THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



803 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



Bees Putting Besiegers to Fligrlit. — 



The London Times " Beeiiiaster "gives 

 amusing instances of the application 

 of bees to defensive purposes : 



A privateer manned by fifty men, 

 but having on board some liives of 

 bees, was pursued by a Turkish galley, 

 manned by oUO seamen and soldiers. 

 When the latter came alongside, the 

 crew of the privateer mounted the 

 rigging with their hives, and threw 

 them upon their foes, who,astonislieil 

 at this novel mode of warfare, has- 

 tened to escape from the fury of the 

 enraged bees. Another instance oc- 

 curred, when a rabble at Ilohustein, 

 in llungaria, attempted to pillage the 

 house of the parish minister; he caused 

 some beehives to be thrown among 

 the mob, who in consequence soon dis- 

 persed. Again, Vauban relates how 

 bees played an important part at the 

 siege of Chatle, in Lorraine. After a 

 siege, the town was being stormed, 

 and, during the assault, the besieged 

 threw a few hives of bees upon the 

 heads of the storming party. The lit- 

 tle creatures stung the besiegers so 

 dreadfully that they had to retire ; 

 and the historian tells that " the bees 

 were not the least cause of the siege 

 being abandoned." 



Bee-Keeping as a Business.— The 



Saginaw', Mich., Evening Nav^ot Dec. 

 4, contains the following on this sub- 

 ject : 



Few people are aware of the impor- 

 tance of the bee-keeping business in 

 Michigan, or of the amount of honey 

 annually gatiiered in the State. Dr. 

 Whiting, the local authority on apia- 

 rian questions, estimates the Saginaw 

 county crop for the present season at 

 not less than 40,000 pounds, a large 

 portion of which linds a market -in 

 other States. 



U n d er the old system of bee-keepin g 

 apiarists used to gauge tlieir success 

 by the number of swarms produced. 

 Now, however, within certain reason- 

 able limits, " swarming "is considered 

 a misfortune and a new " swarm " a 

 loss, for a populous colony will keep 

 at wotk and gather more honey than 

 the two " swarms." 



The article painted on signs and 

 used as a device on one or two State 

 seals is no longer recognized as a bee 

 hive, for its place has been supplied 

 by something more convenient. Many 

 of our older readers will remember, 

 perhaps some of them have used, the 

 process of extracting honey by smok- 

 ing the bees to death and thus safely 

 getting at the sweets they have stored 

 up, taking white comb and yellow, 

 bee bread, pollen and young bees in 

 one indiscriminate mass. Processes 

 liave changed with the hives, and now 

 honey is extracted by the centrifugal 



process, not only being as pure and 

 white as that in the whitest comb, but 

 the bees are not disturbed and the 

 coarser article left for " home con- 

 sumption "—that is, the bees consume 

 it and do not seem to feel angry or 

 discouraged because they have been 

 robbed. 



In the not very olden times a bee- 

 keeper felt satislied if he got 15 or 20 

 pounds of yellow honey per colony, 

 and considered himself peculiarly 

 lucky if he did not get tiis head stung 

 off in the operation. Nowadays, api- 

 arists consider less than 100 pounds of 

 honey per colony a poor season's work, 

 and he must have a strong and healthy 

 colony of bees left as well as the honey. 



Bee-keepers now take as much pains 

 to improve their stock as cattle or 

 horse breeders. No slow-going bees 

 are tolerated ; they must get to work 

 early in the morning and keep at it 

 until late at night, and to get bees of 

 this industrious disposition the bee- 

 men send to the uttermost parts of the 

 earth. 



Among the States, Micliigan stands 

 in the front rank in the bee-keeping 

 business. The lirst society for im- 

 provement in bee-keepers' methods 

 and appliances was started in Michi- 

 gan, and its success has been such 

 that the greatly-increased product of 

 honey and consequent reduction in 

 price is fast causing the article to be 

 regarded as a necessity, rather than a 

 luxury. 



Do Bees Hear J— The London Capi- 

 tal and Labor of Nov. 15, 1882, gives 

 the following on this subject : 



At the meeting of the Linnean So- 

 ciety last week. Sir John Lubbock 

 read an account of his further obser- 

 vations on the habits of insects made 

 during the past year. The two queen 

 ants which have lived with him since 

 1874, and which are now, therefore, no 

 less than eight years old, are still alive, 

 and laid eggs last summer as usual. 

 His oldest workers are seven years 

 old. Dr. Midler, in a recent review, 

 had courteously criticised his experi- 

 ments on the color sense of bees, but 

 Sir John Lubbock pointed out that he 

 had anticipated the objections sug- 

 gested by Dr. Muller, and had guarded 

 against the supposed source of error. 

 The difference whs, moreover, not one 

 of principle, nor did Dr. Muller ques- 

 tion the main conclusions arrived at, 

 or doubt the preference of bees for 

 blue, which, indeed, was strongly in- 

 dicated by his own observations on 

 (lowers. 



Sir John also recorded some further 

 experiments with reference to the 

 power of hearing. Some bees were 

 trained to come to honey which was 

 placed on a musical box on the lawn 

 close to a window. The musical box 

 was kept going for several hours a day 

 for a fortnight. It was then brought 

 into the house and placed out of sight, 

 but at the open window, and only 

 about seven yards from where it had 

 been before. The bees, however, did 

 not lind the honey, though when it 

 was once shown them they came to it 

 readily enough. Other experiments 

 with a microphone were without re- 



sults. Every one. Sir John Lubbock 

 said, knew that bees when swarming 

 were popularly, and had been, ever 

 since the time of Aristotle, supposed 

 to be inlluenced by clanging kettles, 

 etc. 



Experienced apiarists were now dis- 

 posed to doubt whether the noise has 

 really any effect, but Sir John Lubbock 

 suggested that even if it had, with 

 reference to which he expressed no 

 opinion, it was possible that what the 

 bees heard were not the loud, low 

 sounds, but the higher overtones at 

 the verge of, or beyond, our range of 

 hearing. 



As regards the industry of wasps, 

 he timed a bee and a wasp, for each or 

 which he provided a store of honey, 

 and found that the wasp began earlier 

 in the morning (at 4 a. m.), worked on 

 later in the evening, and came oftener 

 during the day. He did not, however, 

 quote this as proving greater industry 

 on the wasp, as it might be that it was 

 less sensitive to cold. Moreover, 

 though the bee's proboscis was admir- 

 ably adapted to extract honey from 

 tubular flowers, when the honey was 

 exposed, as in this case, the wasp ap- 

 peared able to swallow it more rapidly. 

 This particular wasp began work at 4 

 in the morning, and went on without 

 any rest or intermission till a quarter 

 to 8 in the evening, during which time 

 she paid Sir John 116 visits. 



Honey Exhibits at Fairs.— The In- 

 diana Farmer remarks as follows : 



An examination of the various pre- 

 mium lists of the district and county 

 fairs of the State, shows there is not 

 the encouragement given to the bee- 

 keeping interest that it is justly en- 

 titled to. The production of hoiiey is 

 growing rapidly and is becoming of 

 equal interest to that of any of the 

 several agricultural industries of the 

 State and is fully entitled to equal 

 consideration at the hands of the 

 county and district boards, and we 

 have no doubt would receive just con- 

 sideration if properly presented. It is 

 the duty of each and all who are inter- 

 ested in this pursuit to see that the 

 matter is brought to the attention of 

 the gentlemen composing the boards. 

 The usual meetings for the revision of 

 the premium lists takes place during 

 the month of January. Let the many 

 bee-keeping societies see that the mat- 

 ter is attended to without delay, and 

 in counties where no societies exist 

 let several bee-keepers join together, 

 make up alist wliich they think would 

 be suitable for the premium list and 

 present it to their county fair officers. 



W The deacon's son was telling the 

 minister about the bees stinging his 

 pa. " Did they V Well, what did your 

 pa say i"' " Step this way a moment," 

 said the boy, " I'd rather whisper it to 

 you."— iir. 



Examine the Date following your 

 name on the wrapper label of this 

 paper; it indicates the end of the 

 month to which you have paid your 

 subscription on the Bee Journal. 



