1905 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



665 



of the row, and so a bee may go ten feet out 

 of its way to enter the wrong hive. 



Paradoxical as it may sound, the same bee 

 that would make a mistake of ten feet can 

 not be induced to make a mistake of six 

 inches under the right circumstances. In 

 early spring, before bees have flown, close 

 the entrance of an eight-frame hive all but 

 three or four inches at the right end. After 

 the bees have been flying busily for two or 

 three weeks, close the right end, and allow 

 three or four inches opening at the left end. 

 The bees, upon returning from the field, 

 will go straight to the closed right end, tak- 

 ing quite a while to find the opening at the 

 left end, and it will be days before they 

 stop going first to the right end. 



You see the bees go by looks, without 

 carefully measuring distances. The bee may 

 go to a wrong hive ten feet away because it 

 looks just like its own; but it will not enter 

 an opening only six inches distant at the 

 other end of the hive-entrance, because the 

 left end doesn't look like the right end. 



Well, of what practical value is all this? 

 For one thing, the man who fully under- 

 stands that it is not uncommon for bees to 

 enter wrong hives will not hastily con- 

 demn as impure an Italian queen because he 

 finds in her hive a few black or hybrid bees 

 that have come from other hives. 



For another thing, a proper understanding 

 of the matters that have been mentioned 

 will allow us to increase the number of colo- 

 nies on the same ground without increasing 

 the danger of bees entering wrong hives. 

 Take that row of twenty hives previously 

 mentioned, and somewhere near the middle 

 of the row set a tree or a fence-post in front 

 of the hives, or even behind them. A hive 

 at the right of the post will not look like a 

 hive at the left; neither will the second hive 

 at one side of the post look like the first or 

 third. In my time I have used a good many 

 double hives, a bee-tight partition in the 

 center, with both entrances in front. Al- 

 though the entrances were not six inches 

 apart, I never had occasion to believe that 

 a young queen on her return from her wed- 

 ding-excursion ever entered the wrong side. 



Again, a proper understanding will allow 

 us so to place our hives as to double the 

 number on the same surface of ground. 

 Take again that row of twenty hives at 

 equal distances. By the side of each hive in 

 the row, and close up to it, you can set 

 down another hive, doubling the number of 

 hives in the row, and there will be no more 

 danger of the bees mixing than there was 

 before. A bee belonging to No. 14 is more 

 likely to get into No. 12 or No. 16 than to 

 get into No. 13, which is nearest to it. 



Let us now turn to the question at issue. 

 The queen was fastened in the hive, with no 

 bees except those in the cells. No bee 

 could enter from outside till the hive was 

 opened at the expiration of the five days. A 

 worker-bee from elsewhere, beaten to the 

 ground by the wind, would not crawl into 

 this hive just opened, but would crawl into 

 the hive under it, standing on the ground. 



A worker from the hive below, on returning 

 from the field, would not make the mistake 

 of entering a place looking so unlike its reg- 

 ular entrance. Still less would a bee from 

 any other hive make such a mistake, unless 

 there was standing near by an entrance to a 

 second story, and nothing of the kind was 

 there. Even supposing it possible that a 

 bee might mistake this upper entrance for 

 its own lower entrance, would it be likely 

 that, within an hour, there would be a num- 

 ber of bees from elsewhere carrying pollen 

 into a place where not a bee had before 

 been flying? Moreover, the appearance of 

 the bees was not that of old bees, but of 

 bees only a few days old. 



Mr. Suddaby, take the case. 



Marengo, 111. 



AGE LIMIT OF BEES. 



"Is this Mr. Doolittle the bee-man?" 



"My name is Doolittle, and I am a lover of 

 the honey-bee. If that makes a ' bee-man, ' 

 then this is certainly Doolittle the bee-man. " 



"That being the case, I want a little talk 

 with you about how long a bee can live under 

 ordinary circumstances. That is, what is the 

 average life of the worker-bee, the drone, 

 and the queen ? ' ' 



' ' Why do you ask these questions ? Do not 

 the bee-books tell you about these things?" 



"I have read considerably in this matter, 

 and heard more; but as no two seem to agree 

 I thought I would come and see you about the 

 matter, as it has much to do with many of 

 our manipulations in making swarms, etc." 



"Yes, but probably you will think I do not 

 agree with you and others any more than 

 you say they agree." 



"That may be so; but I had not thought 

 of that part of the matter. Any way, I 

 should like the results of your years of 

 experience in this matter. Why, only the 

 other day a man told me that bees lived a 

 year and a half, and the very next day an- 

 other person told me that 30 days was the 

 limit of their life during the summer season. " 



"Surely, those ideas were very diff'erent, 

 the first one being entirely out of the way 

 unless we except the queen, and the last 

 being in the extreme. But it has always 

 seemed to me that it was a crime for bee- 

 keepers to be ignorant on these matters, 

 when one experiment would tell them the 

 truth and convince them that the average 

 life of the worker-bee is about 45 days dur- 

 ing the summer or the working season, or 

 a half more than the 30 days told you by 

 the last person, and 16J months less than 

 that given by the first." 



