578 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 



The following-, also, in itself a very striliing fact, 

 is easily explained If we accept the above supposi- 

 tion; namely, that bees from hives containing' im- 

 preg-nated queens unite neither among- themselves 

 nor with swarms having- unimpregnated queens; 

 whereas the latter kind of swarms unite with each 

 oth^r most readily, and their qurens quietly entriige 

 in the decisive struggle. It is probable that the un- 

 impregnated queen ejects none, or very liitle, of 

 the above-mentioned tluid, so that the odor of the 

 bees which are with her is less marked. 



Far from the hive, while gathering stores, bees 

 are outspoken cosmopolitans, neither troubling 

 themselves about their foraging neighbors, nor 

 knowing envy; but they are impelled solely by their 

 instinct to make the most of nature's t^easur^s. At 

 home they are jealous of every stranger: iuthe held, 

 they magnanimously give way to each other. 



A. H. Stiebeling, M. D. 



New York, N. Y., June 6, 1883. 



Many thanks to you, friend S., for your 

 translation. Altliough you bring: out several 

 new and wonderful facts in this strange mat- 

 ter, I hope you will excuse me for saying that 

 I can not as yet accept all the conclusions 

 arrived at, in all cases. One fact in particu- 

 lar struck me the moment you mentioned it, 

 as being true ; and that is, that the bees of a 

 hive can not possibly have a personal ac- 

 quaintance with all the rest of the bees of 

 tliat hive ; they do not know each other by 

 their countenances, if I may be allowed the 

 expression, as we do. Neither do they know 

 each other by the sound of their voices, be- 

 cause the bees of any one hive have voices 

 in common with the bees of any other hive. 

 They do not know each other by the hats 

 and coats they wear, as we do. Then how 

 do they know ench other V I have been 

 sorely puzzled on this same point, and I have 

 sometimes thought that they detected a rob- 

 ber simply because he acted like a robber, 

 and for no other reason, just as a sharp po- 

 liceman will detect a vagrant or a tramp by 

 the way the fellow acts. He may pretend he 

 has some sort of business on hand, but it is 

 a pretty hard matter to make believe you are 

 a business man when you are not. So I 

 have thought it might be with the bees. A 

 robber may try to pretend that he belongs 

 in a certain hive, and I thinii they do try to 

 do this very thing; but it is a preity hard 

 matter to "deceive the sharp sentinel. In 

 answer to the query, " What are you doing 

 around here V" the robber is never able tp 

 give any satisfactory reply. I think I have 

 seen them take hold of other robbers, and 

 make a pretense of acting as sentinels. But 

 even in this they had a cowardly and sheep- 

 ish way tiiat was i)retty sure, sooner or later, 

 to turn attention toward them. 



Now in legard to the matter of difference 

 in scent. It may be that each hive has a pe- 

 cular scent or odor of its own that enables 

 the inmates to detect any bee from any other 

 hive ; and it may be, also, that the queen 

 gives this characteristic odor in the way you 

 suggest; but it seems to me almost incredi- 

 ble, even though I can not give any other or 

 better explanation, perliaps. In proof of 

 your position, my good friend Schachinger, 

 this occurs to me : A sagacious dog will 

 scent his master's footsteps, even though a 

 thousand people have passed along the same 

 track — or, at least, 1 have been told so. 

 Can any one tell me if the same is true ? 

 Take it along the busy street, for instance, 

 and over a stone pavement, a thousand peo- 



ple may be passing, and the dog's master is 

 only a certain one among this thousand, yet 

 he follows him unerringly. It just now oc- 

 curs to me, that if eacli individual of the 

 said thousand were in the habit of washing 

 his feet every day, it might be a little more 

 difficult. 



Now, then, to go back to the bee question: 

 Do bees detect robbers by the sense of smell, 

 and no other way, or is it by behavior? One 

 more point in the article above, I think, 

 needs attention, and it is this; That whatev- 

 er wonderful power or skill the bees possess, 

 they do not learn it as we learii handwriting 

 and language, for they live only fonr or five 

 weeks ; and yet, wonderful as it is, every 

 bee in just these few short days is a perfect 

 graduate in all the arts and sciences known 

 to bee lore. 



)adi^^' §^]^arln(^nh 



BEES AKD BEE CULTCKE IN MISSISSIPPI. 



liLOW me to give you my experience in legard 

 jrf\ to beekeeping. So much talk is going on 



' about all the different kinds of Viees, that it 



i.s difficult to say which are the best. For my part, 

 experience has tauaht me that the native bee Is 

 always the best. My bees are neither blacks, hy- 

 brids, nor Italians; they are of an ordinary brown 

 color, and are exceedingly large, and the queens are 

 the most fertile layers I have ever seen. 



Last fall I had l,'2coliiiiies,and they passed through 

 the chills of winter, without ray making any prep- 

 arations whatever for them. But this I need not tell 

 you, as you are perhHps aware of the kind of 

 climate we have here. Orange-trees began to bloc.m 

 about the 10th o;f February, and bees set to work in 

 such a manner that 1 thought they were going wild. 

 In they rushed, laden with honey taken from these 

 blossoms, and bringing lumps of pollen on theirtiny 

 legs. I opened several hives, and, to my astonish- 

 ment, there were hardly any bees in, excepting 

 those that were discharging their loads of nectar. 

 The queen would seem to be entirely deserted. 

 Again, at night I would look, and (they being all at 

 home) 1 founi that there were bees enoukh to 

 make ordinary colonies. Brroi-rearing was com- 

 menced in earnest, and my first swarm issued on 

 the first day of April. My yard being full of young 

 orange-trees, I merely beat a tin can, and they 

 alighted on a tiny branch. I would then got my 

 hive, put It in the place where 1 i.itended for it 

 to stiiy, and go and clip otT the branch and carry the 

 bees to their destined home, having before placed 

 one frame of unsealed brood in the center of the 

 hive, no more than .5 minutes' time bt ing occupied 

 in the whole operation. Sometimes they would 

 alight on the trunk of some trees, and, if too high, 

 I would stand on something, and with the smoker 

 keep them off nr make them march to some small 

 branch where they could be more easily managed. 



There were only eight uf my colonies that swarm- 

 ed, and from them I got twenty natural swarms. 

 But by uniting and adding, I increased from 12 to 

 26 only. Not having hives enough, I p'aced them in 

 the common box hives that are used around here. 

 These four of my colonies gave me 3 swarms each, 

 and the other four 3 each. 



