164 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Mav 



Sagging of Foundation 



By J. E. Crane 



IN regard to foundation sagging, 

 we have no serious trouble when 

 it is properly wired horizontally. 

 We have used some ten to fifteen 

 hundred sheets of light-brood foun- 

 dation each year for the past four or 

 five years. 



One cause of the foundation comb 

 sagging is insufficient ventilation or 

 allowing the hive to stand in the hot 

 sun. This will cause all kinds of 

 comb to sag. Another is in placing 

 the wires too low in the frame. Fac- 

 tory made and wired frames, as I 

 have observed, are wired at about 

 equal distances from top to bottom 

 of frame. I took the matter up with 

 one of our largest manufacturers 

 some years ago, urging the desirabil- 

 ity of placing the wires near the top 

 of frames, but received little encour- 

 agement. I suppose thjy look better 

 when wired away to the bottom. I 

 visited an intelligent beekeeper last 

 week in the northern part of our 

 State who uses light section founda- 

 tion in shallow extracting frames 

 without wiring or sagging. 



We used, I think, 1,000 frames of 

 light brood foundation in Langstroth 

 frames with three horizontal wires 

 the past year in extracting supers, a 

 pretty severe test, and they are as 

 handsome a lot of combs as I care 

 for. Xo, if one will place the wires 

 at the top, or near the top, of the 

 frame, where the strain comes, there 

 need be little trouble with sagging. 

 Of course, the wires should be drawn 

 firmly into place. 



We must aim at the trouble if we 

 expect to hit it. 



A fine, mild winter we are having, 

 with snow enough so far to keep the 

 ground covered most of the time. 



Middlebury, Vt. 



(This is plain, solid, common sense. 

 In building their combs naturally, 

 the bees finish the top rows before 

 extending all the way to the bottom. 

 But when full sheets of foundation 

 are given them, they are apt to over- 

 load them before finishing the cells 



that are near the top, although the 

 entire load is carried by the upper 15 

 or 20 rows of cells. So the wires that 

 help to carry the load should be 

 placed as near the top as convenient. 

 One wire near the bottom is suffi- 

 cient to prevent the sheet from warp- 

 ing. It is also very useful to have 

 the wire imbedded, and we know of 

 nothing better to do this than the 

 electric imbedder.— C. P. D.) 



The Hearing Sense of Bees 



By A. F. Bonney 



IN almost—I may as well say all- 

 advance in knowledge, we argue 

 from what we know to what we 

 do not know, and this discussion re- 

 regarding the sense of hearing in the 

 bee will apply; while some argue 

 from what they do not know to an 

 erroneous conclusion. However, that 

 is a common error, and needs but be 

 corrected. 



Because man hears we infer that 

 other animals do also. That the ver- 

 tebrates do allows of no discussion, 

 for they have well defined organs 

 adapted to the purpose. In the verte- 

 brated animals these organs are com- 

 plicated in structure, having, in the 

 higher foims of life, an external ear; 

 a meatus or sound canal ending in a 

 drummembrane, the tympanum; then 

 a cavity containing three small bones 

 called the anvil, hammer and stirrup ; 

 then there are the semi-lunar canal 

 and the labyrinth, and finally the tube 

 extending from the ear apparatus to 

 the throat, the eustachian tube, and 

 this is as essential to hearing as any 

 of the other parts, for if it be clogged 

 no air can pass from the ear to the 

 throat cavity, and the hearing is im- 

 paired. In the insect family there is 

 no connection between the mouth 

 and the breathing apparatus, as in- 

 sects breathe through small tubes 

 called trachae on either side of their 

 body: hence we cannot argue from 

 what we know about man's hearing 

 apparatus to what we do not know 

 about the bee; and further, we do not 

 even know that there be any neces- 

 sity that the bees hear. They have a 



wonderfully developed sense of smell, 

 and, I have reason to think, as keen 

 a sense of feeling, and I am some- 

 times inclined to think that, as hear- 

 ing depends on vibration of the air, 

 there would be no such thing as 

 sound if there was no ear to hear it. 

 Now feeling depends on vibration, 

 both of the air, the conducting me- 

 dium on which we stand, and the vi- 

 bration of the nerves of the body, 

 and it is possible that, the bee being 

 as sensitive to such vibrations as to 

 odor particles in the air, feeling takes 

 the place of hearing. However, in 

 "Animal Life," by Li:idsay, I read 

 that Dr. Sharp, of Cambridge, has de- 

 scribed their (the ants') "stridulat- 

 ing," i. e., noise-producing organs, 

 and Mr. Lindsay alludes to the sense 

 of hearing in ants as "a fact." Other 

 insects make noises, and it is the- 

 orized that they are for the purpose 

 of attracting members of the oppo- 

 site sex, but what I have said above 

 may apply here. 



We know that the bees have dif- 

 ferent "voices," as the contented 

 "homing hum." the sharp "buzz" of 

 anger or excitement, the sound the 

 queen make., at certain times, and as 

 there are notes pitched so high that 

 the human ear cannot take cogniz- 

 ance of them, it may be that the bees 

 produce other sounds inaudible to us. 

 Just recently a new sense has been 

 discovered in the human, through the 

 use of the flying machines — the "mo- 

 tion sense" of aviators, which enables 

 them to maintain equilibrium without 

 the aid of vision. I once knew a man 

 who could balance himself on the two 

 rear legs of a chair and read aloud 

 from a newspaper. A thousand trials 

 failed to enable me to balance myself 

 even ten seconds. Try it. 



I have caused a shotgun to be dis- 

 charged within ten feet of a hive 

 where the bees were numerous on 

 the alighting board, but failed .to de- 

 tect in them any indication tha't they 

 heard the sound, while a very slight 

 tapping with finger mil on the hive 

 would excite them. I have yelled my- 

 self hoarse, but the bees paid no at- 

 tention to me. 



In our present state of knowledge I . 

 assume that it is safe to say that we 

 do not know whether bees hear or 

 not, and it affords an interesting field 

 for study and observation. 

 Buck Grove, Iowa. 



Home of Edwin Hutchinson, Avon, N. Y., raid for by 65 swarms of bees in four 

 foTtwo "' e b " 5 b0Ugl " 8 ° me Lib " ty B ° nd5 and SM living 



Mating Queens Over Colonies 



REFERRING to the article on 

 page 57, February number, 

 "Mating Queens Over Colo- 

 nies," I wish to say that I have had 



g 1 success mating queen* over 



i i ili mies as with some of the i il her 

 methods. It is possible that it was 

 due to good luck and awkwardness, 

 rather than to the method used. 



As a beginner, I have produced 

 some excellent queens by various 

 methods, and when ready to place 

 virgin or ripe queen-cell over a colony 

 I paid no particular attention to put- 

 ting up frames from the lower brood- 

 chamber, but put up frames contain- 

 ing brood in every stage of develop- 

 ment. 

 In choosing and preparing my hive 



