November, 1907. 



American Hee Journal 



our gardens are many showy and fra- 

 grant blossoms which are never visited 

 by bees, in spite of their looks and their 

 sweet odor, because they lack the nec- 

 tar-odor. When the fields are _ white 

 with clover, the bees may remain idle 

 because there is no nectar in the bloom. 

 Evidently the odor of the nectar is miss- 

 ing. On the other hand, when nectar 

 is to be had, they will readily discover 

 the most humble flower hidden among 

 the blades of grass, if only there is nec- 

 tar in its corolla. Pollen attracts them 

 in the same way, but with this sub- 

 stance there is less avidity, probably be- 

 cause it is found more readily. In a 

 time of scarcity of harvest, when they 

 gather propolis, they are often attract- 

 ed bv the smell of paint or varnish, 

 which would not draw them at all, if 

 there were honey in the fields. 



Aside from smelling nectar in the 

 blossoms at great distances, the bees 

 have a \vonderful ability for finding any 

 substance which may be turned to ac- 

 count, especially when its smell is of a 

 nature which renders it attractive. They 

 will very promptly discover old combs 

 that are left exposed, even if these 

 combs are inside of a box or of a 

 building. Only a couple years ago we 

 had an instance of bees carrying away 

 some honey contained in supers in our 

 bee-house. The bees were first noticed 

 against the west wall of the house, biit . 

 no attention was paid to them, until it 

 was found that the bee-house was full 

 of them. They had traced the smell of 

 the combs to the house, and it happened 

 that a pile of the supers were close to 

 that west wall. A very small crack in 

 the boards behind a beam had been 

 sufficient to afford them passage, but as 

 the room was well lighted, and the 

 small opening through which they en- 

 tered was in a dark place, very few of 

 the bees returned to the hive, but they 

 flew to the window of the bee-house 

 where they were found in large nurn- 

 bers. Instances have been given of their 

 entering through a chimney, through the 

 key-hole, to places where honey was 

 stored and where their organs of smell 

 detected it. 



It is hardly worth while to insist on 

 the matter, for everybody undoubtedly 

 is ready to grant to them organs of 

 smell equal to those of the best dogs. 



Now, as to the odor of bees. The 

 queen, the drones, the worker-bees, have 

 each their particular odor. The odor 

 of the drones was noticed by Swammer- 

 dam over 200 years ago. He called this 

 peculiar odor "aura seminalis" — seminal 

 effluvium. The queen has a sufficient 

 odor to attract the drones when in 

 flight, and Langstroth and Cheshire both 

 thought that not only the sight of her, 

 and the peculiar sound of her wings, 

 but her odor as well, cause the drones 

 to pursue her. The latter writer, in 

 describing the numerous "smell hollows" 

 in the antennas of the drone, mentions 

 "his quickness in discovering a mate, 

 whose neighborhood is to him filled with 

 irresistible odors." 



The peculiar odor of the queen is, to 

 my mind, that which makes her loss so 

 very promptly discovered by the bees, 

 when she is removed. This odor must 

 be one of the ordinary smells of the 

 hive, and its lack at once indicates that 



she is missing. Otherwise, how could 

 a hive of several tens of thousands ot 

 the little insects so promptly recognize 

 her disappearance? Most of our leadmg 

 apiarists know how quickly the bees find 

 out their loss, when she is removed. 

 The writer has often noticed it within 

 the hour, though it sometimes takes 

 longer. Their hurried and restless 

 search quickly indicates the accident, 

 and persons who are accustomed to this 

 readily recognize the wonderful behav- 

 ior of' a colony that has just been made 

 queenless. How, I repeat it, could a 

 numerous colony be apprised of the loss 

 of the queen, if it were not for the miss- 

 ing of her familiar odor which they evi- 

 dently consider as one of the necessities 

 of happiness? It is out of the ques- 

 tion to suppose that the bees are con- 

 stantly asking one another whether they 

 have 'met the queen lately ; and yet we 

 all know that in a crowded hive, when 

 all are busy, there must be thousands 

 of bees that do not see the queen once 

 a week, much less at all hours of the 

 day. 



Has the queen a very perceptible 

 odor? No one who has ever handled 

 fertile queens in his fingers would an- 

 swer that question in the negative, for 

 every man has certainly often noticed 

 how eagerly worker-bees travel over 

 your fingers and examine them after you 

 have had the queen in your hand for a 

 few seconds. 



Do the worker-bees have an odor of 

 their own? Does each colony have a 

 smell peculiar to itself? Undoubtedly 

 as much as each of us has a sufficient 

 individual odor that a dog may follow 

 us and find us, if he is of good scent, 

 a half-hour after we have passed 

 through a certain spot. Each colony 

 has an odor of its own through the 

 wonderful adaptability of nature which 

 makes no two leaves alike, though there 

 are billions of them in the woods. Two 

 men might have nearly the same odor, 

 so that a dog might make an error, 

 but this would be accidental. In the 

 same way, similar smells, that bees 

 could not recognize apart, would be en- 

 tirely accidental and probably very rare. 

 Aside from the great variety which is 

 one of the rules of nature, there are 

 many things which will cause a differ- 

 ence in smell from one colony to an- 

 other — difference which is sometimes so 

 plain that man, with his very imperfect 

 organs of smell, will himself detect. 

 The age of the combs, the quantity of 

 honey in the hive, its quality, its origin, 

 its ripeness, the quantity of pollen, its 

 source, the number of worker-bees, of 

 drones; the quantity of brood being 

 hatched, the source o'f the propolis and 

 its greater or less use by the colony; 

 even the location of the hive, its prox- 

 imity to the soil, or elevation in the air; 

 the age and quality of the wood or other 

 material of which the hive is made- 

 all these, and more, have ah influence 

 on the individual smell of the hive. 



If, then, each colony has its own pe- 

 culiar odor, as discernible to the bees 

 that inhabit it as the smell of his mas- 

 ter's clothes is discernible to the well- 

 trained dog, or as his mate's odor is 

 discernible to the horse who recognizes 

 it through a plank wall, why should we 

 deny to the bees the capacity of rec- 



ognizing one another by the smell? 

 T^rue, it often happens that the bees 

 will accept of strange bees without a 

 fight, or will permit a strange queen 

 to enter the hive and perform her func- 

 tions, or will accept of strange drones; 

 but this does not deter from our posi- 

 tion. Will not a dog sometimes wel- 

 come a total stranger? Will not ahorse 

 welcome another horse, while he will 

 fight a third? Likes and dishkes, con- 

 ditions of prosperity or suffering and 

 want, disturbances which change condi- 

 tions of life, all these things, or each of 

 them, may cause them to change their 

 behavior. 



We all know that in times of pros- 

 perity, when honey flows freely, and all 

 the bees come home laden, there is no 

 difficulty in getting a colony to accept 

 strangers, especially young bees. Does 

 it follow that they do not know them 

 to be strangers? A man who comes to 

 us with a smile and a gift is much more 

 likely to be welcome than the man who 

 has a frown, or with a searching or 

 furtive appearance, as if he were seek- 

 ing for something to carry away. _ 



When we want to unite colonies of 

 bees we smoke them and try to disturb 

 them greatlv before uniting them. Their 

 mutual mis'fortune, in this disturbance, 

 acts upon them as such things act upon 

 the human race. During a calamity such 

 as a great fire— the San Francisco dis- 

 aster, for instance— the bonds that unite 

 the race become much stronger and we 

 become more fraternal. So it is with 

 animals. Two roosters that were fight- 

 ing only a few moments ago have be- 

 come great friends in the misfortune 

 of being both threatened with the cook's 

 butcher-knife. 



I think I have said enough m the 

 foregoing to make the fact clear, that 

 in ordinary circumstances it is well to 

 give bees a similar odor if we want 

 them to live peaceably together when in- 

 troducing queens or bees to strange 

 colonies. But in times of good harvest 

 almost any method will succeed. 

 Hamilton, 111. 



Where Do the Bees Deposit 

 Their Loads of Nectar ? 



BY ALLEN LATHAM. 



On page 653, Mr. Doolittle ofJers us 

 a verv readable article relative to the 

 brood-nest and freshly gathered nectar, 

 and answers the question, "Where does 

 the bee deposit its freshly gathered nec- 

 tar?" Now, Mr. Doolittle has stated 

 facts that are beyond dispute, and be- 

 yond misinterpretation, and what he has 

 to say has been said better than I should 

 have said it, but I am one who believes 

 in reiteration. When I see a rather im- 

 portant fact noted and stated in our bee- 

 papers, I feel moved to express _ ap- 

 proval when such approval lies within 

 mv province. 



'I had years ago settled to my own 

 satisfaction this question of the disposi- 

 tion of the nectar, but did not till 2 and 

 3 years ago verify my conclusions by 

 much observation. Like Mr. Doolittle, 

 I have spent hours by the hive, and I 

 can say with him that I have never yet 

 seen a field-bee deposit a load of nee- 



