exactly what they buy. As regards the 

 use of' poisonous substances in the pro- 

 cess of manufacture or otherwise of all 

 sweets or articles of diet, a severe pen- 

 alty for using such should be inflicted by 

 law. No one can say but that this is a 

 progressive age, but the sooner we insti- 

 tute morals, the faster we will progress. 

 Boscobel, Wis. 



[We do not believe that there has been 

 any very large amount of comb honey, 

 as yet, adulterated by feeding the bees 

 glucose. But there is danger, and hence 

 all honest men should at once and 

 forever discountenance its use in or 

 about the apiary. Our honey must be 

 above suspicion, and we cannot be too 

 scrupulous about maintaining its ex- 

 alted character for purity and delicious- 

 ness. Once give cause for suspicion, 

 and the innocent must suffer alike with 

 the guilty.— Ed.] 



For the American Bee Journal. 



How Bees Mark their Location. 



L. JAMES. 



On page 416 of the December number 

 of the Bee Journal, Mr. Waterhouse 

 asks, '"How do bees mark their location 

 so accurately V" Although a reader of 

 the Journal from its first issue to the 

 present, I have no recollection of seeing 

 this question asked before in its pages. 

 Although I have neither time, nor in- 

 clination to write for the Journal, 

 still, I have received so much informa- 

 tion from various articles contained in 

 it, that I feel myself rather tinder 

 obligations to give Mr. Waterhouse and 

 others my views as to the way in which 

 bees mark their location so well. 



As early as the year 1857, while hand- 

 ling some bees ah incident came under 

 my notice that led me to believe that 

 they are gifted with a faculty of know- 

 ing the exact direction to fly, to reach 

 the hives. A faculty of location, if I 

 may so term it, that we in our own per- 

 sons are strangers to. Since that time 

 my attention has been directed to the 

 subject and I am satisfied of its correct- 

 ness. When we come to carefully think 

 upon the subject, it appears as an abso- 

 lute necessity for these wonderful little 

 creatures to be endowed with, for being 

 urged on by an intense passion for the 

 accumulation of honey beyond all pos- 

 sibility of need we find them flying here 

 and there in all directions, crossing and 

 re-crossing their line of flight, rambling 

 for miles it may be in its course, before 



it has a satisfactory load, then it rises 

 and thinking of home, and making one 

 or more circles in the air it " strikes a 

 bee line " and that course followed leads 

 to the hive for sure. Though a bee 

 may be roughly knocked round in all 

 directions and sent spinning like a top 

 to a great distance, yet if sufficient 

 strength remains to fiy it will be found 

 on its rising to go through the same 

 preparatory movements and then 

 start straight for home. It may be 

 carried many miles from home and then 

 released, yet the little creature finds no 

 trouble in striking the bee line that 

 points towards the hive. We see this 

 faculty exhibited by various creatures, 

 strikingly so in migratory birds. 



That they are possessed with sight 

 and hearing I presume few will doubt, 

 yet I do not think they depend much on 

 seeing, even when they are quite near 

 the hive. We may satisfy ourselves of 

 this fact by noticing the crowd of bees 

 returning to the hive in a busy time. 

 Every once and a while, one will alight 

 within a very short distance of the 

 entrance and seems not to be certain 

 that it is right, while a constant string 

 of others that have alighted much 

 further away are rushing past, yet 

 instead of entering with the others, it 

 will take to its wings and rise up and 

 go through its accustomed circular 

 flight and then make for the hive. I 

 have seen a bee go through this same 

 course a number of times before enter- 

 ing. I have no doubt but that almost 

 all have seen the same, if they have 

 paid much attention to the subject. 



A great deal has been said about 

 painting the hives various colors so as 

 to enable bees, and particularly the 

 queens, to know their hives. I am sat- 

 isfied this is an assumption that will 

 not be verified by fair experiments. It 

 is the place or situation the hive is in, 

 ■ that judges them in this matter. If 

 any one wishes to satisfy himself about 

 it, let him next spring when he wishes 

 to obtain queen cells select the brightest 

 colored hive in his yard and put by the 

 side of it an empty hive of an opposite 

 color, and remove two to four frames of 

 brood and bees, and after having 

 arranged them and closed up the hives, 

 remove the parent hive 12 or 18 inches 

 to either side and place the new one 

 where it stood. If this is done in the 

 middle of the day as it should be, by eve- 

 ning he will find most of the gathering 

 bees in the new hive. Reversing the 

 hives next day will change things again, 

 and by a little proper management he 

 can regulate the division of the work- 

 ing force almost as he wishes. 



Atlanta, 111. 



