Decembeb, 1921 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



761 



C 



lUf 



A GOOD deal 

 has been 

 said or writ- 

 ten as to wheth- 

 er bees can or 

 can not hear. 

 No organs of 

 hearing have 

 been found as 

 yet on the bee, 



I believe. The fact that bees make differ- 

 ent sounds under different circumstances or 

 conditions has led me to believe that bees 

 could either hear or in some way recognize 

 these sounds. That they are able in some 

 way to communicate their feelings, im- 

 pulses, or desires to each other and to a 

 whole colony seems beyond dispute, but 



how? 



* * * 



Eobt. W. Hall, on page 694, gives us an 

 interesting paper on "A Bumblebee Guest." 

 After giving his experience of a colony en- 

 tertaining and retaining such a guest he 

 inquires, ' ' Do we know of any case of bees 

 driving out or in any way injuring any 

 adult insect except a robber, a strange 

 queen, or drones in their cells?" We have 

 sometimes found in a hive dead bumblebees 

 that the bees had evidently killed but were 

 unable to drag out of the entrance. They 

 may have been considered as robbers, as 

 undoubtedly they were. 



* * * 



On page 710 Geo. S. Demuth, in giving 

 directions for the temperature of honey for 

 bottling, says the honey should not be heat- 

 ed to a temperature above 160 °F., nor held 

 there long, for the flavor of some types of 

 honey will be injured even at 160 °F. if kept 

 hot too long. I was pleased to note that 

 he says ' ' some types of honey are more eas- 

 ily injured by heat." There appears to be 

 a great difference in the amount of heat 

 that different kinds of honey will bear with- 

 out injury to the flavor. 



* * * 



One of the good things of the November 

 Gleanings is the article by Geo. S. Demuth 

 on the "Quiescence of Winter," page 681. 

 The health of the winter life of Ijees is told so 

 simply and clearly that it would seem as tho 

 the merest tyro must understand. He says, 

 "To live long, bees must live slowly;" and 

 again, "In a sense wintering may be 

 thought of as putting bees away in cold 

 storage to keep them fresh until spring." 

 When I read such a clear explanation of 

 the principle of successful wintering I can- 

 not help thinking of the advantages of the 

 modern beginner in beekeeping over those of 

 us who were trying to master the subject 

 50 or 60 years ago. 



The historical review of the various 

 methods of making "Queen Cage Candy," 

 by Dr. Phillips and Jay M. Smith, brings 

 very forcibly to our minds the value of that 



SIFTINGS 



J. E. Crane 



3 



LJ 



division of the 

 U. S. Depart- 

 ment of Agricul- 

 ture devoted to 

 the interests of 

 beekeepers. Few 

 beekeepers have 

 the time or 

 means to investi- 

 gate many of the 

 intricate problems connected with our in- 

 dustry. The recipe for making the best pos- 

 sible queen cage candy is given at the close 

 of the article, pages 690 and 691. We may 

 consider this question as settled and settled 

 "g^t. » * * 



A few evenings ago my daughter brought 

 home from the town library a book en- 

 titled, "How Animals Talk,"" by William 

 J. Long, and published by Harper & Bros., 

 New York and London. The author has had 

 a large experience with wild life in differ- 

 ent countries and is a charming writer. He 

 takes the ground that bees, birds, and beasts 

 are often able to express their feelings, de- 

 sires, or emotions to others without audible 

 speech. He calls this power or ability "nat- 

 ural telepathy," or "thought transfer- 

 ence. ' ' He illustrates and enforces his ar- 

 gument by an almost innumerable number 

 of examples in wild and domestic animal 

 life. The book is well worth a careful per- 

 usal by any or every one who would investi- 

 gate this subject with more, care, or is fond 

 of hunting wild life. 



* * * 



In the two pages (697, 698) of advice that 

 Mrs. Boyden gives to housewives, there is 

 one paragraph men may well read with 

 profit. She says: "He may be actually 

 starving while eating to excess every day. 

 Fed on a balanced ration that same person 

 will eat much less, feel satisfied, and enjoy 

 better health." To gain a correct knowl- 

 edge of the value of the various -kinds of 

 food one meets with in these days of luxury, 

 and the ability and self-control to choose 

 wisely are of more value than gold or sil- 

 ver. * * * 



The value of windbreaks has not been 

 fully appreciated until recent years. E. E. 

 Eoot 's illustrations of this subject on pages 

 684, 685, and 686 are not overdrawn nor 

 their value overestimated. We learned our 

 lesson along this line a good many years 

 ago when we found the bees on one side of 

 a yard exposed to the winter winds entirely 

 dead altho in winter-packed hives. 

 » » » 



That is a most valuable report given on 

 page 716 by Prof. H. D. Hughes on Hubam 

 Clover. If this clover seed can be sown with 

 spring grain or on fields of winter wheat 

 and produce a good crop of clover to be 

 plowed under later in the season and thus 

 restore the fertility of the soil, it would 

 seem as tho it would prove almost invalu- 

 able. 



