1904 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



the thii'il wii-e from the top, then the 

 second, taking: up the shack with thie 

 right hand till the wires sing, and fast- 

 en as usual. 



Fasten the foundation to top-bar and 

 draw smooth. With the fore-finger 

 nail of left hand draw the upper wire 

 down in the center one-half inch and 

 imbed there, keeping the sheet smooth, 

 imbed the crossed wires by catching 

 the lower one with thumb nail of left 

 hand, push it up one-fourth inch and 

 imbed there. The upper wire by being 

 sagged will hold and not sag more, 

 while the lower one will, if the founda- 

 tion does, thereby keeping it smooth 

 in center where it always sinks the 

 most. There will be no occasio^ for 

 getting the frame out of square in the 

 operation. The bight of the wire will 

 not cut through any ordinary cloth 

 glove. 



I wish you a fine turkey dinner for 

 Thanksgiving. 



Corona, Cal., Nov. IG, 1903. 



A MYSTERIOUS ACT. 



Peculiar Habit of Worker-bees Revealed by Obser- 

 vstion, and Its Possible Bearing upon Current 

 Subjects of Discussion. 



By Arthur C. Miller. 



^^T^EES do nothing invariably," 

 £j quoth Mr. Hasty. Oh, go to 

 the bee thou skeptic, and learn 

 of her ways and be wise. In a broad 

 sense bees do nothing invariably. Cer- 

 tain general laws they are, by force of 

 their nature, compelled to follow. 

 When man interferes they adapt them- 

 selves to the disturbance and changed 

 conditions so far as they can. When 

 they do some seemingly erratic th^ng. 

 quite contrary to expectations we may 

 be sure that the fault lies in our inter- 

 pretation of the conditions, not in the 

 bees. As yet we know very little of 

 the laws of bee-life. Certain general 

 habits we recognize, but the stimuli 

 behind those habits are more than ob- 

 scure. 



In the American Bee .lournal for 

 October 1. Mr. Hasty, in commenting 

 on my statements about bees' methods 

 of obtaining food from each other, 

 quotes an old legend as to the bee's 

 manner of ripening nectar, gently pro- 

 tr\iding a minute drop on thle end of 

 the ligula and then drawing it in 



again." There is just enough truth in 

 the legend to make it misleading. 



After an inflow of nectar or .syrup 

 many workers will be found clustered 

 quietly, and at first glance apparently 

 for no purpose. A little closer scrutiny 

 will reveal the motion of their mouths 

 and the appearance there of a tiny drop 

 of fluid. There it stays briefly and 

 then is withdraAvn and the mouth clos- 

 ed. This operation is repeated for a 



long time, how long I do not know, 

 for my patience always gave out be- 

 fore the bee's did. I assume the oi>e- 

 ration has to do with the ripening or 

 conversion of the nectar, but whatever 

 it's purpose it is done entirely by the 

 mouth, the ligula or tongue having 

 nothing to do with it, being folded up 

 back iinder the chin. A few diagrams 

 may help to make it plain. 



Fig. I is the front view of a work- 

 er's head as it appears during the 

 operation; the dotted line N, showing 

 where the drop of nectar (?) apr^eai-s. 



Fig. II is a sectional view of a work- 

 er's head; Ibr is the labruni or upper 

 lip. mt is the mentuni or chin to which 

 the tongue is attached and bends or 

 folds back at B, but is shown extend- 

 ed and its parts separated. The man- 

 dibles are not shown as when the 

 tongue is not in use it, is folded up 

 behind the chin In the same figure 

 the dotted line N rei)resents the liquid. 



