1919 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



227 



of the species, and this depends on 

 their ability to meet the queen in 

 flight. Now, if the queen leaves a 

 trail of odor in her flight through the 

 air, as I believe she does, this keen 

 sense of smell will multiply many 

 times the chance of a drone meeting 

 her. J. Henri Fabre tells of hatching 

 some female moths or butterflies in 

 cages in his house when, soon after, 

 his house was literally surrounded 

 by males. He could only account for 

 it by the keen sense of smell in the 

 males. 



The sense of touch is very highly 

 developed in bees. I have sometimes 

 been asked whether bees could work 

 in the dark, the questioner little 

 thinking it is always dark inside a 

 hive. It appears to be largely by this 

 sense the bees are able to find their 

 way around inside a hive crowded 

 with bees. In our childhood we 

 called the antennae of bees their 

 "feelers," and so they are, most em- 

 phatically, but their sense of touch is 

 not confined to these organs; their 

 tongues and mouth parts are also 

 very sensitive. This enables them to 

 watch the hatching brood and feed 

 it as its age requires. Xot only is 

 the keen sense of touch required in 

 the rearing of brood, but in working 

 and moulding their wax into the 

 most exquisite combs, with cell-walls 

 so thin that hundreds of the sides 

 can be laid on top of each other be- 

 fore they will make an inch in thick- 

 ness. Yet I have never seen one 

 made with a hole through it. The 

 touch of human fingers cannot be 

 compared in delicacy to that of bees. 



Many other things might be said 

 in regard to the senses of bees, but if 

 I have said enough to excite the 

 reader's curiosity and lead to study 

 the bees themselves, they will find 

 a never-ending source of recreation 

 and pleasure. 



Middlebury, Vt. 



Examination of Colonies 



The Secretary of our local bee as- 

 sociation asserts that last year he ex- 

 amined 300 colonies in three days. 

 Last year he had 600 colonies and 

 says that by this year's working time 

 he will have 800. 



What I would like to know of you 

 is, how many colonies, examined, do 

 you call a fair day's work? I have 

 never yet examined otherwise than 

 by removing each frame from the 

 hive-body, looking at both sides, etc' 

 and, of course, no one could thus do 

 as many as stated. 



Probably you examine by just lift- 

 ing up the rear of a hive — but what 

 about same slipping forward? What 

 about doing this with your heavy 

 hives ? 



Then what do you see? Are there 

 not often queen-cells in center of 

 frame, thus invisible from below? 

 Then, if there are cups along lower 

 rim of frame, one often could not see 

 whether they contain eggs or not. 

 Dr. Miller has stated that unless cups 

 contain eggs they are insignificant as 

 to impending swarming. 



What I would like to know is as to 

 the minutia of colony examination 

 that can be gone through with, 



quicker than my way as above stated, 

 and then, to what extent such exam- 

 ination can be made to cover the 

 maximum of ground. For instance, 

 inie iliing seems sure, that 800 colo- 

 ny beeman, by his way of lifting up 

 the rear, can't ascertain anything 

 about queenlessness. 



ULSTER, PA. 



Answer. — This is a moot question, 

 very much debatable. First, the api- 

 arist may be slow or quick in action, 

 and that would affect the result. One 

 day two men came to paint the cu- 

 pola of my barn. While one was 

 looking at it and lighting his pipe, 

 probably deliberating how to go at it, 

 the other one had grabbed a ladder, 

 climbed to the roof, crawled, to the 

 comb of it, and handed down the end 

 of a rope which was wound around 

 his waist, before the other man's pipe 

 was fully lit. He called for scaffold- 

 ing and nails and hammer. The first 

 man was probably methodical, but 

 this one was practical. 



I believe 300 colonies may be sum- 

 marily examined in 3 days, besides 

 making the trip to each apiary. Each 

 hive may be opened, and a glance 

 given to the top of the combs, to as- 

 certain whether they have honey and 

 brood. The queenless ones may be 

 marked, those short of stores may be 

 helped from the surplus of others or 

 supplied from combs at hand. But 

 no thorough examination may be 

 made in that length of time, even by 

 the man who climbed the roof of my 

 barn while his partner lighted his 

 pipe. 



No, we do not lift the rear of a 

 hive to ascertain whether they have 

 what they need. But after making 

 sure that they are all right, we might 

 lift a very heavy-looking colony and 

 a very light-looking one to establish 

 a comparison. 



If you must look for queen-cells, 

 then do not figure on attending prop- 

 erly to more than 50 or 60 colonies. 

 Personally, we do not look for queen- 

 cells. We expect our bees to get along 

 with very little cell building, if we 

 keep young queens in the hives. Dr. 



Miller is correct, we think, when he 

 says that cell-cups that do not con- 

 tain eggs are of no importance. 



Queenlessness should be readily as- 

 certained from the outside, as you 

 pass along the row. A queenright 

 colony is busy flying back and forth. 

 A queenless colony is listless and in- 

 different in action. But we should at 

 least open every hive, and the first 

 sight of the inside, without lifting 

 more than one or two frames, should 

 enlighten us. 



Finding out the condition of the 

 colonies is less than half the work, if 

 we have either queenless or starving 

 colonies. The labor consists in reme- 

 dying the faults; feeding the colonies 

 that are short; uniting or requeening 

 the colonies that are queenless. If 

 our colonies are all strong and all 

 have plenty of stores, the work will 

 be short and the result satisfactory. 

 But this would be an ideal situation. 

 Do we often find it? 



The amount of time required to ex- 

 amine 300 colonies, in 3 apiaries, de- 

 pends on the condition of the bees in 

 those apiaries and upon the season of 

 the year at which we make the exam- 

 ination. It depends also upon just 

 what we want to do. A very practical 

 beekeeper could probably examine 100 

 colonies during the day and, marking 

 them as he goes, place them in 3 or 4 

 classes: 1, the good ones, having 

 plenty of brood and honey; 2, the 

 middling ones, having both brood and 

 honey, but of doubtful amount; 3, the 

 poor ones, with some brood and short 

 of stores; 4, the bad ones, queenless 

 or starving. In making this examina- 

 tion he would not be expected to lift 

 the combs of any but the dubious 

 ones. In some cases, he might have 

 to lift all the combs of a colony. But 

 in all this he could do but little to 

 remedy defects, unless he took more 

 time. 



If the bees are in good shape, a 

 man can put on the supers — if they 

 are ready — in less time than it re- 

 quires to examine the bees. So. 

 much depends upon the condition of 

 the colonies. — C. P. D. 



West Virginia bees packed for winter 



at Martinton. 



