278 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



up for the old colony ; and last, but 

 not least, they have no brood that is 

 of any value to them ; that is, their 

 brood is all sealed up, and who has 

 not noticed what a colony of nearly 

 all old bees, with no brood, plenty of 

 empty combs, and a large entrance, 

 can do in the way of storing honey ? 



To return to the matter of extract- 

 ing : Where hives are 3 stories high, 

 there will be two sets of combs to 

 take off. By having a box with a 

 cover, handles and legs, two men will 

 take them to the honey-house and 

 extract them with as little stooping 

 as if the hive was taken. I imagine 

 that what would do in my location 

 would not be advisable in Mr. Wal- 

 ler's. 1 suppose his yield is slow, and 

 lasts for months, while ours comes in 

 floods, usually about 10 days of white 

 clover, and about the same of bass- 

 wood, with less honey but a longer 

 flow from buckwheat and goldenrod. 



Where bees have been in 3 and 4 

 stories through the basswood flow, 

 they should all be removed but one 

 super, as soon as the yield is over, 

 and, in fact, worked into the brood- 

 chamber as early in the fall as possi- 

 ble. The big colony is gone ; the three 

 weeks used in rearing a queen, and 

 the three weeks before her brood 

 hatches, together with the fearful 

 mortality incident upon a large 

 honey-flow, makes the difference. 



Star,*o Wis. 



Fop ftxe American Bee JoumaL. 



Do Bees Really Hear? 



ELIAS FOX. 



In regard to Mr. Brimmer's article 

 on page 240, 1 would say that I am as 

 much of a lover of the truth as any 

 one. I do not wish to be understood 

 as saying that bees cannoihear, but I 

 do not think they can ; and so far I do 

 not think that Mr. B. has furnished 

 any proof to the aflirmative. I did 

 not say that bees are wholly guided 

 by the sense of sight, but by sight and 

 scent both. Now I do claim that the 

 sound is produced wholly by the wings, 

 whether they are in a person's hair 

 or under his coat collar. A bee in the 

 act of stinging moves its wings with 

 lightning rapidity, which we all know 

 they cannot do without emitting a 

 buzzing sound, and at the same time 

 we can smell the formic acid which 

 attracts other bees. We cannot hold 

 a bee in our fingers tight' enough to 

 prevent its wings from moving, un- 

 less the bee is crushed. 



I do not claim that a colony going 

 to the woods can see the tree from 

 the time they leave the hive, but I 

 think they start out and go into the 

 first suitable tree they find. If they 

 do not, why is it that they are fre- 

 quently found clustered on trees and 

 bushes, after going miles in searcli of 

 a suitable tree, some even traveling 

 until with dwindling and storms they 

 are worn out and never find a place to 

 get into ? Several years ago I found 

 a colony clustered in the top of a tree 

 at 7 o'clock in the morning, and they 

 remained there until 3 p.m., when I 



cut the tree down, hived them, and 

 took them home. I know a man who, 

 two years ago, found a colony clus- 

 tered on the underside of a limb of a 

 small basswood tree, and had comb 

 enough to fill an American hive. So 

 it looks plain enough to me that they 

 do not know where they are going to 

 locate ; and I do not think they carry 

 flags of truce either. I do not believe 

 that Mr. B. has reared a sheep, or he 

 would not say that a flock is at- 

 tracted by the bleating of the leader. 



I would advise Mr. B. to try running 

 ahead of an absconding colony with- 

 out his milk-bell, and see if he does 

 not succeed just as well. I have no- 

 ticed youns and old queens piping on 

 the comb, and I am just as positive 

 that it is their wings which causes 

 the sound : for if you are a close ob- 

 server, you can see their wings move 

 in accordance with the sound. Let a 

 bee alight on the hand, and set up a 

 buzzing, such as they do at the en- 

 trance of the hive, and if you cannot 

 feel the vibration I will admit out- 

 right that bees can hear. They scent 

 a virgin queen as readily as a fertile 

 one. Now let us not have so much 

 guesswork, but if bees can hear, let 

 us have some good, solid proof, as I 

 am open to conversion. 



Hillsborough,+o Wis. 



For tbe American Bee JoumaL 



I 



StoriiiE Sumlns Honey, etc. 



G. W. DEMAKEE. 



The enthusiasm of the old class of 

 bee-keepers found vent In swarms ; 

 but since we have learned how to 

 breed and multiply our "livestock" 

 at will, the direction of the outlet has 

 turned in the opposite direction. We 

 now want to know how to keep in- 

 crease in proper bounds. A few years 

 ago we were advised to work our api- 

 aries on the " prime swarm " plan, 

 ». e., just take one good (first) swarm 

 from each colony ; but we asked, 

 "where is this thing to end?" We 

 were told to sell our surplus bees, and 

 we asked, " where or to whom, if 

 every bee-keeper must double his 

 stock every year ?" I could find no 

 solution to this problem except to let 

 the overplus of colonies consume two 

 or three dollars worth of honey, and 

 starve at last, or be over-run with 

 more " live stock " than was profitable 

 to keep. 



This perplexing quandary set me to 

 experimenting to find a plan that 

 would turn the energy of the '• prime 

 swarms " into surplus honey, and 

 turn the swarms into mere nuclei 

 and into non-existence, if desirable, 

 at the close of the season. To accom- 

 plish this the necessary manipulations 

 may be varied considerably. The gist 

 of the plan is to draw from the parent 

 colony after casting the first swarm so 

 many of their mature workers as will 

 prevent after-swarms, and throw 

 these into the hive containing the 

 swarm ; an essential feature of which 

 is to have the swarm on the old 

 stand, so that there will be no return- 

 ing to the old or parent hive to keep 



up the swarming impulse. Another 

 essential feature is, the queen's apart- 

 ment in the new hive containing the 

 swarm must be so contracted as to be 

 in the condition of a mere nucleus 

 brood-chamber— thus throwing nearly 

 the whole force of workers into the 

 surplus department. In my locality 

 two or three weeks of time imme- 

 diately after the swarm issues, must 

 give all the results that can be ex- 

 pected from a swarm, and if I can get 

 100 pounds from a good swarm, I con- 

 sider that the swarm was turned to a 

 good account. 



My plan is to so manage my bees 

 under the swarming energy that their 

 entire force will be spent in storing 

 surplus honey, instead of being per- 

 mitted to turn their force into in- 

 crease of bees. I cannot prevent my 

 bees from swarming, and keep the 

 colonies in a normal condition, but I 

 can convert the strength of the 

 swarms into surplus honey, and the 

 swarms themselves into non-existence 

 by " contracting " all the honey into 

 the surplus departments, and remov- 

 ing it to the honey store-room. 



While practicing my system of pre- 

 venting increase, I have had ample 

 opportunity to observe how the " con- 

 tracting system," first brought to light 

 by Mr. Doolittle, and later systemized 

 by Mr, Hutchinson, will work in my 

 locality. Such treatment would bring 

 my apiary to ruin in an average sea- 

 son, unless I should feed the colonies 

 through the heated months of sum- 

 mer, and supply them with winter 

 stores in the fall, in which case I 

 would lose rather than gain in the 

 operation. Some seasons the bees 

 would survive such management be- 

 cause of favorable conditions, but 

 favorable conditions are not certain 

 here, and therefore the contracting 

 system is unsafe, if our bees are to 

 be kept in good condition without 

 feeding the profits of the apiary back 

 to the bees. Nature seems to have 

 laid tribute on all things. Every 

 pound of honey costs the life, energy 

 and death of a great number of bees. 

 Brood represents honey, and honey 

 represents brood. 



My experiments, and my practice 

 to keep down increase, shows that to 

 so manipulate the hive arrangements 

 as to throw all the honey into " sur- 

 plus," costs the life of the colony. 

 Now if we feed back to counteract the 

 loss on the side of the bees, we have 

 gained nothing— nay, lost in the op- 

 eration. Ten pounds of sealed honey 

 in the brood department is worth 

 more to the bees than 15 pounds of 

 liquid honey or syrup, unless the ex- 

 periment is made for stimulative pur- 

 poses, and then you must account for 

 the loss of life and vitality of the bees 

 caused by the labor and excitement 

 while re-storing it. 



How easy it is for a man to work 

 himself up into the conceit that he 

 has discovered " something new un- 

 der the sun," when his peculiar en- 

 vironment, or perhaps his ignorance 

 of past history, or of the laws of na- 

 ture, is all that is in it. This is a 

 great country of ours, and there are 

 many places where bees will do as 

 well and apparently better, with mere 



