AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
177 
WONDERS OF THE BEE-HIVE. 
Number II. 
We caught the Bee away from its home, 
and had a fine chance to look at its head and 
legs and wings ; but the little captive did not 
tell us much about the bee-hive. What 
prisoner of war can be expected to reveal 
all the secrets of the camping ground 1 
Still we may get something out of this poor 
insect, though it has “ no speech nor lan¬ 
guage, - ’and its “voice is not heard.” We 
•must ask it to show us the way to its nest, 
first entering into a treaty of alliance and 
friendship with it. It is the habit of the 
bees, when they are collecting honey, to 
start for home as soon as they have secured 
a load. So, having captured several bees 
that are buzzing around the flowers, we will 
put them on a plate with a glass tumbler 
over them, and give them a teaspoonful of 
honey or syrup. See, how glad they are to 
find it! They seem to be as hungry as a 
boy just out of school; and soon they will 
be as good-natured as a child with its hands 
full of sugar-plums : for two peculiarities 
mentioned by Mr. Langstroth are curious 
and important: 
1. “ Bees cannot, under any circumstances, re¬ 
sist the temptation to fill themselves with liquid 
sweets.” 
2. “ A honey bee, when it is gorged or filled 
with honey, never volunteers an attack, hut acts 
solely on the defensive.” 
We can see. through the glass, how they 
use their proboscis to drink with : and in a 
few moments we find them restless and anx¬ 
ious to escape. We lift the glass and allow 
one to crawl out. It is very deliberate and 
careful, for it has a heavy load ; but presently 
having crept to the highest point it can 
reach, it takes wing and sails round in a spi¬ 
ral curve, mounting higher and higher till we 
almost lose sight of it, when it darts ofl - in a 
bee-line for its home. So that one has gone 
perhaps half a mile, perhaps two miles ; we 
cannot tell: but possibly, if we waited for it 
patiently, it would come back with other 
bees after a while, having in some way 
told “ the folks at home ” about the good 
fare we gave it. But as it is probable that 
some of the other bees came from the same 
hive we will not wait for its return. We 
will take the others up the road for a quar¬ 
ter of a mile or so, and let out another bee 
there in the same way. Now if this came 
from the same home, it will also go back 
there in a bee-line, and we can very soon 
judge how far off the hive is; but if it goes 
in a very different direction, we must let out 
;< third, and perhaps a fourth, till we find one 
aiming for the same spot as the first. Then 
we must follow up its course till we come 
to the place we are looking for. This may 
be illustrated by a cut. 
We let out a bee at A, and it flies directly 
to its home, which we will suppose to be at 
T, in the hollow trunk of an old tree; then 
we go down to B and release another, but it 
came from a different stock, and goes off to¬ 
ward C. A third, however, goes toward T, 
and at the point where its track meets the 
track of the first we shall expect to find their 
common home. As we approach the tree, 
we may find it well to release one or two 
more, to direct our search. 
These hints may be of service to those 
who are disposed to become bee-hunters, and 
to mark, for fall, the hollow trees to which 
they follow the bees during the summer. 
We introduce them here, chiefly as an illus¬ 
tration of some of the wonderful instincts of 
the honey-bee ; for when we get ready to 
pry into the hive itself, we shall go down to 
neighbor Jones, and ask the privilege of ex¬ 
amining his apiary at our leisure. 
The instinct of the bee takes it directly 
home ; and from this we can judge of its 
wonderful vision. Flying at a considerable 
distance from the ground, and without a 
compass to direct its course, it seems to 
have no difficulty at all in distinguishing its 
land marks; but makes its way, so far as we 
know, with equal ease over prairies and 
meadows and timber land. How strange 
that those little eyes should see so. far, and 
that those wings should carry them in a 
straight line to their home! But still 
stranger is the fact that if a hive is moved 
but a few feet from its proper stand, the bees 
returning from the fields are unable to find 
it in its new location. Their acuteness of 
vision seems then to fail them, and they fly 
in circles around the familiar spot till they 
die of mere fatigue. Their instincts do not 
anticipate any such catastrophe as the re¬ 
moval of their dwelling. If, however, the 
hive of bees is carried two or three miles 
from its stand, the bees on leaving it, finding 
new objects around the hive, take their bear¬ 
ings before they go far away, and so become 
familiar with the new situation. In some 
countries this fact is turned to good account, 
and hives are transported from place to place 
in search of pasture ground. On the Nile, 
for example, large numbers of hives are 
placed on a boat, and are carried up and 
down the river, stopping at different places 
as often and as long as the supply of honey 
demands. The bees, all returning in the 
evening, may be carried several miles at 
night, and the next morning they have to 
learn the features of a new country. 
The bee has other senses than that of 
sight, and it is remarkable that so much of 
its work should be done in perfect darkness. 
It comes in from the field in the glaring light 
of noon-day, and is perfectly at home in all 
the passages and windings of a hive as dark 
as midnight. Darkness is not essential to its 
work, but it does not impede it; and the or¬ 
dinary work within goes on as well by night 
as by day. There must be some wonderful 
powers of feeling to guide the bees in such 
a labyrinth; and the antennae and feelers un¬ 
doubtedly are designed to help them in the 
dark. 
The sense of smell is also very acute. 
Probably bees distinguish others belonging 
to the same hive by their individual odor. If 
a strange bee attempts to force his way into 
a hive where it does not belong, it is likely 
to be repulsed at the door. If different col¬ 
onies are united, they are frequently dis¬ 
posed to have a fight together, but their hos¬ 
tility may be entirely overcome by giving 
them all a sprinkling with water, strongly 
scented with peppermint or some such odor. 
The scent of honey will attract them to a 
box where there is nothing to be seen ; and 
in large towns the perfumes of the apothe¬ 
cary sometimes draw them by hundreds to 
his store, where they try in vain to get at 
shaving soaps and soda-water syrups. 
Nothing provokes a bee more than the odor 
of its own poison; and probably it is the 
fragrance of flowers that directs its course 
from field to field, and from tree to tree. To 
some persons also they show a special dis¬ 
like, and the human breath is particularly of¬ 
fensive to them. 
The sense of taste is nearly allied to that 
of smell, and we suppose no one who has 
eaten honey will be disposed to doubt that 
the bee has “a sweet tooth” somewhere in 
its head. 
The sense of hearing is not so easily 
marked. It is doubtful whether bees pay 
any attention to noises made by man. If 
they do not, it is in vain to attempt to delay 
a swarm by beating pans and kettles in the 
old fashioned way. Some persons still be¬ 
lieve that such a noise disconcerts the bees 
by drowning their own hum ; but the best 
informed have no faith in it. Still it seems 
possible that the bees do communicate with 
each other by the noises which they are able 
to make. Their hum, produced by the mo¬ 
tion of the wings, varies at different times, 
and has its lively as well as its sad mood. 
Other noises are heard within the hive, which, 
have some special significance, even if they 
do not convey information from one insect 
to another. 
We have spoken now of the wonderful in¬ 
stincts and powers which excite a desire to 
know more of insect life, and to penetrate 
the mystery of the bee-hive. But the pros¬ 
pect is discouraging, for the hole in the tree 
by which the bees enter is very small, and 
too many armed sentinels are there, to make 
it seem very safe to look into that dark cavi¬ 
ty. Nor is the common hive mnch better. 
So we must watch awhile longer on the out¬ 
side, and question the people that come out 
from the city. They are very busy, and 
cannot loiter, but we will coax them to tell 
us the latest news as they fly by, and per¬ 
haps we shall get on such good terms with 
them, before the summer is over, that they 
will let us see their nurseries, and cradles, 
and store-rooms of sweet-meats. 
Dogs. —We agree with all who express the 
opinion that dogs are a great loss in ail economi¬ 
cal point of view. Take all that it costs to keep 
the dogs in Ohio, and add it to the value of all 
the stock they kill, and of all the time they are 
the means of wasting, and all the quarrels they 
occasion, and all the hydrophobia they cause, and 
place the sum total on one side of the account. 
Then place on the other side all the real good 
they do, and we question whether the most de¬ 
voted dog-worshipper would not own that the 
idolatry was a costly concern. With a very few 
exceptions, we believe it would be a blessing if 
all the canine race in our State were to disappear 
and be seen no more forever.— Ed. Ohio Farmer. 
Our opinion exactly.— Ed. Ger. Telegraph. 
And exactly ours. — Ed. American Agriculturist. 
