ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



81 



I. Root %vrites about watching the bees 

 coming in from the field and discliarg- 

 ing what appears to be pretty nearly 

 pure water in large quantities. That 

 certainly would look as if they were 

 doing something toward maturing their 

 honey as they come in from the field. 

 As Mr. Kimmey says, if you shake a 

 frame in the evening when the bees are 

 busily gathering, it will shake out a 

 thin liquid you don't find afterward. 

 That proves there is something done in 

 the hive. Now comes the question as 

 to particulars, which is not so easily 

 handled, and I see a man here I would 

 like to have tell us something. He is 

 looking to find out from me. I want 

 to ask Mr. Dadant, do the bees — 



Mr. Badant: Let me, in the first 

 place, give some different views. One 

 says the bee conies in froim the field, 

 goes up into the super and deposits the 

 honey there. Another says, as Mr. 

 Kimmey has suggested, that the bee 

 from the field dumps the honey into 

 the first cell it comes to, and then other 

 bees take that and carry it upstairs, or, 

 taking Mr. Doolittle's statement along 

 with it, they take it and throw it out 

 upon their tongues and back again,? 

 evaporating in that way. Then there 

 is still another view. What is that? 



Mr. Moore: They hand it directly to 

 other bees, that take it and put it in 

 the hive. 



Dr. Miller: The other view is that 

 those bees which come from the field 

 hand it directly to the other bees in- 

 stead of putting it in the cells. Now, 

 I don't know but all these different 

 things are true. I am pretty sure 

 — about as sure as I can be of any- 

 thing — that there is some dumping of 

 that more or less raw nectar in the 

 comb, from the fact that you shake out 

 that thin liquid, almost nectar; but 

 whether or not all the other things are 

 true I don't know. I suspect most of 

 them are true; but I very much doubt 

 whether a bee ever comes with a load 

 of honey and goes up into the super 

 and deposits it. 



Mr. Kimmey: Have you not noticed 

 that a comb may be full of that loose 

 nectar at night, and in the morning it 

 has disappeared? 



Dr. Miller: I have noticed this, that 

 I don't shake in the morning; I do 

 shake in the evening, which is pretty 

 nearly the same thing. 



Mr. Kimmey: I have watched an*" 

 observation hive and found that condi- 



tion existing at night, and in the 

 morning found that same comb with 

 most of tliat thin liquid honey gone. 



Dr. Bohrer: Isn't it a fact that a 

 bee-hive will weigh lighter in the 

 morning than at night? "What does 

 that prove? The bees do not leave, the 

 hive at night to carry anything out ^to 

 lighten it. The process of evaporation 

 goes on there. This is unquestionably 

 what lightens the hive, in part at lea^t. 



Dr. Miller: That still leaves open 

 the question, as all these different ways 

 of evaporation would lighten the hive, 

 whether it is evaporated one way or 

 another. It leaves the question, How 

 does that evaporation take place? Is 

 it honey in the cell that evaporates? 

 Does the evaporation take place by 

 passing the honey from one bee to an- 

 other, or by passing it over their 

 tongues, as Mr. Doolittle says? . 



Mr. Dadant: I am not an observer 

 like imy father or Mr. Doolittle, or Mr. 

 Langstroth. One sits by a hive and 

 watches the bees for hours together. I 

 know Mr. Langstroth did, for I saw 

 him. Those men learned by actual 

 experience. Some men do observe a 

 little, spend day after day at it, and 

 then make a mistake and get it wrong. 

 I expect most of you have had an ob- 

 servation hive with the comb only, and 

 glass on both sides. I have, and oc- 

 casionally I would watch the hives, 

 and I don't believe that every bee 

 comes in and goes to a cell and emp- 

 ties its stomach, and I don't believe 

 every bee that comes in hands it to 

 a young bee to put it in the cell. It 

 may go up into the super if it does nor 

 find an extra cell sooner. I believe all 

 those different things take place. 



Dr. Miller: May it not be handed 

 to a bee before it goes into the hive 

 at all, at the entrance? 



Mr. Dadant: May be once in a while. 

 I know that the Europeans, who are 

 less practical in actual production, 

 have over and over again weighed 

 colonies of bees morning and evening, 

 and when there is fifteen or twenty 

 pounds during one day, there is a loss 

 of from three to five pounds during the 

 night. That is evaporation. It can- 

 not be anything else. How can they 

 evaporate it? Don't the bees put it in 

 every cell? and then it drips out. The 

 bees spread it in that way because it 

 is handj' and because it evaporates 

 more" readily. Don't you hear them 

 roar in the evening if there is a good 



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