52 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Feb 



ruary 



an opportunity ■to learn many things 

 and to think or reason, or do sonie- 

 tliing akin to reason. When old 

 enough it leaves the hive, by instinct 

 no doubt, in search of honey and pol- 

 len. By instinct, when loaded, it re- 

 turns to the hive in the most direct 

 way which we call a "bee line." But 

 should a hill intervene or a heavy 

 •wind bother, the bee often appears 

 to reason that it is easier to leave 

 the bee line and return in a some- 

 what round-about way around the 

 hill, or in the lee of forest. 



The preparation for swarming by 

 starting queen-cells is doubtless the 

 result of instinct. But when a queen 

 is superseded, is it by instinct, or rea- 

 son? If by instinct there would be 

 few exceptions, it would seem; but 

 there are so many times during sum- 

 mer when an old or worthless queen 

 is allowed to remain at the head of 

 the colony that we are inclined to 

 believe that where supersedure oc- 

 curs it is the result of reason rather 

 than instinct. 



A most striking and interesting il- 

 lustration of the power of thought 

 and reason over instinct in bees is 

 found in the rearing of brood. With 

 the return of warm weather, after 

 the long months of cold, the opening 

 of flowers, the constant loss of bees 

 from old age, the instinct for rearing 

 brood is stimulated to the utmost. 

 Yet, should the honey stored in the 

 hive the previous year be getting low, 

 with little or no honey coniingin, the 

 instinct for rearing brood is curbed, 

 and reason seems to be the controll- 

 ing factor. 



I remember the first colony of this 

 kind that I discovered, some fifty 

 years ago. 1 had been watching it 

 with a great deal of interest through 

 the early spring, opening it at fre- 

 quent intervals, and noting how fast 

 the combs were being filled with 

 brood, when brood-rearing suddenly 

 was halted, and my visions of a pow- 

 erful colony early in June began to 

 vanish. What could be the cause? 

 Noting the short supply of honey in 

 the hive, although they may have 

 been a few pounds left, the cause of 

 the decreased brood-rearing was ac- 

 counted for, and I was filled with 

 surprise and emotion that the bees 

 had been so much more thoughtful 

 than I had been. If honey is com- 

 ing in in small quantities every day 

 they will consume it in the hive in 

 hrood-rearirig almost to the last 

 ounce. 



We may well believe that by in- 

 stinct the young larva: know how to 

 take their food, and when grown spin 

 their silken cocoon with their heads 

 to the mouth of the cell. Perhaps 

 one in a million will allow itself to be 

 sealed up with its head to the base of 

 the cell. This shows that there are 

 exceptions or mistakes even with 

 instinct as the guiding force. 



By instinct the mature bees know 

 how to prepare food and feed the 

 young larva;, when to withhold food 

 and seal the cells that they may take 

 their long nap undisturbed. Instinc- 

 tively they know how to rear a good 

 queen, a little trick that has taken 



many beekeepers a long time to 

 learn, with all their reasoning pow- 

 ers. By instinct they know how to 

 gather the tiny bits of nectar, reduce 

 it to the proper consistency and seal 

 it ; also secure a supply of pollen for 

 a season of scarcity. 



Instinct teaches the queen to lay 

 but one egg in a cell and the work- 

 ers to rear but one larva in a cell; 

 but it sometimes happens that the 

 queen will lay more and the workers 

 try to raise more than one in a cell, 

 which again shows that instinct is 

 not infallible. 



Instinct teaches the workers how 

 to prepare their wax and build their 

 beautiful combs so perfect that no 

 mathematician can hope to improve 

 upon their design. So wonderful a 

 thing is this attribute of bees that we 

 call instinct, we cannot help inquir- 

 ing what it really is. Is it anything 

 but the knowledge and skill given 

 them by their Creator untold genera- 

 tions ago, perhaps when "the morn- 



ing stars sang together," and this 

 knowledge and skill has been handed 

 down unimpaired from generation to 

 generation through the tiny egg that 

 the queen lays with one end attached 

 to the base of a cell?. 



Is there anything in the material 

 world about' us more wonderful 

 than this? 



When a young bee first leaves the 

 hive it has to learn its location and 

 way back to it as truly as a child has 

 to learn its A-B-C's or to talk; so it 

 would seem that bees learn and think 

 where they have time to do so, but 

 of a large share of their activities 

 they have no time to learn, and in- 

 stead have been so richly endowed 

 with instinct that they are able to 

 fulfill the great work for which they 

 were created. 



Mary had a swarm of bees, 

 Who ju.st to save their lives. 



Went everywhere that Mary went, 

 Because she had the hives. 



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Blossoms of huajillo (pronounced wa-he-ya). 



