382 



American Hee Jonrnal| 



NoTember, 1914. 



sonable to believe that the queen is 

 accepted because by this method the 

 bees are made to quickly realize their 

 queenlessness. 



Let me illustrate how quickly I think 

 this knowledge is spread through the 

 colony : 



The first queen I ever introduced 

 was by the cage plan. As the bees 

 were slow to release her, I decided to 

 let her out myself. I removed the cage 

 containing the queen from the hive, 

 with perhaps a dozen bees clinging to 

 her, and in my awkwardness and haste 

 I allowed her to come out while the 

 cage lay on the ground some two feet 

 from the hive. As she came in touch 

 with the few bees clinging to the cage, 

 they sounded their joyful signal, and 

 iiishinlly a mass of bees as wide and 

 deep as the entrance came pouring out 

 of that hive, boiling out faster than any 

 swarm ever issued, met the queen and 

 escorted her into the hive. I think 

 this tends to show that the bees were 

 attracted to the caged queen by queen 

 odor; that they had no real sense of 

 f<osscssion until they touched antenna;, 

 and that the good news spread through 

 the colony as quickly as sound could 

 travel. 



By the smoke method the bees are 

 made to believe the destruction of their 

 home is imminent, and their first 

 thought is one of self-preservation, and 

 that means the preservation of the col- 

 ony through the queen, for a bee prob- 

 ably neither knows nor fears any death 

 except the death of the colony. So 

 the first cry sent echoing through the 

 hive made assurance of the loss of the 

 queen, and the fear of death possessed 

 their hearts. 



In nature a colony suflfers the loss of 

 its queen in only two ways, by old age, 

 and this loss is expected and prepared 

 for in a natural way ; second by loss of 

 the virgin on her wedding flight, and 

 this in nature is the death of the col- 

 ony. As the excitement in the hive 

 subsides, the new queen is found within 

 the gates, and just at this point I pre- 

 sume queen odor plays a part, for I 

 have an idea, without being able to 

 offer proof, that bees recognize a 

 queen-bee chiefly by her odor, and 

 their own queen only by touching an- 

 tenn:e. Remember, this colony has 

 lost its queen in an mnialural way, and 

 has received another in an equally un- 

 natural way, and the bees are without 

 doubt in two minds about her, recog- 

 nizing in her a danger if their own 

 should be recovered and a necessity if 

 she be lost. 



When bees are dequeened they are 

 slow to give up hope of finding their 

 own again, and may be seen running 

 around on the alighting-board and up 

 and down the end and sides of the 

 hive in an endeavor to locate her, and 

 while this continues I doubt if the 

 new queen is entirely safe. She is 

 balled and held prisoner oftener than 

 we think, but nature inclines them to 

 accept this strangely acquired queen 

 in preference to the dangers attending 

 the rearing and mating of a virgin. 



One other point in regard to this 

 smoke method of introduction. It so 

 demoralizes the bees that even if you 

 have not removed the old queen, the 

 new one may safely enter, even robber 

 bees may do the same, and when the 



colony recovers from its demoraliza- 

 tion, the new queen protected by her 

 queen odor may still be accepted and 

 become the head of the colony if the 

 old queen is weak and failing, for this 

 also is an advantage to the colony over 

 rearing and mating a virgin to super- 

 sede the old queen. 



These ideas are only the ideas of an 

 amateur, with a few colonies, but those 

 colonies have been studied closely, 

 and I presume bee-behavior is much 

 the same in ten colonies as in ten 

 hundred. 



Audubon, Iowa. 



[We have often suggested that the 

 queen odor pervades every normal 

 colony. As soon as this odor is gone, 

 the colony becomes restless and begins 

 to look for its queen. It takes more 

 or less time, but rarely more than a 

 half hour. That the queen has a very 

 strong odor is evidenced by the fact 

 that after you have handled a queen, 

 some of her bees may follow you and 

 alight upon your fingers, for quite a 

 while, in search of her. When they 

 notice her absence they are certainly 

 prompt in informing the rest of the 

 colony. — Editor.] 



Smoker Fuel— Cumarin 

 Sweet Clover 



BY A. F. BONNEY. 



in 



LIKE every other person who dab- 

 bles in the bee-business, I have 

 had my share of grief with fuel for 

 my smoker. I reduced my chances of 

 immortality by using, or trying to use, 

 hickory wood, burlap, corncobs, dried 

 dung, planer shavings, excelsior and 

 what not, until in desperation I tried 

 " greasy cotton waste." 



It worked so well that I continued 

 using it until, running out of waste, I 

 wet cotton rags with a cheap machine 

 oil, and the result was all right. Then 

 I got hold of some waste that fairly 

 reeked with grease. I think the oil 

 might have dripped from the mass had 

 I held it a whil;, but I was in a hurry, 

 so I set fire to it, poked it into the 

 smoker, blew a few fiery blasts from 

 the nozzle and went to work. I used 

 it two or three hours, put it out by lay- 

 ing the smoker on its side with the 

 nozzle plugged with leaves, fired it up 

 again that afternoon and the ne.xt day. 

 There was not a moment that I did not 

 have an abundance of thick, acrid, cool 

 smoke at my command, and I needed 

 it, for I acquired some bees this sum- 

 mer that had no respect for my person 

 or attainments, and the way they in- 

 jected the rheumatic cure into my cir- 

 culation was a sin and a shame. 



I think I was practically the first 

 writer to question the statement that 

 cumarin is bitter. I had isolated 

 some from tonka bean, and found it 

 practically tasteless. Moreover, it is 

 used to cheapen vanilla. Were cumarin 

 bitter it would be unavailable for 

 flavoring. 



Mr. Westgate, agronomist in charge 

 of clover investigations at Washington, 

 D. C, writes me as follows: 



" The question as to the flavor of 

 cumarin is interesting, as the bitter 

 taste in sweet clover has usually been 

 attributed to the presence of cumarin, 

 whereas if, as your man states, cumarin 

 is not bitter, we are either in error in 

 calling the flavor of sweet clover bitter 

 or the bitterness is due to some other 

 ingredient. I shall endeavor to keep 

 in touch with this subject, and if we 

 are able in anyway to have another 

 analysis made so that the really bitter 

 principle can be isolated, I shall be 

 very glad to obtain definite informa- 

 tion along this line." 



I think we may now decide that the 

 " bitter principle " of sweet clover is an 

 individual element; that cumarin is 

 not bitter; that either the bitter prin- 

 ciple or the cumarin, or both com- 

 bined, tend to prevent fermentive indi- 

 gestion (bloat) in cattle, while it may 

 turn out that, when as many cattle eat 

 sweet clover as there are eating the 

 white, there may be cases of "bloat" 

 develop. Not one animal now eats 

 sweet clover where thousands eat of 

 the white. I think it is possible that 

 we are jumping at conclusions — but it 

 is a nice dream. 



Buck Grove, Iowa. 



The Olfactory Sense of the 

 Honey-Bee 



BY DR. BRUNNK H. 



IN the June number of the American 

 Bee Journal we have read a most 

 interesting article on certain sensi- 

 tive organs in the honey-bee, the func- 

 tion of which the author claims to be 

 an olfactory one. Having occupied 

 myself since many years with the 

 anatomy of the honey-bee, the matter 

 interested me highly, and the author. 



Dk. Brunnich 



N. v.. Mclndoo, of the Entomological 

 Bureau in Washington, D. C, had the 

 great kindness to fend me his papers 

 on the matter, concerning, first, the 

 honey-bee; secondly, different hymen- 

 opters ; thirdly, certain araneids. For 



