94 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



March 



it form a solid cake, much less flow 

 from one spout of a separator while 

 honey flows from the other. The sec- 

 ond point is to get the honey away 

 from the heated wax as quickly as 

 possible, and the third point is to 

 blend that honey with the extracted 

 honey while it is hot. By itself it is 

 undoubtedly changed in flavor. 

 Blended it, if anything, improves the 

 flavor of the whole. 



In the matter of straining, I am 

 with the Major, heart and soul. 

 After much experimenting, I have no 

 use for attempting to strain honey 

 through any material which would be 

 effective as it comes from the ex- 

 tractor. 



Georgetown, Ontario. 



Editor's Note — See Mr. Pettit's ar- 

 ticle "Apiary Buildings and Equip- 

 ment," page 152, May 1918 issue of 

 this journal. 



The Wisdom of the Bee 



By D. W. Macdonald 



THE marvelous, - if mysterious, 

 wisdom which guides and gov- 

 erns the actions of a colony of 

 bees is concentrated in the workers 

 who, individually and collectively, 

 control the destinies of the com- 

 munity. In their wise heads lies the 

 government of this vast and complex 

 republic. The queen, important and, 

 indeed, indispensable as she is, has 

 no share in the making or carrying 

 out of the laws. Legislatively or ad- 

 ministratively her voice is silent. 

 The drone exists only for the con- 

 tinuance of the race, for the "propa- 

 gation of his sweet kind." The brain 

 of the one tru: female is atrophied 

 in order that her ovaries may have 

 full development. The brain of the 

 male is made subservient to the spe- 

 cial organs on which so much of the 

 future welfare of the race depends. 

 All the powers of guidance, govern- 

 ment, management, combat, control, 

 foresight, prudence and prescience 

 are bound up in the tiny brain of the 

 worker-bee. She, in fact, is the spirit 

 of the hive. In our ignorance, we 

 say that instinct guides her every 

 action through the busy seasons of 

 spring, summer, and perhaps autumn, 

 and this teaches her to gather food, 

 to store it up in the combs, to set out 

 on a trek when she finds the popula- 

 tion outgrowing the accommodation, 

 to make provision for replacing a 

 failing queen and to carry out the 

 countless duties thrown on her. 

 Something guides her actions when 

 preparing against winter's cold and 

 the period of semi-inaction. In no 

 other way is the wisdom of the bee 

 more markedly displayed than in the 

 almost prophetic manner in which 

 she stores the supplies of both heat- 

 giving and flesh-forming food. The 

 first is placed just where the bees of 

 the cluster most require it during a 

 long siege from cold, and the system 

 of storing provides against its de- 

 terioration. Then the pollen is so 

 placed that it does not come under 

 the bees' observation readily until 

 spring's approach demands its pres- 

 ence and its use as soon as active 

 breeding starts. In preparations for 



published in this jou 



•M> Neighbor's 



winter and during that season of 

 semi-repose the hive-bee manifests 

 its wisdom in countless ways, and 

 very rarely, indeed, does she ever 

 fall into error or wrong-doing. Dur- 

 ing early winter she is content to live 

 a life of semi-hibernation, well aware 

 that the precincts of the domestic 

 hearth is the only place for perfect 

 contentment and unalloyed happiness. 

 Each member of the community acts 

 as if she lived not for her own self- 

 ish aims and objects, but for the well- 

 being and safety of the common- 

 wealth. "Each will for the good of 

 the whole is bent." Each unit of the 

 thousands, in a spirit of forethought 

 and prescience, takes a part in keep- 

 ing up the temperature to a living 

 degree. 



On this question of hive tempera- 

 ture depends successful wintering, 

 and in controlling it the workers dis- 

 play marvelous anticipatory wisdom. 

 As the cold increases, the bees in 

 their oval ball gradually contract the 

 bulk of the cluster, clinging more 

 closely together; but they do not de- 

 pend on this mutual attachment alone 

 for keeping up warmth. Honey is a 

 heat-producing food and the bees 

 presciently have stored a reserve 

 supply in their honey-sacs ready to 

 be drawn upon when necessity calls 

 iii its use. As the cold strengthens 

 they draw upon these stores, and, as 

 it were, stoke their fires, thus in- 

 geniously getting up and keeping up 

 the heat of the winter cluster. Pre- 

 sciently again, they still further pro- 

 vide for contingencies. The individ- 

 ual bees are ever in a state of flux, 

 and thus while the cluster remains 

 intact the component parts are regu- 

 larly alternating. Gradually but 

 steadily those outside become the in- 

 side section and the outside crust be- 

 the central core. The matter 

 does not even rest there, for these 

 bees have been in contact with win- 

 ter stores and they transport full 

 honey-sacs to feed both themselves 

 and their neighbors. Wonderful fore- 

 thought ! For thus the temperature 

 of the hive is regulated at the will of 

 this Amazonian host. 



Study this cluster at a later period 



during the winter or early spring and 

 our admiration of their fore-knowl- 

 edge must be even more marked. 

 After weeks, or it may be months, of 

 close confinement when, owing to the 

 heavy drain on it, food has become 

 scant. Suddenly a mild day comes; 

 the bees are privileged to have a 

 cleansing flight, but they do not 

 waste the shining hour in idle frolic 

 or wanton dance outside. They dar- 

 ingly search the hitherto unworked 

 combs of the hive, uncap the stored 

 cells and transfer the life-giving nec- 

 tar to the combs on which they re- 

 arrange the cluster, ready now to 

 stand another siege from cold. Their 

 wisdom teaches them to re-store' 

 these brood-frames in anticipation of 

 need. Here is forethought of a high 

 order. Their foreknowledge teaches 

 them that vastly increased stores will 

 be consumed when active breeding 

 sets in shortly. 



Soon after the turn of the day the 

 "Spirit of the Hive" whispers to the 

 community that another season has 

 begun to dawn, and the workers of- 

 fer the Mother a wonderful concen- 

 trated food which some instinct has 

 taught them to manufacture in their 

 wonderful laboratory for the very 

 purpose. That stimulation begets 

 eggs in the ovaries of the mother- 

 bee, and thus breeding begins in the 

 center of the cluster where the tem- 

 perature is highest. This, too, is 

 wisdom, for there only can the egg, 

 tin larva and the pupa obtain care 

 and that degree of heat which is 

 necessary to evolve the future per- 

 fect imago. 



If a breakdown occurs in a hive it 

 is at once rectified by the bees. There 

 is no leaving off until a future oc- 

 casion with the bees, no putting off 

 until the morrow. Whenever a crisis 

 arises the wrong is righted. 



Place bees into an empty hive, or 

 insert an empty frame in an estab- 

 lished stock and immediately won- 

 derful wisdom is displayed by the 

 workers. A section of them starts 

 active operations, glut themselves 

 with honey, set their laboratories to 

 work and manufacture wax. Look 

 at their "pockets" some time after, 



