390 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 



the old .1. 7>. J. wiu'ii Warner was in charge 

 of it, durijig its infancy. j)iiringtliat period 

 we had some very valnable translations from 

 the writings of those distingnislied German 

 writers. I am surprised to find we have in 

 our own country a man able to give us all 

 this valnable information, and I w^ould ask 

 our good friend S. if the results of these ex- 

 periments have ever l)efore been given in 

 print — that is, in our language. We are in- 

 debted to him for having opened the way 

 for our American microscopists to verify 

 the results given above, by actual experi- 

 ment. If I am correct in the matter, what 

 I have written in the A li C book in refer- 

 ence to the food of the larvsy is not so very 

 far out of the way, after all. I presume now 

 that my information was mainly obtained 

 from the old volumes of the ^l. B. J. 



LANDMARKS FOB BEES. 



C. C. MILLER FINDS FAULT WITH THE HEXAGONAL 

 APIARV. 



fRIEND ROOT:— I have done a good bit ol 

 thinking- about your remarks at the close of 

 uiy article on page 301. (The best part ot my 

 articles is always found, ru the coarse print!) 

 You say that, in your apiary, " even with the 

 hives seven feet apart, and even though the chaff 

 hives alternate with Simplicity hives, and have 

 their entrances in opposite directions, there is a 

 good deal of trouble with bees getting in the wrong 

 hives." In reply I may say that this is quite a 

 serious matter; for if what you say is correct, my 

 advice may lead others into trouble. But my hives 

 occupy less than half the space that yours do, and 

 all of the same pattern, and I have tested the 

 matter thoroughly for years, and I am coniident 

 there is no such trouble as you speak of. Now, 

 here's a state of affairs! Which of us is telling the 

 truth? But if we go to calling one another hard 

 names, we'll only have to make up again; and it's a 

 good rule to make up heforc ire fall out. Let us see 

 if we can not find out what makes the difference. 

 It can hardly be the kind of bees, and I don't be- 

 lieve we can lay it to locality, that poor thing at 

 whose door so many things are laid. 



Suppose you say to me, "Do you see that level 

 acre meadow lot? Vou will find there a jack-knife 

 that I left on the ground in the middle of it." I 

 might liunt a long time before finding it; and if 

 you told me it was at the foot of a tree, the lot be- 

 ing filled with trees just alike, seven feet apart, the 

 task would still be a dilHcult one. But if the trees 

 were a rod or more apart, and you should say, " I 

 left it just a little to the north of that wide-spread- 

 ing elm," I could find it directly. Now, between 

 our a^jiaries exists much the same difference as be- 

 tween the bare meadow lot and the lot of big trees. 

 You have a beautiful level piece of ground with not 

 a bush or tree in it or about it, and the only thing to 

 direct the bees is the appearance of the hives; and 

 the result is just as you say : "There are so many 

 hives looking almost precisely alike that they pitch 

 on to the wrong hive." In my apiaries there are 

 trees more or less unlike at all parts of the apiary, 

 and I think the bees pay but little attention to the 

 appearance of the hive, so far as finding it is con- 

 cerned. It is true, if I change the appearance of 

 a hive even so little as laying a bush on top of it. 



the bees appear to take note of it; and if there is 

 much change in the appearance of a hive, quite a 

 commotion will be raised by the bees reconnoiter- 

 ing in front before entering; but still the bees do 

 not try to enter any other hive. That the bees do 

 not find their hives entirely by the appearance of 

 the hive, is clearly proven in this way: If I take 

 away a hive entirely, the bees on returning from 

 the field go directly to the spot where the hive 

 stood. Certainly the appearance of the hive does 

 not attract them, for there is no hive there. They 

 appear to take their l)earings from the trees, build- 

 ings, or other surrounding objects. If you watch a 

 single bee thus perplexed by the removal of its 

 hive, you can almost imagine it soliloquizing as 

 follows: 



" Here I come with a nice load of nectar, and 

 I'll find my home just between those two apple- 

 trees, and a little nearer to the one with the 

 big drooping limb at the north. What! I thought I 

 took my bearings all right, but I seem to have 

 missed it somehow. Guess I'll go back and try it 

 over again." And that bee, instead of entering a 

 hive a foot or so to one side, or even its own hive if 

 moved not more than a foot or two, will fly up a 

 rod or perhaps several rods in the air, and take its 

 bearings afresh, and repeat this operation till, dis- 

 couraged, it seeks refuge in any convenient hive. 

 But in your apiary, friend Root, it has nothing to 

 take its bearings from except the hives, and they 

 are so much alike that mistakes are made. If a 

 hexagonal apiary were placed in a ten-acre field, 

 entirely level, and with nothing on the ground but 

 the hives, they all looking alike, and twenty feet 

 apart, I suspect many bees would enter the wrong 

 hives, just because once in every twenty feet there 

 is a place that looks all right, both of itself and in 

 its relation to surrounding objects. Prof. Cook tells 

 of his bees going in numbers to acertain part of his 

 neighbor's house, because of the similarity of the two 

 houses. Now, in my apiary, wherever a hive is lo- 

 cated, there is no other spot in the apiary, or in the 

 world, for that matter, just exactly like it, considered 

 in its relatiiin to Kiimmnding objects. What's the 

 lesson? If I had your apiary, friend Root, I would 

 have some landmarks at once. Even a ten-foot 

 pole stuck in the ground, with a rag at the top, 

 would help. Yciu" grounds look very nice, so neat 

 and clean and so regular; but that regularity is 

 what makes tlie mischief; and I don't think your 

 grounds are more lieautif ul for being entirely tree- 

 less. So I would have some trees set out this spring 

 among the hives. If the trees are exactly alike I 

 think two or three roils apart would be better than 

 a rod. But if the trees are unlike in appearance, as 

 tliey most surely will become as tliey grow, it will 

 matter little al'out the distance. A carefully 

 planned irregularity in planting, imitating nature 

 as closely as possible, would be more pleasing to the 

 eye and convenient for the bees. Then I want 

 shade trees to work under, every time. 



Marengo, 111., April, 1888. C. C. Miller. 



Well, old friend, you have been thinking 

 the matter over considerably, haven't you ? 

 I guess you are right about it too. We have 

 thought of this matter of trees a good many 

 times ; in fact, the boys have started some 

 already. They told me, when 1 objected, 

 that r could pull them up when I found 

 them to be detrimental. There are a good 

 many reasons why I do not want trees in 



