JULY 15. 1914 



549 



Lad 1,11 t^ro\vi::g several eleome stalks, 

 which, by cutting out all but the larger ones, 

 gave these an opportunity to see what they 

 could do ; and eleome on a favorable soil 

 will nearly make a tree, covered with the 

 large purple blossoms. There were hundreds 

 of blooms on each stalk, and I do not know 

 that it would be stretching the truth to say 

 thousands. The trunks of the eleome trees, 

 as I should call them, were from iy2 to 2y2 

 inches in diameter. 



Mr. Hopper's father, R. A. Hopi er; his 

 brother, V. 0. W. Hopper, and his father- 

 in-law, Mr. A. S. Parson, all of Rocky Ford, 

 are also in the bee business, and the Hopper 

 family own and operate most of the bees in 

 the county. They now raise comb honey 

 exclusively, although when first coming to 

 Rocky Ford they produced extracted. The 

 change was made largely because of the 

 inroads of foul brood. 



Boulder, Colo. 



EMOTIONAL METHODS IN INTKODUCINC QUEENS 



BY J. E. CRANE 



To those who have handled bees for many 

 years there can be but little doubt that bees 

 are subject to like passions and emotions as 

 ourselves. That they are subject to grief, 

 affection, fright, anger, there can be little 

 doubt. That these emotions can often be 

 turned to our advantage in our care of them 

 I think we shall all agree. It is also evident 

 that bees can entertain only one emotion at 

 a time. If a bee is angry we can not readily 

 make it fear us. Or if a colony is thoroughly 

 frightened they seem to lose all anger, and 

 we can rob them of part or all their hard- 

 earned stores without a protest from them. 

 If a horse is frightened, its first impulse is 

 to run from the object of its fright as 

 quickly as possible, regardless of the voice 

 of its master — it may be into a tree or over 

 a precipice to its destruction. If a house is 

 on fire its inmates instinctively rush to the 

 doors, often without thought or reason, to 

 be crushed to death in the crowd of others 

 also trying to get out. 



If a hive is filled with smoke the bees 

 become frightened, and their first impulse 

 is to fill themselves with honey and rush to 

 the open. How often do we see most pa- 

 thetic indications of gTief among bees? 

 They have lost their hive, or their brood or 

 their queen, and they will fly for hours if 

 perchance they may find what they have 

 lost. By calling into action the emotion of 

 grief we can introduce a queen with the 

 greatest ease and safety. Take a quart or 

 two of bees with honey enough with them 

 to last twenty-four hours, and place in a 

 swarming-box or small hive properly ven- 

 tilated, but without queen, brood, or combs. 

 They will soon miss their queen and brood, 

 and in three or four hours their grief will 

 become very pronounced. Now, without fear 

 of loss, you can run in a queen from your 

 yard, or one that has come through the 

 mails, or even a virgin, and the bees' grief 

 is turned to joy and rejoicing. You need 

 not smoke them nor fed them nor pound the 



box. The next morning you can place them 

 on a comb of brood with some honey, and 

 all will go well. 



The emotion of fear or fright has also 

 been used very successfully in the introduc- 

 tion of queens, as has been brought forwaixl 

 by Arthur C. Miller to the attention of the 

 beekeeping world. He says, reduce the en- 

 trance to about one inch and then give the 

 colony three good puffs of smoke and close 

 the hive for fifteen or twenty seconds, then 

 ojDen and run in the queen and give another 

 good puff, and close for about ten minutes, 

 when it can be opened just a little. 



Now, there is nothing that will frighten 

 bees quicker than smoke. Their first impulse 

 is to fill themselves with honey and rush out 

 of the hive; but get out they can not, for 

 the entrance is closed so their fright is in- 

 creased to the highest pitch. After ten min- 

 utes the hive is to be opened just a little. 

 If we place our ear to the side of the hive 

 we can hear the Avild tumult and panic 

 within while fright reigns supreme. The 

 cappings of cells of honey are torn so that 

 the bees may in the greatest haste fill them- 

 selves with honey while their love for their 

 brood and tender affection for their queen 

 is apparently obliterated for the time being. 

 It is doubtful if one bee in ten thousand at 

 this time would recognize its own or any 

 other queen. After a time the smoke dies 

 away, and fear gives way to a feeling of 

 good will and gentleness. There is probably 

 not an angry. bee in the hive. Every bee is 

 filled with honey, and any and every bee is 

 glad to give it to any queen it may meet on 

 the combs without asking questions; and it 

 is doubtful if there is a bee in the hive that 

 could tell its own from any other fertile 

 queen, in consequence of the odor of smoke 

 that has filled the hive and given every bee 

 within it a characteristic odor. Mr. Miller 

 thinks the odor has nothing to do with it, 

 but rather the fright and tumult caused by 

 the smoke, and he may be right. If so it 



