. in 

 my judgment, not the slightest reason to 

 doubt that this highly specialized apparatus 

 is strongly responsive to waves of light. 

 Their impact incites molecular changes in 

 the nerve fibers as certainly as a magnet 

 influences tl;e compass needle. 



The experiments with the little house or 

 tent of white cloth are of much interest in 

 that they show that the flight of bees is in- 

 fluenced by the line of the horizon. In 

 their endeavors to escape, the bees flew 

 against the translucent walls always above 

 the hoi'izon line dimly visible through the 

 white cloth. Buttel-Reepen gives an in- 

 stance where bees at liberty showed by their 

 manner of flight that they perceived th-^ 

 horizon line and were influenced by it. I 

 regard this as good evidence that the com- 

 pound eyes of bees can see distant objects. 



In the experiment where there were four 

 hives, one on the middle of each side of the 

 room, T should attribute the ability of each 

 bee to find its own hive to its memory of lo- 

 cation. The late W. Z. Hutchinson once 

 wrote me, giving an account of some obser- 

 vations showing that bees in their flight 

 were strongly influenced by locality as well 

 as by color. Buttel-Reepen also considers 

 that memory of locality is very strongly ex- 

 hibited by scouting bees. As an alternative 

 there is, of course, the theory of Bethe, that 

 bees are led back to the hive by an unknown 

 force wliich draws them as a magnet draws 

 steel. It is open, indeed, to the objection 

 that there is no evidence of the existence of 

 such a force. Or if one prefers he may be- 

 lieve with Fabre that they are guided by a 

 sixth sense. 



Personally I believe that bees flying out 

 from the darkness of the hive see black ob- 

 jects much more clearly than they do white, 

 which reflect all the rays of light. In the 

 brilliant light of a mid-summer day a white 

 object may easily escape attention. Our 

 railroads do not use white signals in the 

 daytime, but black. Newspapers and books 

 are printed in black letters. In the arctic 

 regions in winter, birds escape attention by 

 their white plumage and mammals by their 

 white fur. There are numerous instances 

 where pei-sons have attempted to pass 



Ihrough a mirror, which largely reflects 

 light, as through an open door; but no one, 

 when the sun was shining, ever tried to 

 walk into a black wall. 



My. Crane did not exaggerate one iota 

 when he said that it was the almost uni- 

 versal opinion among beekeepers that a 

 black object is more likely to be stung than 

 a white one. The recent articles by Mr. F. 

 J. Cartan, of Oregon, and " The Beeman." 

 hailing from New Mexico, show" how widely 

 disseminated is this view. The testimony 

 cited in my paper was that of entirely 

 trustworthy witnesses, including beekeepers 

 interested in the subject chiefly from the 

 conmiercial point of view, as well as the 

 editors of Gleanings, Dr. C. C. Miller, 

 Messrs. Crane, Townsend, and others. I 

 infer from a personal letter received from 

 Mr. Dadant some months ago that he also 

 holds a similar opinion. Mr. A. C. IMiller 

 offers no reply to this evidence; he simply 

 seeks to ridicule it. I am a naturalist; and 

 while I do not consider it necessary to ver- 

 ify every observation when there is ample 

 confirmatory evidence in its favor, yet when 

 it is called in question it is my custom to 

 appeal at once directly to nature by experi- 

 ment. 



The following experiments were made 

 August 7, 1913, at 10 o'clock. The day was 

 clear and calm, and the temperature in the 

 shade was 80 degrees F. I was dressed 

 wholly in white, but there was a black veil 

 on my broad-brimmed straw hat. Tlie 

 white sleeves of my shirt were buttoned out- 

 side of a pair of yellowish-white gloves. 

 Midway on the sleeve of my right arm there 

 was sewed a band of black Cashmere cloth, 

 ten inches wide, entirely encomi^assing tl:e 

 sleeve. No smoker was used, as it was de- 

 sired that the bees should display their nat- 

 ural disposition. 



Thus dressed I approached a hive of 

 black bees, and, kneeling on the gi'ound in 

 front of the hive, I tapped vigorously with 

 both hands on the top of the hive-stand. A 

 lai'ge number of bees presently flew out of 

 the entrance, many of which immediately 

 attacked the black band on my right arm, 

 wliile the left sleeve, Avhich was entirely 

 white, was scarcely aioticed. 



On the second story of this hive there was 

 a super containing large pieces of partially 

 filled honeycomb given to the bees to clean 

 up. Standing on the west side of the hive, 

 and facing the east so that the sun shone 

 diiectly on both my extended arms. I lifted 

 off tlie cover, and, introducing both hands 

 into the super, lifted a piece of comb cov- 

 ered with bees and gently shook it. In- 

 stantly many bees flew toward me. A large 

 numbei- attacked the black band, to wbicli 



