Natural History of the Honeybee. 7 



Incidentally, I might mention here a curious aberration of instinct. The literature 

 ©f bee economics records some cases in which bees showed unaccountable hostile reaction 

 toward their own hive mates. Thus it has been observed sometimes that a colony will 

 sting a great number of its own flying bees as if they were intruders. This behavior has 

 been noticed for a long time, and it finally did lead to the destruction of the colony. Possibly 

 here -there is a degeneration of that instinct which causes colonies to place bees at the 

 entrance to control the flying in. Perhaps differences of odor come into account, or perhaps 

 both stimuli act together. 



It is probable, too, that we may be dealing with defective observations, although errors 

 of instinct in bees are not at all uncommon, and frequently in the spring it can be proven 

 that bees, in an inexplicable mistake, even attack their own queen and ball her. The colony 

 is then in wild confusion, and between the combs or on the bottom-board is the poor queen 

 in the middle of a cluster of bees; she often comes out of the tumult a cripple. Another 

 ease of failure in instinct is as follows: As is well known, bees now and then build queen- 

 cells over drone eggs. 22 If a queen-cell is of more than ordinary length it is tolerably sure 

 to contain a drone larva. 23 The too invigorating royal jelly ** seems to be unwholesome 

 for the larva; it falls out from the food because of the abnormal size of the cell, and that 

 is the cause of their always lengthening the cell. Usually the drone dies. 



THE ODOR OF THE QUEEN. 



The individual odor of the queen is doubtless in many cases a very small part of the 

 odor of the hive, but often may form the dominant factor. The exhalation of the queen 

 is so intense that it can be perceived by man. It is very characteristic and adherent, being 

 somewhat like the odor of thyme. If a queen is crushed on a board, the bees of her colony 

 smell for several days around the place where she was killed. If the 1 bees are allowed 

 to run over the board, they gather there; and, lifting the abdomens, fan their wings in a 

 peculiar way. 



It often happens that after-swarms, also swarms with young queens, fly together and 

 unite into a powerful swarm-cluster. The bees in this cluster do not attack each other, 

 in spite of the varied hive odors. The ' ' swarm-dizziness ' , extinguishes the reactions 

 toward the foreign hive odor, just as it also almost destroys the sense of orientation, so 

 that the impulse to seek the parent colony is lost, 25 at least under normal circumstances. 

 The swarming bees, instead, remain in the home they have taken up; the field bees, which 

 some days before, or immediately before the swarming, have been bringing honey, pollen, 

 and water to the parent colony in the usual way, will, a few hours later, after they have 

 become oriented, bring their burdens into the new hive. Under the proper conditions this 

 can be placed adjoining the old one. The memory of the old birthplace has completely 

 disappeared. I shall speak later on of an exception to this. 



If it be wished to separate these united swarms, the whole cluster may be put into a 

 large box containing as many twigs of a tree as there are swarms. Over night the colonies 

 separate of themselves, each hanging on a twig. 



It is safe to take for granted that a purely mechanical separation takes place here, 

 and, evidently, according to the various hive odors. I nevertheless believe that a still more 

 powerfully determinative stimulus enters — the odor of the queen. Each colony congre- 

 gates around its queen; 26 and if the queen is taken away from one swarm it will unite 

 with another possessing a queen, in spite of the hostile hive odor. 



22 O. von Roth, Ueber abnorme Zustande im Bienenvolk. Berichte der Naturf. Ges. Freiburg i. Br., 8 

 Bd., 1894. 



23 There is also a prevalent idea that such cells are not as rough as normal cells containing queens; 

 some books on bee-keeping even go so far as to try to figure the difference. — E. F. P. 



24 Concerning the varied chemical composition of pabulum for the three kinds of bees, see A. von 

 Planta. "Uber den Futtersaft der Bienen," and "Nochmals uber den Futtersaft der Bienen," Schweiz. 

 Bienenzeitung, 1888-'9 ; further, A. von Planjta, Zeitschrift f. phy. Chemie von Hoppe-Sevler, 1888, Bd. 12, 

 Heft 4, pp. 327-354, and also Bd. 13, Heft 6, pp. 552-561; further, Dathe 1. c, p. 24. 



25 Bethe, in dealing with the "psychical qualities," has not considered either the act of swarming, which 

 is an all-important factor, or the individual odor of the queen. "We shall see presently what interesting 

 bearings swarming has on this question. 



26 Some may take exception to this statement, perhaps, and believe that this gathering together is due 

 to other instincts — the sex instinct or the instinct to swarm which is characteristic of bees; but it must be 

 kept in mind that the bees separate into single colonies only if the queens of the various colonies are present, 

 manifesting their presence by the scent which exhales from them. 



