1904 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



49 



son. With Syrians it moans a fight to 

 a finisli. With most Italians and with 

 Caruiolans it is comidete subjugation 

 up to a point, beyond whicli they fight. 

 With all it is a grevious mistake. An- 

 other operator will go to the other ex- 

 treme and fail to use smoke at the crit- 

 ical periods. Then some strike the 

 Iiappy medium, have a well charged, 

 well burning smoker, use it just as lit- 

 tle a,s possible and yet enough, and 

 control the bees readily and perfectly. 

 One man will be filled with senseless 

 fear, another will view his work 

 rationally, study and know the va- 

 garies of his strain of bees and act 

 accordingly, for difl'erent strains and 

 races react differently to the stimulus 

 of smoke. 



It is the currently accepted belief 

 that smoke "frightens" bees. It is 

 doubtful if bees "fear" anything. It is 

 probable that smoke simply acts as a 

 nerve excitant, producing disturbing 

 sensations, which in turn react and 

 cause the bees to gorge with honey or 

 to precipitately flee. I question 

 whether the talfing of food under such 

 circumstances is anytMng more than 

 a nervous reaction. There is nothing 

 but sentiment to suggest that on the 

 bees' part there is forethought of loss 

 of home or food. When smoked ex- 

 cessively the bee ifights; "sacrificing 

 herself for the sake of home and sis- 

 ters" the legend runs. But 'tis hardly 

 true. A point has been reached in 

 nerve excitation where the sting mech- 

 anism is ,stimiil:ited. As ail i)arts 

 work in unison .so must tlie bee fly to- 

 wards that which excites the nerves of 

 the eyes and on striking the object the 

 rest of the actions occur in regular se- 

 quence. 



The bee possesses a highly developed 

 nervouf^ system but its power of asso- 

 ciative memory is decidedly limited. 

 Beyond finding its way to the source 

 of nectar or food supply and back to 

 its domicile and noticing any marked 

 change in the appearance or suiTound- 

 ings thereof, I have failed to note any 

 evidence of a "'mind" in bees. Every 

 other function can be explained per- 

 fectly as reactions to excitants or 

 nerve stimuli. 



To revert to sting action. The appli- 

 cation of ,smoke or heat can be carried 

 to a point where the bee doubles up 

 until it stings itself, or of when forced 



almost to this, the abdomen be severed 

 from the thorax, the anterior part of 

 the body still continues to assail and 

 cling as before, while the posterior 

 part curves and the sting dart§ out 

 ami in as if the abdomen was still con- 

 nected with the thorax. 



Someone may ask me to reconcile 

 these views with the action of the 

 "guards" which dart so readily from 

 the hive entrance at any moving ob- 

 ject. The movements excite (set in 

 action) the optic nerves, which in turn 

 react on the organs of flight. The bee 

 approaches the object and if the latter 

 causes continued or increased nerve 

 stimulation, either through the organs 

 of Slight, smell, hearing or touch, the 

 sequence is assault. 



Why do bees feed the larvae ? They 

 have to. They cannot help themselves. 



This article is but the merest al- 

 lusion to the laws underlying all life. 

 With man and the higher animals as- 

 sociative memory and reasoning enter 

 into the ]iroblem but with the lewder 

 orders movements are merely the re- 

 sults of various stimuli (such as heat, 

 light electricity, gravity, touch, etc.) 

 acting on living tissues. 



When we can rid ourselves of the old 

 beliefs of the reasoning power of bees, 

 of a lot of unknown but supposedly 

 marvelous and complex laws, and go 

 to searching for the stimuli behind 

 each action we may then hope for a 

 speedy .solution of the swarming prob- 

 lem and similar perplexing questions — 

 and not before. 



Providence, R. I.. .Tan. 2?,. 1904. 

 «-•-'* 



In concluding a I'ecent letter, the 

 editor of one of the leading foreign 

 bee journals says: "Allow me to add 

 with what real pleasure I studv your 

 most excellent American Bee-Keeper 

 every month. You have good reason 

 to be prond of your publication, so full 

 it is of valuable teaching, so cleverly 

 edited, so attractive in form, .so fresh 

 and inspiriting from month to month." 



The word honeymoon comes to us 

 from the ancients, among whom it was 

 the custom to drink diluted honey for 

 thirty days or a moon's age, after a 

 wedding feast. — Ex. 



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