Nov 1, 1911 



ffexCAVAT/O/V 



BEE BEHAVIOR. 



Some Things Which Are Not Down in the Books. 



BY ARTHUR C. MILLER. 



[Last June we met Mr. A. C. Miller at a conven- 

 tion of bee-keepers held at the Massachusetts Agri- 

 cultural College, Amherst. During the course ot 

 our conversation we discussed the special observa- 

 tory hive that Mr. Miller had invented, from which 

 he had learned some things about the domestic 

 economy ottlie bee-hive thatare not recorded inany 

 of the Ijee-books. We may explain that this special 

 observatory hive, unlike the ordinary glass hives 

 for observation purposes, has the combs built cross- 

 wise between the two glasses, instead of running 

 parallel. AVhere the combs are crosswise, and built 

 against the glass, it affords excellent opportunity 

 to determine what takes place in the cells, even if 

 they are sealed over. One can readily see how the 

 bees regurgitate the honey into the cells, how they 

 feed their young, how the larva- spin their cocoons, 

 because one side of the cell is covered with glass, so 

 that the observer can witness all the wonderful 

 operations that heretofore have been hidden from 

 the world. Mr. Miller, we undei'stand, has spent 

 hours and hours and days and days in watching 

 the bees while they were at work in this special ob- 

 servatory hive. Well, during the course of our 

 conversation at the Amherst School of Apiculture, 

 Mr. Miller incidentally mentioned some things he 

 had discovered. We were immediately interested, 

 and requested him to place some of these before 

 tlie public. We finally made an arrangement by 

 which this is to be done. The articles are to be first 



published in these columns, and. later on, they will 

 be compiled and inade over into book form for easy 

 reference. These will be illustrated where engrav- 

 ings can be used. The first of the series of articles 

 is given herewitfi: and so far from being a statement 

 of dry facts, the series, we believe, will be exceed- 

 ingly interesting and practical. Please notice where 

 Mr. Miller explains how the Aspinwall principle 

 checks or keeps down swarming. If you read 

 through it you will run across some things you 

 have known before, perhaps, and some thin^^syou 

 have not known, but which will conform to experi- 

 ences which you have not been able to understand. 

 In other words, we believe that Mr. Miller's con- 

 tribution on the domestic economy of the hive will 

 supply certain missing links that will complete our 

 chain of knowledge bearing on certain questions. 

 We suggest, therefore, that the man who gets his 

 bread and butter off the bees will find something 

 in these articles that will enable him to get more 

 bread and butter. Here is the first of the series.— 



ED.] 



Bees sleep, and do a lot of it. They will 

 crawl into a cell containing an egg or some- 

 times a small larva, settle comfortably down, 

 and stay there for hours at a time. Thus 

 doth the little busy bee! They never touch 

 the egg nor larva, and their presence has 

 nothing to do with the hatching of the egg. 



When a queen is cramped for room she 

 will use any shaped cell or put several eggs 

 in a cell, and sometimes two of them will 

 hatch there and the larvse be fed as one. Be- 



