546 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 1 



pecially in the bo}''s room. He is shown 

 at all ages, at his worst and at his best. 

 Then there is another collection that shows 

 m3' bee-keeping trips; and each picture re- 

 calls a little history of some event or 

 place. — Ed.] 



PECULIAR INSTINCTS OF BEES. 



The Importance of Getting Them Started Right ; a 

 Very loterestiag Article. 



BY J. E. CRANE, 



On page 913, Dec. 15, 1898, the editor says, 

 in his " Symposium on Fences and Plain 

 Sections," " Last year we sent out a few of 

 our fences with spaces less than f.^ (the 

 width of perforated zinc). When the bees 

 could not go through, we learned earlj' in 

 the season that they were inclined to gnaw 

 the space wider; and when once started to 

 gnawing they would keep it up till the 

 space would be widened to y% or even yi. 

 inch." 



When I first read this paragraph it seem- 

 ed a very proper way. not onl^' for account- 

 ing for the gnawing of separators or fences, 

 but also, if true (and there was no reason 

 to doubt it), of accounting for some other 

 things. "When ot.ce started to gnawing 

 they would keep it up." Exactly! There 

 is a good deal in getting bees started in 

 either a good or a bad way. I was the 

 more impressed with this when I looked 

 over a large number of fences of my own. 

 used during 1898, to see what I might learn. 

 Instead of using all my fences with c'eats, 

 I made a large number with small wooden 

 p ns, driven through the slats to engage the 



edges of the sections. A few of these were 

 made by boring a i\ hole through a piece 

 of lumber before slicing it up into slats. 

 As I used thin pegs or pins about ^s wide 

 by jV thick, it left a little opening on each 

 side of the pin through the slat— see photo- 

 graph. 



Now, instead of the bees gnawing these 

 holes larger they proceeded to stop them up 

 with virgin wax. evidently early in the sea- 

 son; and when once the \>&q.s, got started Vc^&y 

 kept on, and not only filled up every hole 

 each side of the pin projections, but between 

 the edges of the slats, and also a good deal 

 between the slats and edges of the sections. 

 The photo shows how it was done if you 

 look closel}'. 



Very few others out of several hundred, 

 so far as observed, were filled up in this 

 way with wax. The small holes started 

 them; and when once started they kept on 

 a A' ay beyond what reason or good judgment 

 would dictate. 



Sometimes a colony seems almost to be 

 governed by reason; again, by instinct; 

 and, again, bv impulse or passion. 



Let us look farther at this instinct or im- 

 pulse of bees that, when on:e started in anj' 

 given line, keeps on. Those who handle 

 bees know ho^v apt a colunj' of bees is, if it 

 once begins to sting, to keep on. If a col- 

 ony has killed a young queen I find it quite 

 difificult to introduce another; even when 

 you give it brood with which to rear its own 

 queen it will sometimes keep on in its 

 queenlessness. If a colony gets started 

 early in the season in surplus boxes it is 

 more likely to surpass others that hesitate 

 before they go into supers. 



If I find one section in a super with pol- 



