694 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



November, 1921 



FROM THE FIELD OF EXPERIENCE 



put on full sheets of foundation, and four 

 of them now form the quartette shown in 

 the photo. The tall hive has 13 shallow 

 supers and one full-depth that we placed on 

 during fruit bloom, with full sheets of foun- 

 dation and no queen-excluder. At the ad- 

 vent of clover bloom we put the queen be- 

 low, then placed the excluder on the brood- 

 chamber, and tiered up the supers as needed. 

 Three of the shallow supers had foundation 

 which was all drawn out and filled excepting 

 one super. The rest of the supers had drawn 

 combs and were all filled with alsike honey. 

 The hive at the left has "had part of the crop 

 taken off, and the one just behind it had a 

 recurrence of American foul brood. It was 

 healed this spring and run for comb honey. 

 The latticed building is the "lookout." It 



The quartette of hives in summer action, showing 

 that the Quad packing does "get by." 



is shaded by wild plums and the furniture 

 consists of a chair, writing table, and fold- 

 ing couch. J. F. Dunn. 



Eidgeway", Ont., Canada. 



[No doubt, crowding four hives together 

 woxild result in better wintering even if 

 they are not packed on the exposed sides, 

 but this arrangement affords some protec- 

 tion on the exposed sides as well as top pro- 

 tection. The weakest place as to protection 

 is at the upper edge of the brood-chamber 

 where considerable heat can escape unless 

 the cracks between the supers and the brood- 

 chambers are tightly sealed with propolis. 

 Evidently this weak spot did not harm the 



colonies last winter, judging from the pile 

 of supers on the hive when the photo was 

 taken. — Editor.] 



A BUMBLEBEE GUEST 



Strange Toleration of a Foreign Species Within the 

 Hive 



Last autumn, about the end of Septem- 

 ber and early in the forenoon, when I was 

 looking for queens preparatory to Italianiz- 

 ing, I was decidedly surprised to find a 

 bumblebee cosily nestling among the other 

 bees. He was in the thick of the cluster, 

 about the middle of a frame. I say he, be- 

 cause when I sent it to the Bureau of En- 

 tomology at Washington, D. C-, Dr. Howard 

 informed me that S. A. Eohwer had pro- 

 nounced it a male of Bomlnts iinpatieiis — a 

 common underground builder. 



My first interest was in the bumblebee, for 

 as long as I thought it a female, it suggest- 

 ed a possible way in which parasitism might 

 arise — thru a hibernating insect seeking the 

 warmth of the honeybee hive- Soon, how- 

 ever, my interest was transferred to the 

 honeybees and their instincts. Why did 

 they tolerate this intruder? If they thought 

 him a drone of their own species, why did 

 they not oust him? During the next few 

 days I "sieved" every one of my colonies 

 and caught all queens and during this pro- 

 cess saw not one drone. Their own drones 

 had, therefore, been done away with and 

 there was no honey flow on to make them 

 change their policy. 



If, on the other hand, they recognized 

 him as of a foreign species, why did they 

 not expel him? Possibly they have no in- 

 stinct to meet such rare cases. Do we know 

 of any case of bees driving out or injuring 

 any adult insect except a robber, a strange 

 queen (the latter by balling), or drones in 

 their cells? These, of course, are special 

 cases of peculiar and frequent importance, 

 where a definite instinct is to be expected- 

 But they allow the death 's-head moth of Eu- 

 rope to enter — in this case possibly because 

 the big sphinx is too tough for them to 

 harm. They tolerate ants. Do they, to any- 

 one 's knowledge, harm the wax moth? Ital- 

 ians will clean them out, but may that not 

 be done entirely by destroying the young 

 larvae or even the eggs? 



Whatever the explanation, their tolerance 

 of that bumblebee was a strange thing, 

 and we must not forget that in the realm 

 of biology, from human physiology and 

 psj'chology to the instincts of insects, it is 

 the exceptional or abnormal tliat throws 

 most light on the normal. For this reason 

 I feel it is the duty of every beekeeper to 

 report all exceptions or anomalies observed 

 in bee behavior. Eobert W- Hall. 



Bethlehem, Pa. 



