82 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



March 



PUBLISHED MONTHLY AT 



First Nat'I Bank Bldg., Hamilton, II!. 



Entered as second-class matter at the 

 Hamilton, Illinois, Postoffice. 



C. P. Dadant, Editor. 



Dr. C. C. Miller, Associate Editor. 



Frank C. Pellett, Staff Correspondent. 



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THE EDITOR'S VIEWPOINT 



How Old is the Smoke Method? 



There is an old saying that there is 

 nothing new under the sun, and this 

 seems to apply particularly to bee 

 culture. Most of us have had the ex- 

 perience of making some (to us) new 

 discovery, only to learn later that 

 somebody else had given it to the 

 world, in some form, before we were 

 born. 



A few months ago there was much 

 discussion of the smoke method of 

 introducing queens and some seemed 

 to think that it was entirely new. 

 Henry Alley wrote in his book, "Bee- 

 keeper's Handy Book," more than 

 thirty years ago, as follows: 



"When tobacco smoke is used to in- 

 troduce queens, throw some grass 

 against the entrance to keep the 

 smoke in and the bees from coming 

 out. Blow in a liberal amount of 

 smoke and then let the queen run in 

 at the top through the hole used for 

 the cone-feeder." 



There is nothing to indicate that 

 the plan originated with Alley. In 

 fact, from reading the above extract 



Oi uld gel the idea that it was a 



common method of introduction at 

 that time." 



The Mason Bees 



To tin' nature lover, no more fas- 

 cinating stories have ever been writ- 

 ten than the books by Henry Fabre, 

 the French Naturalist. These are now 

 being translated into English and 

 published by Dodd Mead & Co., of 

 New York. In the "Mason Bees" we 

 find sorhe very interesting accounts of 

 nents that throw some light on 

 insect intelligence. All beekeepers 

 have noted the care with which the 



hive-bee marks the location of her 

 hive and the precision with which she 

 returns to the exact spot of its loca- 

 tion. If moved even a few feet she 

 finds much difficulty in locating it 

 again. The Mason bee was unable to 

 find her nest when moved but two 

 or three feet distant. Even if she 

 found it she was unable to recognize 

 it as her own in its new position and 

 started a new nest rather than ac- 

 cept the old one in a new place. On 

 the other hand, when the nest of an- 

 other bee was placed in the exact 

 place where her own had been it was 

 accepted without question, even 

 though it did not resemble her own. 



Mature bees carried to a distance 

 of two miles from their nests re- 

 turned directly, usually stopping to 

 gather a load of honey or pollen on 

 the way. Experiments indicated a 

 strong homing instinct in these wild 

 bees. This is the same instinct 

 that guides the carrier pigeon to its 

 home, even though it is carried in a 

 dark basket many miles from any 

 place it ever knew. 



In marked contrast, he found the 

 Amazon ant unable to find its way 

 home from any distance except by the 

 exact route it had followed on the 

 going trip. If placed even two or 

 three feet aside from its path it was 

 unable to find its way back again, 

 ami wandered around in hopeless con- 

 Eusion. The book is well worthy of 

 a place in every nature lover's li- 

 brary. 



into a Co-operative Association and 

 the Western Honey Bee is doing all 

 it can to promote this. It would be a 

 step in the right direction. The time 

 is coming when such organizations 

 will be found everywhere, we believe. 



Are the Cells of the Bees 

 Hexagons ? 



Mr. E. F. Bigelow, editor of the 

 "Guide to Nature," in an article pub- 

 lished in his February number and 

 illustrated with numerous beautiful 

 studies, criticises the making of 

 comb foundation in hexagon cells, 

 because he holds that the bee does 

 not build hexagons He brings, in 

 proof of this, cuts of foundation 

 partly finished by the bees in which 

 the tops of the cells are round. He 

 also mentions the fact that queen- 

 cells are always round. 



The bees build their cells with the 

 least expenditure of costly material, 

 beeswax. Economy requires that the 

 cells be built so as to fit closely to 

 each other and the six-sided shape is 

 the most economical. On the other 

 hand, the surface of the cells must be 

 strong enough to carry the bees in 

 their travels, so the bees make a 

 heavier rim at the surface. When 

 we uncap the sealed honeycombs we 

 destroy the strength of the upper 

 edge and uncover the hexagonal 

 shape. But the bees, as soon as the 

 comb is returned to them, hasten to 

 give it the stronger surface, by 

 rounding the tops of the cells. 



Foundation mills used to be manu- 

 factured with a rounded cell. The 

 Dunham mill, which was so popular 

 35 years ago, made foundation with 

 round cells. But the bees always ex- 

 cavated the surplus wax from the 

 three-corned angles and used it in 

 other parts of the comb. So. after 

 all, comb foundation with hexagonal 

 cell walls is not an error. 



But that the hexagons of the cells 

 are not always perfect does not ad- 

 mit of a doubt. Neither need we 

 doubt that, if the bees had plenty of 

 material, they would probably build 

 all their cells round, for their bodies 

 are round. 



California Beekeepers 



The California Beekeepers Asso- 

 ciation seems likely to organize itself 



The Mating of Queens 



"A study of tin' factors which gov- 

 ern mating in the honeybee," Bulle 

 tin No. 34, of the Michigan Agricul- 

 tural College Experiment Station, by 

 I 'i I .i orge D. Shafer, is before us. 



This is a scientific description of 



