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106 



SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



ing it directly to the sections. Take 

 a colony with six or eight frames en- 

 tirely filled with brood and a little 

 border of sealed honey around, you can 

 see during an intense honey flow there 

 is no chance of depositing much in 

 the cells. I have had supers, 47 sec- 

 tions, filled in twelve days, and the 

 question came up in my mind where 

 that honey was put. I have read Mr. 

 Doolittle's article on that very point. 

 If you look into a section you can't 

 find a bee with ragged wings in there. 

 The comb builders are all the middle 

 aged or younger bees; the ones that 

 carry the honey are undoubtedly the 

 same in there, and yet we find the old 

 bees visiting the flowers. And now 

 we come up against it again and can't 

 decide fully as to the course pursued 

 by the bees in that respect. 



Mr. Cleaver: Why can you not de- 

 cide absolutely by marking the bees 

 and watching them in an observation 

 hive? 



The President: I think the bees 

 would be insufficient in number to 

 prove the question. 



Mr. Cleaver: I was discussing the 

 question today with a man who has 

 30 colonies of bees and has an ob- 

 servation hive. Incidentally I spoke 

 to him about Mr. Doolittle's remark 

 as to the worker bees transferring the' 

 honey to the younger bees; and he 

 says, "that is absolutely untrue; I 

 have tested it; I have marked them 

 over and over again and watched the 

 bees, watched them deposit their honey 

 and come out again. It takes them 

 about one minute from the time they 

 go in to the time they come out again. 



The President: I believe that is 

 right. 



■ Mr. Holterman: 'Could it not be done 

 by changing the queen at certain 

 stages? 



Mr. Hutchinson: I think that is 

 what Mr. Doolittle did. 



Mr. Cleaver: This man put some 

 flour on the back of the bee. 



Mr. Miller: I changed queens one 

 time with a black colony of bees, and 

 had young bees of yellow strain go 

 into the supers, while I could not find 

 a black one in during the day. 



The President: That is an establish- 

 ed fact. 



Mr. Miller: I think the young bees 

 do it. 



Mr. Hilton: We all know that in a 

 heavy honey flow we hive a new swarm 

 and we haven't any very young bees 



in that new swarm, and we find that 

 large swarm immediately begins to 

 store honey above and below. Where 

 do the young bees come from that 

 carry the honey above, if so? 



The President: Don't you think 

 bees constantly swarm of all ages 

 above the time they are able to fiy? 



Mr. Hilton: The question arises, at 

 what age. How young are the bees 

 when they leave and go with the 

 swarm? My opinion is that the very 

 young bees and the nurse bees do not 

 go with the swarm; and that often 

 time when the bees issue and take up 

 the work of the hive as a new colony, 

 that the older bees sometimes do the 

 work of the so-called nurse bees. 



The President: That is true in the 

 spring, but you have seen a colony that 

 has swarmed and left it almost depop- 

 ulated, on the other hand, so that they 

 must have gone in large numbers un- 

 der two weeks old. 



Mr. Hilton: Yes, but I question if 

 very many go under six or ten days. 



Mr. Holterman: And bees so young 

 that they could not fly would not be 

 48 hours old. 



The President: Don't you think 

 they were rushed out in the mad rush? 

 I think those that would volunteer to 

 go would be able to fly. I think the 

 excitement and rush carries out some 

 that are unable to fly. 



Mr. Holterman: Granting that took 

 them out, I don't believe the other 

 young bees that were able to fly did 

 anything else than follow the swarm. 



Mr. Cook: This discussion touches 

 the economical nature of the bee. They 

 are like the human family. If the 

 old bees come with a load of honey 

 and there are a lot of youngsters 

 around that have nothing to do, the 

 old bees set them to work carrying it 

 up and building super honey; and 

 if they haven't got the young ones the 

 old bees got to do it themselves. 

 (Laughter). 



Mr. Hershisher: Under varying cir- 

 cumstances, as we have heard, the 

 bees act in different ways. In the 

 spring there are no nurse bees, so the 

 old ones have to do the nursing. Lat- 

 er on when a swarm issues perhaps 

 the circumstances are different again. 



The President: To be technical, 

 there are young bees in the spring, but 

 they are not numerous. 



Mr. Hershisher: The bumble bee 

 queen acts as nurse, queen and honey- 

 gatherer; she is the "whole push." 



