20 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



January 



this second division was rim for ex- 

 tracted, while the first was used for 

 comb honey. 



On July 12 something unexpected 

 and unusual happened. The first di- 

 vision, after they had finished two 

 supers of twenty-four 1-pound sec- 

 tions each and were nicely at work 

 in their third, cast a medium-sized 

 normal swarin. I generally return 

 such to their old home or hive them 

 on the old stand, but being still anx- 

 ious for increase, 1 hived them sep- 

 arately on six empty combs, and a few 

 days later gave them an extracting 

 super reduced like the hive by chaff 

 division-boards to five combs. 



Now for the result. I did not act- 

 ually weigh the honey from any of 

 these swarms separately, but I have 

 time and again weighed supers be- 

 fore and after extracting. I can, 

 therefore, vouch for the approximate 

 corectness of my estimates. From 

 the original queen, hybrid as she was, 

 I have extracted approximately 225 

 pounds; the first division has given 

 me 120 sections, the second division 

 210 pounds, and the young swarm 55 

 pounds, making a total of 610 pounds 

 from one colony, spring count. This 

 breaks all records of my beekeeping 

 life. 



The secret of my heavy yields, ex- 

 pressed in a nutshell, is simply this: 

 Brood-chambers should never be dis- 

 turbed during a honey flow. I never 

 open a hive from the time spring 

 management is completed until the 

 following spring unless it is strictly 

 necessary. 



La Salle, N. Y. 



The Tools of a Worker Bee 



By D. M. Macdonald 



IT was my pleasure and privilege 

 lately to visit a pneumatic tool 

 factory, large engineering works, 

 and also a part of a ship-building 

 yard. The tools being manufactured 

 and the tools being used were mar- 

 vels of perfection and admirably 

 fitted as means to an end. Yet both 

 in finish and application they were 

 left far behind by the exquisite tools 

 possessed by the worker bee, as seen 

 with the aid of the microscope; and 

 I should like, if I could induce our 

 budding beekeepers to give of their 

 spare time to study the marvelous 

 pieces of perfection included in a 

 bee's outfit. 



Pollen Baskets. These arc models, 

 and every part is exactly suited for 

 the purpose for which it was created. 

 First, we have a hollow space near 

 the joint of the posterior leg, and 

 facing this are a great number of 

 bristly hairs to save the cargo from 

 falling out of the baskets. On her 

 fore legs are brushes with which she 

 dusts the feathery hairs on her ab- 

 domen, pressing the pollen grains 

 with which they are coaled, back- 

 wards into the baskets, where the 

 mass is pressed down in a solid load. 

 The in-curved hairs keep this in po- 

 vhile she is winging her way 

 to the hive. Her burden is unloaded 

 with the assistance of her other legs 

 and the pollen deposited in the cells 

 ready to supply beebrcad for the 



nurse bees to feed the larvae. Every 

 tool aids the good work, for it takes 

 several to load up and several to un- 

 load the comparatively huge burden 



Antennae. These feelers are or- 

 gans of touch and bear 12,000 tac- 

 tile hairs. They are also supposed to 

 be organs of smell, and in the case of 

 tlie drone, contains 37,800 smell hol- 

 lows. (This has recently been dis- 

 puted.) Besides, many claim that 

 they are the seat of some unknown 

 sense or senses, whereby tin work- 

 er bees fathom and measure the 

 darkness of the hive interior. As or- 

 gans of touch note how the guards 

 employ them to spy strangers. With 

 bees of the same hive they are used 

 to caress and fondle. Touching the 

 queen they display affection and 

 adoration. In her absence they em- 

 ploy them to discover what is wrong, 

 and by a mutual contact of the an- 

 tennae they discuss how to right the 

 wrong by providing a new mother. 



In the process of comb building 

 what an infinity of shapes the an- 

 tennae assume, and to what a multi- 

 tude of uses they are put. They are 

 the true architect's and builder's 

 main stay. They are the tape, ruler, 

 plumb-line, compass, square and 

 cube, all rolled into one, which joint- 

 ly and severally enable the workers 

 to construct that wonder of perfec- 

 tion, the hexagonal cell. Here is a 

 marvel: deprived of the antennae 

 the worker ceases to take any delight 

 in labor of any kind. 



Such a delicate and important tool 

 requires to be kept clean and fresh, 

 and here, fitted for the occasion, we 

 find a specially provided appliance 

 suited for the purpose: 



The Curry-comb. The bees' an- 

 terior lower legs are found to per- 

 form duties so analogous to what are 

 carried out by our hands that they 

 are called palmae. They "wash" the 

 bee's face, but their chief use is to 

 clean up the antennae. An open 

 space between two joints of this leg 

 just permits these being drawn 

 through, with a slight pressure ap- 

 plied by the sinews, and the curry- 

 comb, consisting of a number of 

 hairs, cleans and polishes this im- 

 portant organ. The process can be 

 often observed and the action of the 

 pecten is very interesting. 



The Feet of the bee are fitted with 

 two tools well worthy of study; the 

 claws and the pulvillus, pad or cush- 

 ion. The claws aid the bees in walk- 

 ing over a rough and uneven surface. 

 By digging these into the hollows of 

 depressions, they are enabled to 

 make progress with comfort and 

 in. When, however, the sur- 

 smooth as glass the pad 

 comes into play, the claws are pushed 

 back and the cushion exposed, thus 

 i-i i 1 1 nting tin- insei i ii ova ■.lipping, 

 as one would do on smooth ice, be- 

 cause the pulvillus is provided with a 

 kind of gum which this apparatus 

 can exude at the will of the insect. 

 When walking on the inner ceiling 

 or similar parts of (lie hive this ap- 

 pliance enables the bee to walk up- 

 side down with equal facility as she 

 walks or runs in her ordinary posi- 

 tion. The claws act as a set of 

 hooks when bees are clustering, 



while out as a swarin. Those below 

 hook onto those above. The same in- 

 genious contrivance permits the bees 

 to hang in festoons when comb 

 building, and thereby provide the 

 workers with a set of ladders, 

 bridges and roadways along which 

 they move with dexterity and fa- 

 cility. 



The Tongue. The honeybee is pro- 

 vided with a wonderfully complete 

 tongue, made up of many parts, but 

 it is difficult to explain briefly ho.v 

 all the tools are made to work tj- 

 gether at the will of the woiker bee 

 when collecting neciar. Let it suf- 

 fice at present that she can, by ma- 

 nipulating these parts, gather either 

 the tiniest sip or a copious flow at 

 will. The muscles force this liquid 

 into the honey sac, where it under- 

 goes a purifying process before being 

 regurgitated into the cells. By a pow- 

 erful set of muscles il is forced out 

 of the sac, but in the act it is 

 strained. The strainer consists of a 

 set of hairs pointing backward and 

 inter-crossing, which hinder the pol- 

 len grains from finding their way 

 out into the honey-cells. There are 

 quite a number of tools employed in 

 providing us with pure honey. 

 Amongst others not yet named is a 

 gland in the mouth which aids in 

 making nursing food for the young 

 bees, and royal jelly for the young 

 queens. 



Bees are provided with a species of 

 laboratory wherein they convert the 

 liquid honey, which they pass into a 

 "tank," and out of this they manu- 

 facture those sheets of wax which we 

 find at times in the wax pockets. 

 Parts of their feet, their claws, as 

 well as their mandibles, are used as 

 tools for passing on these sheets to 

 the mouth, for masticating and mak- 

 ing them pliable and malleable for 

 biting them into shape, and for 

 building them into the waxen cells. 

 They are also used for capping brood 

 and honey-cells, and the mandibles 

 are used by workers, drones and 

 queens in biting their way out of 

 their natal cradles. 



The Sting of the bee is a tool fre- 

 quently felt as well as seen. It is her 

 sword or bayonet, her scimiter, a 

 lance, her weapon of offense and de- 

 fense, wherewith she gallantly de- 

 fends her hearth and home, frequent- 

 ly to the sacrifice of her own life. 



Bees have frequently to force their 

 way into the corolla of a flower when 

 hunting for both pollen and nectar. 

 In the same way their multifarious 

 duties in the hive demand that they 

 niter the confined space of a worker- 

 cell. Therefore they are fitted with 

 four small wings, capable of being 

 folded into small dimensions. To in- 

 crease their powers of flight they are 

 provided with a set of hooks where- 

 by they can fix each pair of wings 

 into one large one, thus greatly mag- 

 nifying not only their powers of 

 flight but adding to their carrying 

 abilities. 



Seen through the microscope, -these 

 various tools are wonders of perfec- 

 tion, and I earnestly advise all bee- 

 keepers to make a careful study of 

 their mechanism and functions. 



Banff, Scotland. 



