814 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



true to habit, not broken by the swarm 

 impulse, these individual bees leave the 

 cluster to pursue their daily work, some 

 to the watering places, and others to the 

 fields. 



It is this class of bees, and others that 

 get lost from the swarm, that visit the 

 place where the swarm settled. Such 

 bees always return to the hive where the 

 swarm came from. These observations, 

 with the fact that not one swarm out of 

 a half dozen goes straight to their future 

 home, settles the "scout" romance. 



I have seen a great many swarms find 

 their way into hollow trees and empty 

 hives, but have never seen a single case 

 where they entered the place deliber- 

 ately. On one occasion I had been 

 watching a large colony that looked like 

 swarming for several days, and was near 

 the hive when they came out. They 

 raised high in the air, and I was sure of 

 losing them, but as the swarm passed 

 over a large apple tree that had a dead 

 hollow limb near its top, the lower part 

 of the swarm paused, as though some- 

 thing attracted their attention, and 

 speedily began to enter the hole in the 

 dead limb. The main part of the swarm, 

 higher up in the air, seemed to hear the 

 "call," and, swung around in a circle, 

 and joined the general rush for the 

 "new home." 



It was as clear a case of finding a 

 "home "by the echo responsive to the 

 multitude of vibrating wings, as the 

 most incredulous would demand. When 

 I drove these bees out of their "new 

 home," I found the cavity in the limb 

 too small by half to accommodate a col- 

 ony of bees. 



On another occasion I was doing some 

 work in the woods, and a swarm of bees 

 passed over the tops of the trees, and I 

 followed them, and as they passed near 

 the top of a tall poplar the very maneu- 

 vering I have described above occurred, 

 and the swarm entered a hole high up 

 in a limb of the tree. I told the owner 

 of the land on which the tree stood, of 

 the find, and he cut the tree sometime 

 afterwards, but got no honey of conse- 

 quence. The hollow in the limb was 

 entirely too small to accommadate the 

 swarm. 



I can only speak of two more cases 

 now, and they occurred at my apiary. A 

 swarm issued on a windy day, and was 

 struggling against a strong wind in their 

 effort to cluster on a small hackberry 

 tree that stands about two rods from the 

 southwest corner of my apiary. They 

 nearly reached it several times, but were 

 as often driven back by strong gusts of 



wind. I was standing by, deeply inter- 

 ested in the struggle. 



There was an empty hive in the 

 corner of the apiary, and as the swarm 

 was driven back by the wind, they 

 swung down in front of the empty hive, 

 when some of the bees made a change in 

 their course and entered the hive, while 

 the greater part of the swarm took the 

 advantage of a lull in the wind storm, 

 and reached the tree. The " call " rang 

 out from the hive, and from the tree, 

 and the result seemed doubtful. But the 

 hive furnished the best "sounding 

 board," and the bees gradually left the 

 tree and joined their comrades in the 

 hive. 



I can give but one more case among 

 many. Last Summer, in swarming 

 time, a swarm of bees passing over my 

 apiary on a bee-line, apparantly making 

 their way toward a woodland pasture a 

 mile ahead, paused over the apiary as 

 they caught the sound from below, and 

 swung down and clustered on a hive- 

 cover, and finally entered the hive. In 

 my rather long experience as a bee- 

 keeper, I have never known a swarm to 

 pass near my apiary that was not at- 

 tracted by the sound from it. I capture 

 from one to three swarms every season 

 in this way. 



That other story about bees selecting 

 and "cleaning out" a "home" in advance 

 of "moving to it," has not been as popu- 

 lar as the "scout" story, because the 

 one contradicts the other. 



If bees select a home, and "clean it 

 out," and "glue it up," preparatory to 

 taking possession of it, there is no use of 

 sending out " scouts " from the clustered 

 swarm to hunt a home that has already 

 been discovered, and made ready for 

 occupancy. 



The fact is, a little knowledge of the 

 habits of bees ought to teach any observ- 

 ing person that bees visit "decoy hives," 

 and other hives that have been occupied 

 by bees, to carry away the bits of wax 

 and propolis they contain, and that they 

 are often seen gathering the liberated 

 albumen and glucose substance produced 

 by chemical changes in the decay of 

 wood in and out of hollow trees. 



Let this suffice. Concluding this arti- 

 cle, as I do not care to discuss the sub- 

 ject further hereafter, I wish to lay 

 down these propositions : 



It is utterly impossible to prove or dis- 

 prove that bees send out scouts. No 

 man has ever " shadowed " a bee scout 

 with a full knowledge of her identity, 

 from the time she leaves the hive or 

 swarm-cluster, in all her meanders, until 

 she returns to the hive or swarm from 



