588 



young; but, finding its instability a bar to 

 brooding, they tried to prop it up. Not be- 

 ing provided with wax they had nothing to 

 serve as supports. What did they do? Mere 

 instinct was at fault, for here was a dilemma 

 which possibly no bumble-bee had ever 

 hitherto experienced. They had to find a 

 way or make it. This they did as a result 

 of deductive reasoning, I take it. Two of 

 the bees mounted the comb, stood on their 

 heads, with their fore feet on the table, while 

 their hind feet propped it up. The posture 

 was so painful a one that fresh bees had to 

 relieve their comrades, and this they did for 

 about three days, when the experimenter 

 relieved them by propping up the comb se- 

 curely. "How could mere machines thus 

 provide for a ease which never occurred to 

 bumble-bees before?" asks a philosopher 

 commenting on this, and he concludes nat- 

 urally that this was not a case of mere in- 

 stinct, but of sound reasoning. Man would 

 act in the same way, and would endeavor to 

 prop up any falling fabric until some one 

 brought beams to support it. 



I can imagine mere instinct guiding bees 

 to prepare natal cradles for their future 

 queens, but what guides these same workers 

 when the time is not yet ripe for the issue 

 of the imago to imprison her in her cell un- 

 til weather conditions admit the bees to trak? 

 When the drones are slaughtered annually, 

 a colony whose queen is yet unfertilized is 

 preserved. Do the bees reason it out that 

 this is their only chance of being saved from 

 annihilation? ISIere instinct would enable 

 bees to build even the beautiful hexagonal 

 cell; but what mystic i)ower induces them 

 to depart from the uniform procedure, break 

 into transitional cells, and then gradually 

 adopt drone-cell formation? Mere instinct 

 induces bees to leave the hive for nectar 

 when flowers secrete this sweet, and weath- 

 er favors; but what teaches only a proportion 

 of them to do so, while others remain to at- 

 tend to the duties of the hive? When drones 

 are bred in worker combs, necessity compels 

 the workers to elongate the cell walls, as we 

 see them when a drone-breeder, a fertile 

 worker, or an unfertilized queen has done 

 the egg-laying; but does mere instinct teach 

 them to revert to the normal, and pare the 

 cell walls down to the former depth? To 

 me each and all of these operations look like 

 the fruits of reasoning. 



Banff, Scotland. 



["Are Bees Reflex Machines?" is the title 

 of a work issued by the publishers of this 

 journal, that goes into the whole question 

 very minutely. It is one of the most valu- 

 able and interesting works that have come 

 from the Gleanings press. Price 50 cts. — 



^^^•^ ^^ 



A RECORD OF THE LOSS IN WEIGHT OF 14 

 COLONIES IN A CELLAR. 



BY J. M. WALKER. 



Gleanings in Bee Culture 



put in the cellar on Nov. 24. They were in 

 eight-frame hives ivithout cover, having a 

 Yi piece of pine board screwed on top of the 

 brood-chamber. They came through with 

 abundance of stores for spring use — plenty 

 of them not having used any of their sealed 

 stores. They had a short flight only, on 

 Feb. 18, it being a warm misty afternoon. 



When my bees are fed with syrup, and 

 ready for winter, I put a Ys, pine board, as 

 mentioned above, with three circular saw- 

 cuts lengthwise through it on top. I i)ut 

 the regular cover over this; but then when 

 bees are put away I lay the covers aside un- 

 til spring. The three cuts in the board 

 keep it from warping; and as the cuts are 

 turned down they give a very slight passage 

 of fresh air over the bees. 



Another little scheme I have is to use a 

 small strip to close the entrance in han- 

 dling bees. The alighting-board is removed 

 and the strip inserted. When bees are in 

 place, a cork is first pulled from a ^^-inch 

 hole in the center of the strip, and a little 

 later the strip is removed. In this way the 

 bees do not fly out and make trouble. I 

 leave the entrances entirely open in the cel- 

 lar. 



Owing to lack of space and good ventila- 

 tion, these 14 colonies lost lyi gallons of 

 bees, by actual measure; but I expect to 

 improve my cellar conditions very much 

 the coming winter. 



New Bethlehem, Pa. 



THE BOISE VALLEY, IDAHO. 



The Situation as it Exists there To-day. 



BY R. D. BRADSHAW. 



I hand you herewith the table of weights 

 of my colonies in the cellar last year. These 

 colonies were all of uniform strength when 



In response to an article by J. E. Miller, 

 page 408, .luly 1, I wish to place before the 

 readers of Gleanings the conditions in the 

 Boise Valley as they are. To begin with, 

 Mr. Miller states that there is lots of room 

 here for more bees. In answer to this I have 

 prepared the sketch shown herewith, show- 

 ing the only section where bee-keeping at 

 the present writing has been found at all 

 profitable, and bee-keepers may judge for 

 themselves. 



Within dotted lines, a strip averaging two 

 to three miles wide, is irrigated land, mostly 

 bee-ranges; outside dotted lines, sage-brush 

 deserts, now under reclamation; however, 

 as yet there is but little or no range for bees, 

 and will not be for some time. 



Between Caldwell and Boise, a distance of 

 20 miles, as shown on the map, Messrs. 

 Lyon, Atwater, Yoder, Dudley, Stark, Bix- 

 by, have a total of 2775 colonies, strung out 



