May 1, 1912 



above all other utensils; but later in the sea- 

 son I met another beekeeper who had adopt- 

 ed it; but he hastily added a word of caution, 

 to the effect that the pan should be kept 

 away from the direct rays of the sun until 

 it was needed, because, when the sunlight 

 beats directly upon the pan, it gets very 

 warm. One such experience with a hot pan 

 was more than enough for him; for the mo- 

 ment the bees struck the hot metal they 

 rose in a cloud, full of evil temper, attack- 

 ing every living thing in sight. 



In the matter of the smoker, he said he 

 believed that a swarm clustering on a branch 

 had guards set, just as if they were in the 

 hive, so he always gave them a little puff of 

 smoke to upset their equanimity. The 

 sheet was thrown in front of the hive, that 

 the bees might have a surface for walking 

 on that was smoother than grass. 



All jireparations being made, Mr. Alpaugh 

 got busy and so did I. He kept hustling, 

 and it was up to me to press the bulb, turn 

 on a new exposure in the kodak, and press 

 again. I began with the swarm hanging on 

 the branch; the result is shown in Fig. 1. 

 Then Mr. Alpaugh got started to his work 

 by puffing a little smoke on the bees as ex- 

 hibited in Fig. 2. In the next photograph, 

 Fig. :>, the button was pressed as he shook 

 the branch, so all we see is a streak of bees. 

 Proceeding to the hive Mr. Alpaugh gave 



273 



Fk;. 2.— The preliminary smoking. 



Fig. 3.— Shaking the branch and dislodging the 

 bees into the dishpan. 



the pan a sudden jerk that landed most of 

 the insects on the white sheet (cover picture 

 for this issue) . 



There was now time for a little conversa- 

 tion between Mr. Alpaugh and the owner of 

 the apiary, as they "hunkered" ino Flng- 

 lish equivalent for this Scotch word) on op- 

 posite sides of the hive. Suddenly the vis- 

 itor's hand shot out, and "There's the 

 queen!" fell from his lips. Luckily I was 

 preparedj so the incident is on record in 

 Fig. 4. 



DO BEES HEAR? 



A few feet to the right of the hive there 

 stood some kind of grass which had attain- 

 ed a height of about four feet. All the time 

 the swarm was finding its way home, many 

 bees— say a hundred— could be seen Hying 

 out and in among the stems, now near the 

 ground, now higher up, as if they were 

 searching for something. Mr. Alpaugh ask- 

 ed if I could give any explanation of their 

 conduct. I threw up my hands at once, re- 

 marking that once in a while I had seen the 

 same thing but never could account for their 

 behavior. Then he remarked that this 

 wandering around what was i)ractically a 

 solid wall was to him the best proof that 

 bees could hear, for these stray bees heard 

 the echo of the hum from the hive, and 

 were searching for their companions. He 



