554 



Ttrnm mmMMi^mn bb® j@>«imimmil. 



the public to the facts of the matter, 

 and saj', "Honey will granulate ;" and 

 this is no proof that it is impure — 

 rather that it is pure, although all pure 

 honey niaj- not granulate. 



As far as my tastes are concerned, I 

 eat it when I can, every day of the 

 year, and no bee-keeper need be 

 afraid to place honey before me. I 

 like it granulated fully as well as when 

 re-liquitied, and I believe that I like it 

 granulated as well as liquified before 

 granulation ; and I practice just what 

 I preach in the matter when 1 say that 

 honey is a wholesome fpod, nourishing, 

 healthful to the bulk of mankind as 

 any ordinary food ; cheap.fora dollar's 

 worth of honey has more food in it 

 than a dollar's worth of our oi'dinarj' 

 fruits which we can. A can of fruit 

 must the greater part of the year be 

 consumed shortly- after opening ; honey 

 is not so, for it can be kept in a dry 

 atmosphere for any length of time, and 

 still remain a good article of food. 



Romnej', Ont. 



GOING HOME. 



Bees 



and Inscot§ Finding 

 Way Home. 



their 



Translated from the Kolnische Zeituncj. 



It is well known that the common 

 honey-bee often visits places many 

 kilometres distant from its parent col- 

 ony. One finds the insect, for in- 

 stance, in rape fields, and upon moors 

 miles awaj' from anj- apiary. In such 

 cases they do not show any signs of 

 having lost their way, but on the con- 

 trary, wlien they have collected their 

 load, fly off without hesitation in a 

 fixed direction clearly towards their 

 home, and upon their arrival thoy 

 make no mistake about the hive to 

 which they belong, but each individual 

 lands upon the alighting-board of its 

 proper dwelling. These and similar 

 facts give rise to the interesting ipies- 

 tion — Do the far-flying insect possess 

 a peculiarly instinctively operating 

 sense of locality, or do they direct their 

 course, as others do, by means of land- 

 marks with which they have gradually 

 become acquainted ? 



The partisans of the blind-instinct 

 theory have always been inclined to 

 decide in favor »l this peculiar sense of 

 locality, and one of the most zealous 

 of these, Fabre, believes that he lias 

 supported his views by actual trials 

 made. Retook ten bees of tlie genus 

 Chalicodoma, which were established 

 in the vicinity of his house, marked 

 them with a white spot on the back, 

 and put them in a bag. He carried 

 them half a kilometre away to the east, 

 swung the bag repeatedly and rapidly 



round his head, went then towards the 

 west the bag being closed all the time, 

 and carried his prisoners in that direc- 

 tion vmtil they were three kilometres 

 (about two miles) distant from their 

 nest. Here they were again twirled 

 around, and then separately liberated. 

 Thej' flew around him a few times, and 

 disappeared "in the direction of their 

 home." Fabre's daughter was there 

 in waiting, and noted the arrival of 

 the bees. The first appeared after the 

 lapse of a quarter of an hour, two 

 more in the course of the next hour ; 

 seven did not return at all. 



On the following day the trial was 

 repeated ; the first bee arrived after 

 five minutes, two more within an hour, 

 and again seven remained out. Bj' 

 various repetitions of the experiment, 

 in which the insects were conveyed by 

 roundabout ways to the place of lib- 

 eration, the same average results were 

 obtained. About one-third of the bees 

 found their way home in periods vary- 

 ing from a few minutes to a few hours; 

 the rest did not return. " The trial," 

 says Fabre, " is decisive ; neither the 

 complicated whiling movements, nor 

 the artificial roundabout ways can con- 

 fuse the Chalicodomas, or prevent 

 them from finding their nest." He 

 concludes accordingly that the animals 

 are guided by a special sense of 

 locality. 



If the trials, however, are closely 

 examined, they will be found to prove 

 directly the contrary of that which 

 their originators would gather from 

 them. If a direct-acting instinct be 

 assumed, then it should show itself 

 equally in all the bees, and not only a 

 third part, but the whole number of 

 the liberated bees should find their 

 way home, with exception perhaps of 

 very few that might possibly meet with 

 some accident in a flight of a few kilo- 

 metres. Jt would be inconceivable that 

 two-thirds should remain out. 



This is, however, quite comprehen- 

 sible, if we assume that the bees do 

 not at first know whether they should 

 fly. In that case they will disperse in 

 ail possible directions ; the one-half 

 will fly so that from the start they go 

 only further from the nest, and these 

 become lost ; of the other half, a small 

 portion fly almost directly towards 

 their nest, arrive soon in a neighbor- 

 hood known to them, take their bear- 

 ings, and arrive home in a few min- 

 utes ; the others fly in an intermediate 

 direction, and make excursions here 

 and there. A portion are lucky, come 

 to some known spot, and so find their 

 way home, but only after hours of 

 search ; the others are not so fortunate, 

 and are consequently lost. 



This is exactly the state of things 

 shown by Fabre's experiment insects, 

 and liis results therefore tend to show 



that the Chalicodomas in fact could 

 only find their way home when chance 

 had brought them to a place known to 

 them from previous flights. This is 

 also in accordance with their manner 

 of starting when liberated ; they fly 

 first upwards in circles, like carrier- 

 pigeons that wish to obtain a general 

 view of the surrounding neighborhood. 

 Fabre's statement that his bees after 

 making a few rounds all flew in the 

 homeward direction is doubtful to him- 

 self ; he makes it with reservation, and 

 it cannot be correct, for in that case so 

 many of his insects could not have 

 been lost. Even those that did arrive 

 home would then have had no cause to 

 remain out for hours. 



The two English naturalists.Lubbock 

 and Romanes, have made similar ex- 

 periments, the first with ants, the lat- 

 ter with bees, and both have arrived at 

 results which plainly contradict the 

 instinct theory. Lubbock set a glass 

 full of honey near an ant's nest, and 

 after a number of auts had climbed 

 into it, he carried it carefully on to a 

 board which was placed in the first 

 experiment only IS inches, and in the 

 second 50 yards distant from the nest. 

 The ants now missed their usual means 

 of guarding their course — the retrac- 

 ing of their own foot-track — and 

 showed that they were confused. They 

 left the board in every possible direc- 

 tion. From the trifling distance of 18 

 inches they found their way back to 

 the nest, but only after long wander- 

 ings about, and when chance brought 

 them into its close vicinity ; but in the 

 distance of 50 yards they were hope- 

 lessly lost. 



Romanes brought bees into a house 

 in the neighborhood of the sea. To 

 both sides of the house were extensive 

 flower beds, but between the house 

 and the sea lay 200 metres of meadow 

 land. It was therefore to be assumcil 

 that the bees, if they diverted their 

 course by ordinary means, would soon 

 become acquainted with the neighbor- 

 hood on each side of the house ; in the 

 direction towards the sea, however, 

 they had nothing to look for, as the 

 meadows offered nothing useful to 

 them. A bee-hive was fixed up in a 

 room in the house, and time was al- 

 lowed for the insects to become ac- 

 quainted with the neighborhood. 



At night time the window and the 

 entrance to the hive were closed ; in 

 the morning the desired number of 

 bees were let out of the hive, caught 

 on the window-panes, and counted 

 into a box. The alighting-board of 

 the hive was then brushed over with 

 bird-lime, so that every bee returning 

 to the hive would be at once stuck fast 

 and kept for examination. When the 

 imprisoned bees were liberated on the 

 flower-beds, they were regularly found 



