1883 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



577 



ed. This makes the honey look fine. I then take 

 this in my hand, and go to the largest town, and 

 small too, as well, or in the country. I g-o to private 

 families, into places of busines?, and talk honey.to 

 everybody I meet. I take in all kinds of business 

 places, except saloons. I went into a few of them, 

 but did not have any success. I go right into the 

 court-house to the lawyers, to the cliurches, etc. 

 When 1 meet with men and ladies on the streets, 

 "See that honey!" ''Oh! isn't that nice?" etc., is 

 about the way they talk. 



Being out in the sun does not hurt it a bit, you 

 know; but does it not look a little bit forward, to go 

 right into a business place to sell a little honey? I 

 think it is the best to take orders first, then deliver 

 in a few days. I sell my customers just what they 

 want, and deliver in two or three days. I am get- 

 ting 60 cts. each for the 3-lb. jars; '20 cts per lb. for 

 comb honey, and 15 cts. for 20-lb. stone jars, put up 

 in the same way the quarts are. 



This is the point: Put up your honey in nice 

 shape, and take it right to your customers. I sold 

 18 lbs. the other day to a man in the city, who did not 

 look at it — he bought of me last year. I am gaining 

 customers all the time. They are coming from the 

 east and coming from the west, and they all join 

 together in speaking with praise. But 1 don't lay 

 my armor down, nor think the victory won yet; I 

 expect to go forward with a steady step. 



Later.— My honey is all sold — 2000 lbs., and am 

 buying more. lam going to spend the winter sell- 

 ing ho -ey. and no one can tell how much I shall sell. 

 For the last two winters I sold fancy goods to the 

 ladies; but I think I can make more selling good 

 honey. 



want to thank you for the prompt way you have 

 filled my orders this summer. J. R. Lindley. 



Georgetown, 111., Sept. 30, 1883. 



Friend L., I am much obliged to you for 

 your extremely vivid ;ind plain way of tell- 

 ing people how to sell their honey. Your 

 article contains the real essence of success 

 in any pursuit. It is to put your whole soul 

 into it. You want nice honey in nice pack- 

 ages, so that you won't be ashamed to show 

 it to anybody, even ladies you meet in the 

 street, as you say, and then have every pound 

 you sell just like it, and it would be nothing 

 strange at all if folks gave you orders with- 

 out even looking at it. Yes, tliat is exactly 

 what a good reputation does for any one, in 

 any kind of business. 



HOW DO BEES RECOGMZE C^CH 

 OTHER' 



HEREWITH send you a translation from the 

 German of M. Schachinger; and if you think it 

 would interest the readers of. Gleanings, you 

 can make such use of it ai you think tit. 



It is surely a striking phenomenon, that so many 

 thousands of bees that live in the same hive, and 

 under one queen, and whose period of life in sum- 

 mer time does not exceed six weeks on the average, 

 can recognize each other s o quickly and surely as to 

 be able to detect a strange bee, scarcely ditfering 

 from themselves in shape, size, and color, that is 

 unhesitatingly attacked by a sentinel and forced 

 out of the entrance in a tierce encounter. The b' es 

 seem to make an exception to this rule (of making 

 strange bees keep their distance), only in the case of 

 very young bees; that is, those taking their initial 

 tiight, and happening to alight at the wrong en- 



trance, and of those which, coming to the hive laden 

 with honcj^ or pollen, miss their own home because 

 of exhaustion, inclement weather, etc., and are 

 compelled to seek one elspwhere. This is readily 

 granted them, and henceforth they become true 

 members of the familv which has adopted them; 

 and should they, in their turn, bf^come sentinels, 

 they would undoubteily attack their own sisters, in 

 case the latter tried to force an entrance into the 

 hive. 



A peivonal acquaintance of the bees with each 

 other we must deny absolutely, because of the 

 enormous number Itelona-ing to a single stock, their 

 short life in summer, and beciuse all are rarely in 

 the hive at the same time. Neither can color be a 

 sign of mutual recognition: for bees to whom a 

 queen of a differently colored race has been intro- 

 duced do not molest the progpnv of this new queen, 

 this progenv having a color differing greatly from 

 that of the first queen. We therefore have remain- 

 ing, speech, and the sense of touch and smell, which 

 may serve them as a means of recognition. 



For a long time bee-keepers were of the opinion, 

 that a kind of speech existed among the bees, and 

 that, accordingly, a certain watchword (=o to speak) 

 ennblcdthem to distinguish strangers from rh^se 

 belnna-ing to their own hive. Of course, bees have 

 certain sounds by which they express emotions, and 

 cause themselves to be understood outside the hive; 

 for instance, the vehement shrill cry produced i>y 

 an angry bee that wishes to drive us from the 

 vicinity of the hive soon attracts a number of sister- 

 bees from neighboring hives, whose combined at- 

 tack finally compels us 1o beat a hasty retreat. 

 Similarly does the swarm know how to call its 

 thousands of members together in a few minutes, 

 by the well-knnwn joyous cRll-note. But all these 

 sounds, of which the human ear has been able to 

 detect nearly thirty, and judge of the meaning, are 

 such as are common to nil the bees, and b.v which, 

 it is true, thev can express the most diverse emo- 

 tions, but which can never serve as the watchword 

 of a stock. 



Others thought that bees recognize each other 

 by the sense of touch, for they have often been 

 observed to cross their antennas in the hive, as if in 

 the act of communicating something to each other. 

 This view has a strong claim to proliability, with 

 this modification, that the sense of smell also has its 

 seat in the antennre, sn that not the sense of touch, 

 but that of smell, forms the means of mutual rec- 

 ognition. Now, if this same sense serves such a 

 purpose, there must be in every hive a being that is 

 capable of givina- to all its inmates a peculiar and 

 distinct odor. Without doubt we can consider the 

 otieen to possess this function, which, in passing 

 hither and thither throue-h the hive, gives to each 

 and every bee the same odor, which act. as has been 

 observed, takes place by the queen ejecting a fine 

 fluid. This explains the fact that those bees, com- 

 ing home honey laden, and whose odor is rendered 

 less intense by fifing through the air, and by com- 

 ing in contact with so many flowers, can gain ad- 

 mittance even info strange hivps. without beinff 

 hindered thereat. The fact of their being loaded 

 with honey is rot the reason whv the sentinel bees 

 allow them to pass, but it is the netitralizpd orinr, 

 which prevents the sentinels from distinguishing 

 them from the bees of their own hive. 



If we take bees that have, in rionsequence of fear, 

 annoyancp. or similar causes, filled themselves with 

 honey in the hive, and nut them in the entrance of 

 another hive, they will, in spite of their being load- 

 ed with honey, be attacked and pulled out without 

 much ado; a proof that it is not the honey carried 

 bv the bees, but some ot her factor which determines 

 the acceptance or repulsion of a bee. The young 

 bees which are generally readilv accepted by neigh- 

 boring stocks seem not to be infected by the odor of 

 the queen as much as the older ones, which accounts 

 for their immunity fr.im attack. In the case of 

 other beings, also, youth enjoys a certain induUjence. 

 Why, then, should bees be so cruel to their young? 

 Robber bees that enter a stranare hive to carry its 

 stores to their own are at first violently attacked 

 and energetically repelled: but if thev are success- 

 ful several times, thev can thereafter enter and 

 leave the hive untouched. They have, in all likeli- 

 hood, been infected by the odor of the queen dur- 

 ing their stay in the hive, and therefoi-e can not be 

 distinffuished b.v the sentinel bees, which have 

 probably soon accustomed themselves to the smell 

 of the robber bees, because the latter generally 

 enter a hive in large numbers, 



