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Live Stock. 



It is qui to true that sometimes- perhaps it should be said oftentimes 

 bees enter the wrong Live on returning from the tiekl, and being well laden, 

 they are kindly received and given their naturalisation papers. A homeward* 

 bound bee, heavily laden, and wearied Avith its long flight, may be beaten to 

 the ground in front of some hive other than its own. Without rising on its 

 wings to take its bearings it crawls directly into the hive, and without further 

 ado is adopted as one of the family. Put twenty hives in a, straight row, six 

 feet apart— ten feet if you like— on a level prairie with never a tree or other 

 landmark exoept the hives themselves, and you may expect no little mixing. 

 Bees are not good enough at figures to tell for certain whether their hive is 

 the ninth or tenth from the end of the row, and so a bee may go ten feet out 

 of its way to enter the wrong hive. 



Paradoxical as it may sound, the same bee that would make a mistake 

 of ten feet cannot be induced to make a mistake of six inches under the right 

 circumstances. In early spring, before bees have flown, close the entrance of an 

 eight-frame hive all but three or four inches at the inght end. After the bees 

 have been flying busily for two or three weeks close the right end, and allow 

 three or four inches opening at the left end. The bees, upon returning from 

 the field, will go straight to the closed right end. taking quite a while to find 

 the opening at the left end, and it will be days before they stop going first 

 to the right end. You see, the bees go by looks, without carefully measuring 

 distances. The bee may go to a wrong hive ten feet away because it looks just 

 like its own; but it will not enter an opening only six inches distant at the other 

 end of the hive entrance, because the left end doesn't look like the right end. 



Well, of what practical value is all this ? For one thing, the man who 

 fully understands that it is not uncommon for bees to enter wrong hives will 

 not hastily condemn as impure an Ttalian queen because he finds in her hive a 

 few black or hybrid bees that have come from other hives. For another thing, 

 a proper understanding of the matters that ha ve been mentioned will allow us 

 to increase the number of colonies on the same ground without increasing the 

 danger of bees entering wrong hives. Take that row of twenty hives previously 

 mentioned, and somewhere near the middle of the row set a tree or a fence- 

 post in front of the hives, or even behind them. A hive at the right of the 

 post will not look like a hive at the left ; neither will the second hive at one side of 

 the post look like the first or third. In my time I have used a good many double 

 hives — a bee-tight partition in the centre, with both entrances in front. Although 

 the entrances were not six inches apart, I never had occasion to believe that a young 

 queen on her return from her wedding-excursion ever entered the wrong side. 



Again, a proper understanding will allow us so to place our hives as to double 

 the number on the same surface of ground. Take again that row of 20 hives at equal 

 distances. By the side of each hive in the row, and close up to it, you can set down 

 another hive, doubling the number of hives in the row, and there will be no more 

 danger of the bees mixing than there was before. A bee belonging to No. 14 is more 

 likely to get into No. 12 or No. 16 than to get into No. 13, which is nearest to it. 



Let us now turn to the question at issue. The queen was fastened in 

 the hive, with no bees except those in the cells. No bee could enter from 

 outside till the hive was opened at the expiration of the five days. A worker- 

 bee from elsewhere, beaten to the ground by the wind, would not crawl into 

 this hive just opened, but would crawl into the hive under it, standing on the 

 ground. A worker from the hive below, on returning from the field, would 

 not make the mistake of entering a place looking so unlike its regular entrance. 

 Still less would a bee from any other hive make such a mistake, unless there 



