188 



Mar. 



a time, honey was coming in too slowly 

 to keep bees and brood from starving. 



3. No colonies were lost from starva- 

 tion. 



4. Bees were seemingly in excellent 

 condition to take advantage of the phe- 

 nomenal honey-flow, lasting from May 

 15th to i8th, if the amount of honey 

 stored during those few days justifies 

 that assumption. 



Since writing the foregoing, Mr. 

 Latham's rejoinder appeared on page 

 1015 (1906) of the American Bee Jour- 

 nal. Although the opportunity is very 

 tempting to make a detailed reply, I 

 have no desire to do so, for the reason 

 that these long-drawn-out controversies 

 are interesting only to the persons di- 

 rectly connected with them, but not to 

 the general reader. We all know that 

 whoever has the last "say," has all the 

 advantage over his opponent, and it is 

 customary and courteous to give the 

 weak side the benefit of the same. I 

 am willing to let it go so in this case. 



I wish to thank Mr. Latham for the 

 kind spirit he exhibited in dealing with 

 me. I gladly agree with him on some 

 points brought out in his rejoinder, but 

 on manv others — I don't. 



LaSalle, N. Y. 



Bees Building Round Cells— 

 Wax-Secretion, Etc. 



BV R. C. AIKIN. 



On page 1051 (1906) Mr. Hasty ex- 

 presses doubt that bees ever try to build 

 round cells. He also hints that bees 

 have much more wisdom than some of 

 us are willing to credit them with. 

 Again, page 95 (1907) he refers to the 

 matter and comes down a little, but 

 only so far as to confess that in the 

 case of queen-cells the mouths of them 

 are round. 



Well, Mr. H., you would better hast- 

 en to come clear down on the question 

 of round cells, for the fact is, every 

 cell bees build is first round until they 

 cannot longer maintain the circular form. 

 You. get your old pipe and some soapy 

 water and start to blow bubbles. You 

 can make one round to start with ; the 

 second when it joins its mate dent.i or 

 flattens a strip of one side. The third 

 joins the first and second and makes two 

 more straight lines where they join; this 

 is then kept up until the 7th bubble is 

 made, which forms a complete circle 

 around the first, and if you keep on add- 

 ing they just keep on forming 6 around 

 1, and every one of them, barring the 

 outside ones, has become 6-sided. 



The bee begins by plastering a bit 

 of wax to the starting-point wherever 

 she means to build a comb; this is 

 lengthened into a sort of ridge, and 

 other little ridges started from this to 

 the sides, all the while wax being added 

 at the starting point on top of the ridge. 

 As the work goes on the various little 

 ridges are formed into circular walls 

 enclosing space after space, but the 

 mouth of every little embryo cell is 

 round, with thickened walls of the crude 

 wax. As the cell begins to rise from 

 the tiny ridge, the bee begins to shave 

 of? the surplus wa.x from these thick 

 walls, and in so doing they straighten 



American IBee Journal 



the partition walls, and they become the 

 6-sided form, very much as do the soap- 

 bubbles. Just take a look at the comb 

 that is being builded and you will see 

 that the rudiment of the cell, that is, the 

 mouth of every cell where the fresh 

 wax is plastered on. is round; you can 

 see this in almost any comb you may 

 pick up at any time, but it shows to 

 best advantage where the bees have just 

 been building, and never finished the 

 comb. 



Again, sometimes we find a row of 

 cells built in between two bars where 

 there was just space enough for the 

 one row ; there they build circular cells, 

 or very irregular ones. The hexagon 

 cell is not so because of any great wis- 

 dom on the part of the bee; if she were 

 wise she might build square cells where 

 but one row can be put in, but she does 

 not. There is no other form so easy to 

 build as the he.xagon, when considering 

 the question of blocking one form 

 against another ; here Nature helps the 

 bee out. She could build square cells 

 and block them together in solid masses, 

 but the greater length of side wall would 

 be much harder to make and keep 

 straight, and there would be so much 

 waste space in each of the 4 corners of 

 each cell, when the question of brood- 

 rearing was considered. 



Neither would the square cells have 

 so great strength, and would almost of 

 necessity have to have flat bottoms, 

 thus entailing another loss of space, and 

 a thing impossible for the bee to build. 

 Given flat-bottomed foundation, and 

 they either change its form or put ex- 

 tra wax into the corners in their endeav- 

 ors to reach the sharp angle. 



No, no, Mr. H., every cell is started 

 in circular form, but as the next or ad- 

 joining cells are worked up to it the 

 bee is practically compelled to flatten 

 the rib or wall between, though she 

 might want ever so much to round it. 

 The only way to roimd them is to fill 

 the corners with extra wax. Even with 

 the hexagon form there is some extra 

 wax in the corners, as obtuse as they 

 are. 



Many people still cling to the old 

 tradition about the wisdom of the bee; 

 they are thought to know when the 

 master dies, or foretell events; which 

 flower to visit and which not; just when 

 to do this or that, and when not; yet 

 wise or not, she constantly blunders, and 

 when she gets on the inside of a window 

 cannot exercise the wisdom of a com- 

 mon house-fly. The bee is governed in 

 no sense by reason or the exercise of 

 wisdom, but in all things is the creature 

 of instinct and of environment. The 

 master, once understanding all condi- 

 tions, can just as surely tell you what 

 they will do under this or that, if he 

 thoroughly understands bee-nature, as 

 the mathematician can tell the result in 

 figures when you state to him the fac- 

 tors. 



We talk of location ("locality"), 

 what do we mean? Localities differ, 

 seasons are not alike, colony conditions 

 do not come in the same relation to 

 weather, hive, management, flora, tem- 

 perature, etc. ; and so there is to be 

 found a regular kaleidoscope because of 

 the ever-changing relation of factors 



that influence. If writers could give us 

 an intelligent statement of factors and 

 their relation in their particular cases 

 or localities, thousands of things that 

 seem mysterious could readily be ex- 

 plained. Of course, we are not expected 

 to know everything, and I am not re- 

 proaching any one for ignorance of 

 truths ; but I am pleading for common- 

 sense. Let me illustrate : 



There are hives and hives, and the 

 man who has mastered the science ot 

 management, which is nothing else than 

 understanding bee-nature and the rela- 

 tion of factors, can take any of the 

 hives and get results, provided the hive 

 is adaptable to allow the master to 

 bring his management to bear ; but ig- 

 norant management with the best hive 

 ever invented will not bring the desired 

 results. 



We have a swarm of bees. Now it 

 is the commonest rule that when bees 

 swarm they go with sacs full, and when 

 hived they cluster and hang in great 

 bunches. Having entered the new home, 

 why do they not get a hustle on them 

 and begin to get in supplies i* Go to the 

 stand of a newly-hived swarm that has 

 at once accepted its new home, and gone 

 in and quietly clustered, and often they 

 are so quiet, and so few bees coming 

 and going, that you will be tempted to 

 look in to see if they have not abscond- 

 ed. But you find they have gone in 

 loaded down with honey, and are tired 

 from their flight with so heavy a load, 

 and not a cell that they can unload into. 

 Hive them on comb, and see how quick- 

 ly they will go afield, for they can un- 

 load, and will get to work. Without the 

 ready-made comb they cluster and wait, 

 and now comes the 



Secretion of Wax. 



Many think wax-secretion is a volun- 

 tary act on the part of the bee, but I 

 do not. You can feed your cow and 

 she gives milk. Skimp her in feed and 

 she gives less of the fluid. The natural- 

 ly poor milker will not milk well with 

 any kind of feed or care, no matter 

 how good, nor will the good milker do 

 poorly unless you make it hard for her 

 to do well by allowing or making bad 

 or unfavorable conditions. Milk is a 

 secretion of the cow and she never 

 thinks about whether she will give much 

 or little, good or bad ; and no more does 

 the bee use reason and voluntarily se- 

 crete or refuse to secrete wax. That 

 swarm with loaded sacs caimot field, 

 and so hang and rest well-fed. While 

 resting the wax-secretion starts; with 

 many of them is was already in full 

 operation because of the abundance of 

 nectar handled, and in extra-good flows 

 the same loaded condition of sacs be- 

 fore swarming as after ; so the next 

 thing is comb-building — almost forced 

 to do it by environments and instinct. 



Some have written of strains of bees 

 that put much or little wax in their 

 comb, as the case may be, as though 

 it were a voluntary or intelligent act 

 on their part. Is it? There may be 

 strains of bees that by reason of more 

 vigor, or some cause, incline to free or 

 scant wax-secretion just as there are 

 good and poor milk secreters in cows, 

 whatever caused it in the first place; 



