^8 Natural History of the Honeybee. 



winter. When they were again opened in the spring, the bees came again to the window, 

 in spite of the fact that there was no longer any honey there. 



Bethe (1. c, p. 90) asserts as follows: "If bees cease to fly in autumn, then (as I 

 have proven myself) hives may be placed even inside a circle three kilometers in diameter, 

 each in a chosen spot. The bees do not return to the old location of the apiary when they 

 begin to fly in the spring, but from the first come to the hives in their new positions. ' ' 



This experiment of Bethe 's is not conclusive and I would not recommend any investi- 

 gator or bee-keeper to try it in the way described, for in nearly all cases all the flying 

 bees will be lost. 



If, following Bethe ? s suggestion, a colony is put in a different place in the fall when 

 "the bees have ceased flying" because of the cold weather, one can not tell whether, in 

 spite of the apparent approach of winter, in the next few days or in the first .three or four 

 weeks, a warm period with weather suitable for flight may not set in, during which the 

 bees still have the old position securely in memory. If this happens (and it frequently 

 does), then all the flying bees return to the old place and are lost. The next spring, of 

 course, no return to the old locality can take place, for all or nearly all that would recog- 

 nize the former position are already dead. 



ASSOCIATION OF IMPRESSIONS. 



During the dearth of honey, when bees are usually excessively fond of sweet things 

 (see p. 26), a few bees discovered a honey-comb in my study, flying through the open 

 window. More and more nibblers came, some of them getting caught at the second closed 

 window. To prevent that, I placed the honey-comb in the opened window itself. When, 

 half an hour later, the bees were flying back and forth I drove them away from the honey 

 and closed the window. After perhaps twenty minutes I went into the bed-chamber above 

 the study, the windows of which stood wide open, and found it full of bees. By this time 

 I was observant, and after driving out the searchers and closing the window I went into 

 the garden and noted their behavior accurately. They attempted in vain to press in at the 

 window where I had fed them, then from time to time some flew to the next window and 

 tried their luck there, then further to the next window above, always keeping about a 

 handbreadth above the window-sill, the height at which the honey had been in the window 

 where they were fed. Thus I noticed bees seeking at all the windows of the house. 



If the bees had actually associated impressions and connected the attainment of honey 

 with the form of a window, then it was to be supposed that they would extend their 

 search to the windows of the neighboring house about ten steps to one side, which, in fact, 

 happened. 83 



MEMORY FOR THE FEEDING PLACE IN THE HIVE. 



If an inner glass or wire-gauze door is kept closed, the back door of a hive may bo 

 opened without the bees getting out. Between these outer and inner doors there is usually 

 enough room to place a feeder. If this is filled with honey or sugar syrup, the bees can 

 reach the food when the slide in the glass door is opened, the outer door being closed. 

 If one is feeding for the first time, the bees may be guided to the honey by placing a few 

 upon it, or in some other way, for otherwise they do not transfer the food as quickly as 

 may be desired, because it takes some time for them to find it. To prevent the excitement 

 caused by feeding, this was done in the evening, and the empty dish taken out the next 

 morning, the slide of the glass door being again closed. But on the next evening, or the 

 one after, I noticed many times that, if I opened the glass door, the inmates .streamed 

 out so quickly that I had to hasten to close the outer x door in order not to crush any. Also, 

 if the feeding were done in the open air the bees often came hours and days afterward to 

 the place where they had once obtained honey. 



83 Under the designation, "Instinct or Intelligence," I find in the American Bee Journal, Chicago, 

 1892, the following note: "If a dish of food is placed on the trunk of a tree, bees will soon search for 

 honey in the same place on all the trees in the neighbor-hood. A similar, thing., happens if bees art fed 

 from a window facing south. Soon bees are discovered seeking at the south side of all the neighboring 

 buildings." 



