1891 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



319 



syrup — so abundant that they fall to the bot- 

 tom of the hive — makes yon skeptical. I have 

 noticed the same thins that yon speak of, and 

 it the rather contirmed my view. If we feed 

 syrup in quantities, the bees are nervously stim- 

 ulated, and I think the functional activity is by 

 no means slight: yet. how little they exercisf-"! 

 There is no occasicm for much exercise. With a 

 chance they will build comb very rapidly. Sup- 

 ply them a full set of combs, and they liave no 

 use for the .scales, and the latter lie thick on 

 tlie bottom-board. This strengthens me in the 

 view that wax is secreted only under those con- 

 ditions which usually prevail when wax is 

 needed. That is. the bees are functionally ac- 

 tive undei- high nervous tension, and yet are 

 not exercising much, either from choice or be- 

 cause, as in case of feeding, there is little or no 

 occasion for much exercise. The fact that they 

 do not Secrete wax except when it is ueeded. I 

 feel certain is. as a rule, well grounded. If any 

 one can give a better solution of this piobleiii 

 than is affojxled in the theory of physical quiet 

 in conjunction with a stimulated condition, I 

 should like to hear it. A. J. Cook. 



Agricultural College. Mich. 



E. FRAXCE GIVES ITS SOME SHARI^ FACTS THAT 

 WE CAIS' NOT WELL GET AROUND. 



In March 15th Gleanings, page 212, Prof. 

 Cook gives us an excellent article on wax secre- 

 tion, and A. I. Root makes some good remarks. 

 Now, I don"t intend to criticise either of you; 

 in fact. I agree with both of you. But I have a 

 theory of my own as to when and why bees se- 

 crete wax. They secrete wax whenever they 

 have more honey than they have combs iii 

 which to store it away. At such times they 

 have to hold their honey in their sacs — they 

 have no other place to put it. The wax is se- 

 creted as a consequence of holding the honey in 

 their sacs. Now. this is the whole sum and 

 substance of wax secretion. Give a new swarm 

 of bees a full set of empty combs, and will they 

 secrete wax? No. not mi'ich; but give them ah 

 ■empty hive when honey is plentiful, but no 

 combs, then the secretion goes on rapidly. 

 Why? Because the bees" sacs are full of honey, 

 and they have to hold it until combs are built 

 to store it away. 



Another case: Hive a swarm in an empty 

 hive when there is a dearth of honey. When 

 the bees have to eat all the honey they can get 

 to keep alive, will they secrete wax? Not any. 

 They have no honey in their sacs. I hived a 

 swarm last September — a good-sized one — and 

 they lived until cold weather, but never built 

 an inch of comb— then starved. Why did they 

 not secrete wax? No honey. 



I have seen it stated in "the bee-papers that 

 only young bees secrete wax. Now. I think 

 that is a mistake. I have no doubt that young 

 bees do secrete wax; but that they never se- 

 crete wax after they are old enough to go to the 

 fields and gather honey is not so. I know that 

 bees will secrete wax and build combs until 

 they are six weeks old. Can I prove it? Yes. 

 Several years ago a bee-man near here hived a 

 swarm of bees in a frame hive that I sold him. 

 Just 21 days after, they had filled the hive full 

 of combs, and a set of boxes with honey, and 

 swarmed. That day the swarm was put into 

 another hive, and they filled that hive also, in 

 three weeks. Now. don't you see that this last 

 swarm of bees w(>re at least a part of the first 

 swarm? or in other words, every bee in the last 

 swarm was one of the first swarm, and was not 

 less than 21 days old. and they could not get 

 young bees in the second hive in less than 21 

 days more? So the same lot of bees were se- 

 creting \\ ax and building comb for six weeks. 



I believe that, as long as a bee lives, it can se- 

 crete wax and build comb with it. and that old 

 bees can secrete wax as freely as young ones, 

 and that wax is never secreted to any amount 

 unless the bees have to hold their honey for the 

 lack of room to store it away, and they can not 

 secrete wax unless they are holding ' honey in 

 their sacs. E. France. 



Platteville, Wis. 



[Friend France. I congratulate you on the 

 point you make in regard to bees siKM'cting wax 

 when they are six weeks old. I never tiiought 

 of it before, but your argument is unanswera- 

 ble. A swarm that casts another swarm inside 

 of 21 days must surely.send out only old bees. 

 I have been satisfied for years that old bees can 

 secrete wax, nurse brood, oi- do almost any 

 thing else, on a pinch.] A. I. R. 



DOOLITTLE TELLS US WHAT HE THINKS OF 

 MILLIONAIRES, AS WELL AS WAX. 



I read with interest Prof. Cook"s article on 

 page 212 of Gleanings for March 1.5. and heart- 

 ily wish he were correct. He may be so during 

 a time of moderate flow of honey, with no de- 

 sire on the part of the bees to swarm; but with 

 a good honey-flow, and a disposition on the 

 part of the bees to swarm. I can only think him 

 in error, in the light of past experience. Take 

 his example of the "'cow secreting milk when 

 there is a young calf that must have milk;'" and 

 instead of proving what he wishes it to, it most 

 surely proves that wax must be wasted when a 

 swarm of bees is hived in a hive fully provided 

 with comb, when we come to apply that ex- 

 ample to the bees. The cow secretes milk ac- 

 cording to "nature's aiTanging"" before the 

 birth of the calf, so that it may have a supply 

 when it enters into the world; so the bees begin 

 to prepare for their future home some length of 

 time before they leave the parent colony by se- 

 creting wax, so that they may be prepared with 

 the needed material when they enter their new 

 hive, which, as a rule, is all "swept and gar- 

 nished,'" only as man's hand changes their usual 

 surroundings. If the professor has ever exam- 

 ined a swarm of bees as they hang on a limb, 

 waiting for the scouts to return and report "' a 

 future home,"' and failed to find wax secreted 

 in the wax-pockets, he has found a state of af- 

 fairs that I never did. With this wax already 

 secreted, what is to become of it when the 

 swarm is hived in a hive already fully furnish- 

 ed, unless it is wasted ? That it is not found on 

 the bottom of the hive is no proof that there 

 was no secretion, or that it has not been wast- 

 ed; for I have repeatedly seen bees leaving the 

 hive with wax scales in their mouth, and once 

 or twice have seen them drop them soon after 

 taking wing, although I believe that the great- 

 er part of this waste comes about by an unnec- 

 essary thickening of the combs, and a useless 

 daubing of wax about the hive. I have seen the 

 limbs of trees, on which swarms have clus- 

 tered, plastered over with wax. the secretion 

 was so great: and when swarms have been hived 

 on full sheets of foundation. I have scraped the 

 cells off the foundation, which most would call 

 ■'foundation drawn out."' only to find the found- 

 ation in as perfect condition as it was when it 

 was placed in the hive, the bees simply adding 

 their wax to the side walls of the foundation. I 

 may be wrong, but I can see in this only a waste 

 of wax, or a waste of the foundation: have it 

 which way you please. In times of a slow yield 

 of honey, and perhaps I might say at all times, 

 I do not think as much wax would be secreted 

 when the swarm was hived on empty combs as 

 there would be in an empty hive, for the contin- 

 uous secretion which goes on after the swarm is 



