1907. 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



i2g 



brood. The results are grouped in 

 three hour periods, and then expres- 

 sed upon a twenty-minute basis. 



More observations were made on 

 the young queen. During her egg- 

 laying period she was watched at 

 irregular intervals for eight days. 

 The period of continuous observation 

 was twenty minutes^, usually one 

 every three hours. The next table 

 gives the results, expressed in the 

 same way as in the preceding. 



YOUNG QUEEN. 



The observations were not exten- 

 sive enough to establish any small 

 differences there might have been be- 

 tween the activities of the day and 

 night. The figures are too irregular. 

 But it seems evident that there is no 

 very great difference. She is about 

 as active during the night as during 

 the day. There is some slight sug- 

 gestion that she is a little more active 

 during the very early morning, and 

 then becomes gradually less so until 

 midnight. See the lower column ot 

 figures in the last table. Another in- 

 teresting suggestion is the difference 

 in the amount of resting for the old 

 and the young queen. The young 

 queen rests less than a third as much 

 as the old. 



The observations on the worker 

 bees were of three kinds. First, 



watching individual bees that had 

 been marked with water colors, in the 

 same way as the queens were watch- 

 ed. Counting the number of bees 

 that came in per twenty minutes 

 with pollen during the day, and, 

 third, counting the number of resting 

 bees in the hive every hour durmg 

 the day and night. A mere glance 

 at the hive at any time will show that 

 the workers do not all rest or are 

 all active at the same time. At any 

 time of the day or night one may 

 find "resting" bees in the hive. They 

 .rest either on or in the cells. On 

 the cells they are usually along the 

 margin of the comb where there 

 are fewer bees to run into and over 

 them, and usually here her rest is 

 disturbed every minute or so by an- 

 other bee running into her. When 

 the number of resters is larger there 

 is frequently a complete ring around 

 in the margin of the comb where 

 nearly all the bees are sitting quietly, 

 while the central area remains more 

 or less active. As a rule a period of 

 continuous resting on the cell is not 

 longer than a minute or so, on an 

 average probably less than this, al- 

 though off on the side where the 

 other bees do not run much it may 

 reach half an hour. This would seem 

 to depend almost entirely upon how 

 crowded and active the hive is. In 

 the cell she may rest for several 

 hours, at least I have observed them 

 remaining in the same cell for that 

 length of time. When in a state of 

 profound repose she has every ap- 

 pearance of a dead bee. She seems to 

 hang on loosely to the margin of the 

 cell, and when in a vertical position 

 frequently tilts backwards, apparent- 

 ly almost ready to fall off. Such dead 

 rest periods are broken by a few 

 seconds' breathing every several 

 minutes, by movements of antennae 

 and feet, and by disturbances from 

 the other bees. I transcribe the fol- 

 lowing from my notes as a typical 

 twenty minutes' observation on a 

 resting bee, on the margin of the 

 comb: "Dead rest for 20 seconds, 

 when touched by another worker, 

 and she moves antennae about for five 

 seconds. Dead rest for 30 seconds, 

 when she suddenly starts, moves 

 legs about for 15 seconds, and anten- 

 nae for 30 seconds. Dead rest for 

 two minutes, except slight tremor of 

 right antennae, and breathing for a 



