AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



639 



to handle ; easier to lift out a comb, or 

 put it back again, to find a queen, or to 

 brush off the bees. They extract with 

 less breakage of combs. There is noth- 

 ing in the way of the bees cleaning out 

 the bottom of the hives. The combs are 

 never joined or glued to the bottom of 

 the hive, as is the case with wooden 

 bottoms. When the hives shrink so as 

 to let the frame near the bottom of the 

 hive, they will sometimes join the combs 

 to the top-bars in the lower story, from 

 the second or third story. They give me 

 less trouble in every way than the 

 wooden bottom. 

 Todd's Point, Ky. 



Progress In Lower Animals. 



REV. E. T. ABBOTT. 



I have read Prof. E. P. Evans' article 

 on " Progress in Lower Animals," in the 

 December number of the Popular Science 

 Monthly, and it seems to me that some of 

 the statements found therein call for 

 the attention of a practical apiarist. If 

 all of them have no more foundation in 

 fact than have those relating to bees, 

 they furnish a very flimsy support upon 

 which to found any kind of an argu- 

 ment. 



I am well, aware that there is a good 

 deal of nonsense written in the name of 

 science, but I do not remember having 

 seen so many misrepresentations of 

 facts, in the same length of space, in 

 any article I ever read. 



The Professor says: "Bee-hives 

 which suffer from over-production rear 

 a queen and send forth with her a swarm 

 of emigrants to colonize, and the rela- 

 tions of the mother-hive to her colonies 

 are known (by whom ?) to be much 

 closer and more cordial than those which 

 she sustains to apian communities with 

 which she has no genetic connection. 

 Here the ties of kinship are as strongly 

 and clearly recognized as they are be- 

 tween consanguineous tribes of men." 



It is true that bees rear queens and 

 swarm, but they do not rear a queen to 

 send forthwith a "swarm of emigrants," 

 for the young queen is not out of her 

 cell until the old queen, her mother, is 

 out of the hive and gone with the new 

 colony. 



The "ties of kinship" are such that 

 should the young queen issue from her 

 cell before the old one leaves the hive, 

 she would usually receive a fatal sting 

 from her mother, notwithstanding her 

 " genetic connection " — whatever that 



may mean. And the first young queen 

 that gains her liberty is apt to treat her 

 younger sisters in the same way, even 

 before they have issued from their ceils. 



That the swarm, after it has become 

 settled in its new home, recognizes in 

 any way the relationship it bears to the 

 old colony, is utterly absurd, and, as 

 every practical apiarist knows, has no 

 foundation in fact. The " ties of kin- 

 ship " are not as " clearly recognized as 

 they are between consanguineous tribes 

 of men." Nay, the very opposite is 

 true. They are not recognized at all 

 after the swarm has become distinct 

 and separate from the colony remaining 

 in the hive, which is composed of the 

 young bees with the young queen. 



We are again told : " Bees readily 

 substitute oat meal for pollen, if they 

 can get it." Bees can be taught to take 

 rye meal as a substitute for pollen when 

 they cannot get pollen, but Prof. Evans, 

 nor any one else, never saw a colony of 

 bees that would take oat-meal in prefer- 

 ence to pollen. In fact, they will not 

 take rye meal at all, if they can get 

 pollen. 



However, the above quotations are 

 not so bad as they might be, for they 

 are harmless ; that is, it will do no more 

 injury for the people to receive them as 

 true than it would for them to receive 

 any other innocent absurdity in the 

 name of science. Had it not been for 

 the statement which follows, I should 

 not have felt called upon to point out 

 these mistakes of the Professor. But in 

 further support of his argument, he 

 tells his readers that "Apiarists now 

 provide their hives with artificial combs 

 for the storage of honey, and the bees 

 seem glad to be relieved from making 

 cells, as their predecessors had done." 



Apiarists do not " provide their hives 

 with artificial combs," but they do some- 

 times fill the frames of their hives with 

 comb foundation ; but this is the> real 

 stuff — beeswax — in thin sheets with an 

 imprint like the bottom of the cells. This 

 is not " artificial comb," and the bees 

 are not "relieved from making cells." 

 They have the cells to build, the same 

 as they do when they secrete the wax in 

 their own bodies out of which the combs 

 are formed. The modern apiarist fur- 

 nishes the wax and saves the time and 

 labor of the bees that would be required 

 to secrete it, but nothing but wax will 

 do, and some colony of bees had to 

 secrete that wax. It cannot be made 

 by any " artificial " process. 



I hardly think there is any evidence 

 that the bees are "glad" to get this 



