1920 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



19: 



if the hive she enters is queen-right, 

 this mistake costs her her life. 



In an apiary where the rows of 

 hives are shaded by trees, where a 

 bush here and there divides the flight, 

 there is less danger of mistakes. 

 Each colony takes its own direction 

 of flight, to get out, from the shade 

 into the open. Thus there is little 

 danger of errors, especially if the 

 hives be painted of various colors. 

 Some say that this has no influence. 

 Yet, if you remove the hive and 

 transfer the bees into another of very 

 different color, you will notice many 

 bees hesitating, though they may 

 come back directly to the identical 

 spot. 



It takes but little to enable a bee to 

 orient itself, or in other words, to 

 find its bearings. If two hives are 

 placed in closer proximity than the 

 others, this will direct the bees of 

 both these hives and of their imme- 

 diate neighbors. Mr. Scholl, of Texas, 

 has a way to place the colonies in 

 groups of five, not in regular rows, 

 so that none of the bees need hesi- 

 tate after once learning the location 

 of their home. A stump, a shrub, a 

 clump of grass, a slightly different 

 roof to 'the hive, anything, in fact, 

 which will enable the bees to see a 

 difference, is usually sufficient to 

 mark their home in their memory. 

 The relative position of the hive in 

 reference to other objects, is so well 

 noticed by the bees, that the moving 

 of it only a few inches is noticed by 

 them. But in an open expanse, where 

 there are no guiding marks whatever, 

 a hive, if alone, may be moved several 

 feet without its change of location 

 being noticed by the bees. 



A large apiary may be placed in a 

 very small compass, without much 

 loss of bees. I have seen about 160 

 colonies, in a model apiary at Ma- 

 qu'oketa, Iowa, located on a space of 

 ground Which measured only about 

 50 by 65 feet. Most of the colonies 

 faced south. But they were arranged 

 in irregular rows, some being close 

 together, some farther apart, two 

 hives being generally placed very 

 close together, with a greater space 

 between them and the next. Long 

 rows, with exactly uniform spacing, 

 are most objectionable. 



As to the directions in which the 

 hives should face, we have faced them 

 in all directions and have had good 

 success in every direction but the 

 north. It is better that the hives of 

 each row should face in the same di- 

 rection, if possible, as there is more 

 comfort in handling the bees. When 

 we pass in the apiary, we prefer to 

 pass behind each row. If we pass in 

 front, there is more danger of dis- 

 turbing the bees or angering them. 

 Two rows might be placed back to 

 back with sufficient room between 

 them to enable one to do all the ma- 

 nipulations. In that case we would 

 face one row east, the other west. 

 In apiaries located on a slope, we 

 want the bees to face down the slope. 

 It is easier to keep the hives level, 

 and if they are not level they will 

 slope forward, which is not objec- 

 tionable. 



We do not like to tier up the hives, 



tliough we have seen this, often, in 

 house apiaries, especially in Europe. 

 Not that there is danger of the bees 

 shifting from the upper to the lower 

 row, but because the manipulations 

 are much hindered, unless a passage 

 for the apiarist be also made higher 

 up, to readily reach the second row. 

 In some parts of Switzerland and in 

 Central Europe, they tier the hives 

 two and three stories high. But they 

 allow room for only one super for 

 each tier. Those people have no idea 

 of what a large crop of surplus honey 

 represents, and we cannot imagine 

 the harvesting of 200 pounds per col- 

 ony with such a system. 



edly recognize the odor of the hive 

 and the odor of their queen. But we 

 have never tried to recognize whether 

 a hive is queenright or queenless by 

 the odor. It would require a nasal or- 

 gan as powerful as that of a well- 

 trained dog. — -Editor.) 



Odor of Bees 



I found the following interesting lit- 

 tle article in the January number of 

 The Ladies' Home Journal, and 

 thought it might interest others: 



"Recognizes Bees By Their Smell. — 

 Dr. N. E. Mclndoo, of the Smithson- 

 ian Institution, after a few months' 

 practice, is able to recognize the 

 three castes of bees — queens, drones 

 and workers — with his nose alone. He 

 is also able to distinguish the hive 

 odor (distinguishing one colony from 

 another), the brood odor, or smell of 

 the larvae, the honey odor, and the 

 wax odor. He believes that the bees 

 themselves recognize the odor of each 

 individual bee, and that this is the 

 way in which they tell one another 

 apart in the dark hive." 



I think Mr. Mclndoo has a nose 50 

 times more sensitive than mine, or 

 this is a fish story. 



Iowa. 



(Without doubt, each of the three 

 kinds of bees has a special odor. 

 Swammerdam wrote that if you en- 

 close a number of drones in a small 

 box they emit a strong odor, which 

 he called "aura seminalis." He 

 thought the queen was impregnated 

 by this scent. The workers undoubt- 



A Ford as a Wire Imbedder 



Edward A. Winkler, of Illinois, 

 rigged up a wire imbedder, using his 

 Ford as a source of current. The pic- 

 ture shows him at work. He made 

 two frame blocks on a box, using a 

 half-inch board 7K'Xl6>2 to support 

 the foundation. 



He took tvifo insulated wires to fur- 

 nish the current, connecting one to 

 the terminal attached 'to the horn and 

 the other to the engine. He ran the 

 motor at a speed equal to about 20 

 miles per hour, using less than two 

 gallons of gasoline for 1,000 frames. 

 The current was applied by means of 

 touching the two wires at opposite 

 ends of the wires in the frames. By 

 this means he was able to imbed as 

 many as 210 frames in an hour. This 

 draws heavily on the magneto of the 

 car and it is sometimes necessary to 

 use batteries to start the car for a 

 time after using it as a wire imbed- 

 der. A few hours driving on the road 

 soon recuperates it, however. 



Mr. Winkler no longer uses the 

 Ford, as he now has access to electric 

 current. 



Imperfect Mating of Queens 



By Arthur C. Miller 



Professor Anderson's remarks on 

 "Imperfect Mating of Queens" (A. B. 

 J. April, 1920), together with several 

 by Mr. Sladen in Gleanings and the 

 A. B. J., give food for thought and 

 suggest that other experiment sta- 

 tions beside the Canadian one might 

 devote some time and money to re- 

 searches along this and kindred lines. 



Edward A. Winkler using his Ford as a wire imbedder. 



