22 MONTANA EXPERIMENT STATION 



these laying workers is the royal jelly, believed to be fed queens 

 not only during development but also during the egg laying sea- 

 son. Quite commonly queens will be seen to pass about the comb 

 and be thus fed by workers. Workers themselves also, when filled 

 with honey, will divide their stores with other bees, showing an 

 interesting trait of extreme socialism. 



For the winter the bees cluster compactly and quietly, thus 

 retaining the heat generated by feeding upon honey. The queen 

 ceases to lay, beginning again about February or March in this 

 climate. Should any immovable object, like a snail or mouse, get 

 into the hive and die, the bees, realizing their inability to move the 

 burden will coat it over with propolis, a sticky substance gathered 

 from bursting buds in the spring and summer and carried in the 

 same manner as pollen on the legs. This substance is used to fill 

 up all crevices and to close all openings against cold weather, as 

 well as to serve the immediate function of securing all movable ob- 

 jects in the hive. 



If the bees are angered they emit a sharp shrill note and fly 

 excitedly in jerks. The experienced bee keeper learns to recognize 

 all the various notes of his bees. Even when somewhat enraged 

 the average bee hesitates to use her sting and will often crawl about 

 after lighting, her courage seeming to fail her at the last moment. 

 The bee also has a characteristic note of joy, which can be noticed 

 when a cluster of tired bees are permitted to crawl into a colony. 

 It is a resonant steady buzz, of medium pitch, not unlike the note 

 emitted when ripening honey yet of a higher pitch. 



VARIETIES OF BEES AND THEIR GEOGRAPHICAL DIVISION 



Having become somewhat familiar with the structure and 

 some of the habits of bees, we will now consider some of the special 

 characteristics of the various races of bees and the geographical dis- 

 tribution of the several races. There are no native honey bees of 

 America, the first colony having been brought, it is believed, to 

 Georgia in the seventeenth century. Bees have steadily moved 

 westward and were considered by the Indians as the fore-runners 

 cf the white man. The most common bees now are those commonly 

 spoken of as hybrids. These are German or Black bees mixed \\ith 

 Italians. 



The German or black or brown bees, as they are sometimes 



