178 Beekeeping 



secreting plants. That bees differentiate between flowers 

 which are encountered in their flights is shown by the fact 

 that they usually visit but one species on a trip (p. 119). 



Finding of the hive. 



It is well known that bees normally return to the right 

 hive. The fact that strange bees are not usually admitted 

 may be explained on the basis of difference in colony odors 

 but this does not explain the method by which they find 

 the right hive in the majority of cases. Bethe 1 asserts that 

 the bees are led back to the hive by an "unknown force" 

 but, as v. Buttel-Reepen points out in his discussion of 

 memory of place in bees, this explanation is not satisfactory, 

 and cannot be accepted until the known forces are eliminated. 

 It will be recalled (p. 105) that young bees take "play flights" 

 on warm days. If bees which have not taken such flights 

 are taken out a few feet from the hive, they fail to return. 

 Bees that have had some experience on the wing are able to 

 return from short distances, and, finally, old bees are often 

 able to return if taken away two miles or more. They 

 evidently increase in efficiency with experience. It is also 

 known that if the hive is moved a foot or more in any direc- 

 tion the returning bees seek the entrance to the hive in the 

 old place. If the hive has been moved only a short distance 

 they may soon find it by searching, but if it is moved several 

 feet they may fail to find it. 



If bees were attracted to the hive by odor, the field bees 

 would probably have no difficulty in finding it if it were 

 moved perhaps a mile. Under such circumstances a short 

 distance would make no appreciable difference and yet the 

 moving of the hive a foot often delays their entering it. Odor 

 is therefore evidently not the guiding sense. 



Bees in the field cannot always see their hive, and in all 

 probability, they can see neither far nor distinctly. If 



1 Bethe, A., 1898. Dilrfen wir Ameisen und Bienen Psychische Quali- 

 taten zuschreiben? Arch. f. d. ges. Phys., LXX, also as separate, 1898. 

 Bonn : Emil Strauss, with different paging. 



