PLAYFLIGHTS 
655 
had a surplus before nor since that season 
from this source.” 
PICKLED BROOD. —See Foul Brood; 
subhead “Sacbrood.” 
PLAYFLIGHTS OF YOUNG BEES.— 
Under the head of Robbing mention is 
made of the playflights of young bees as 
being very similar to the performances of 
robbers as they fly about in front of the 
entrance of the colony they are trying to 
rob. As soon as settled warm weather 
comes on in the spring, especially after a 
few days when the bees have been shut in, 
there will be a very pronounced demonstra¬ 
tion of hundreds of bees flying around in 
front of the entrances of a number of 
hives. 
The so-called “playflights” of young bees 
are flights of orientation. For one or two 
days after the young bees leave the cells 
they are so weak and helpless that they 
move about very little, and take no active 
part in the work of the hive. Then for ten 
days or more they act as nurse bees, clean 
the cells, build new combs and serve as 
guards. Before they leave the hive for 
the field they perform the flight of orienta¬ 
tion. On a warm clear morning, or some¬ 
times later in the day, hundreds of them 
may be seen flying up and down, and back 
and forth in front of the hive. Their 
heads are always turned toward the hive, 
as they hover about in the air and they 
even at times fly backward slightly. In 
this way they form a memory picture of 
the appearance of the hive and its exact 
position, and occasionally they describe lar¬ 
ger orientation circles, and thereby impress 
upon their memory the near surroundings. 
According to Dzierzon, the distinguished 
discoverer of parthenogenesis in the hon¬ 
eybee, “There is not the slightest doubt that 
bees find their way back to the hive guided 
by memory pictures of their dwelling and 
the near surroundings. Instinct is the ex¬ 
planation, in so far as they are led to ob¬ 
serve accurately the position of their hive 
and the nearest surroundings in the first 
flight out. In the first flight (Vorspiel or 
first play) they gain an exact impression 
of the neighborhood and the hive.” If 
young bees or brood-nurses, which have not 
yet had their flight of orientation, are car¬ 
ried a short distance away, and released, 
none find their way back to the hive. But 
if this experiment is performed with old 
bees, they quickly return to the hive even 
from a long distance. Again if the queen 
be removed from the first swarm, which is 
composed of old bees, they quickly return 
to the hive; but if the queen is removed 
from an after-swarm, which is composed 
for the most part of young bees, they buzz 
about for a long time and finally enter 
strange hives. Without the flight of orien¬ 
tation the young bees would not be able to 
locate their hive on returning from their 
first trip to the fields. 
When the beehives are moved from one 
location to another, unless the older bees 
also orient themselves before they leave 
for the fields, they are likely to be lost and 
fail to find the hive again. In Germany, 
according to Buttel-Reepen, colonies which 
are sent to buckwheat fields are always 
brought out to these fields before the buck¬ 
wheat blooms, so that the bees can learn 
thoroly the new locality. If the bees 
are not moved until the fields are in full 
bloom they rush out without orientation 
and many are lost. If the weather is mild 
and clear unoriented bees are not always 
lost, but they soon return, often after 5 or 
10 minutes, because not finding the cus¬ 
tomary landmarks they seek orientation. If 
a colony of bees is moved several miles, 
and the old bees are carried 100 feet from 
the hive before they have been able to make 
their flight of orientation and released, 
none of them will find their way back to 
the hive even from this short distance, if 
a house or a tree intervene between it and 
the place where they were set free. 
Buttel-Reepen found that if the height 
of the hive is changed so that the entrance 
is suddenly made, let us say, one or two 
inches higher or lower, then the bees con¬ 
tinue to fly exactly to the spot where the 
entrance was before. Hours and often 
days may pass before the bees fly directly 
to the entrance in its new position. Bees 
are accustomed to fly in and out the hive 
at the same point of the entrance. If a 
bee is powdered on entering at the outer¬ 
most right corner of the entrance, it will 
be seen that, in unmolested flight, it uses 
the same corner constantly in a straight 
line, even if the entrance is very narrow. 
If the entrance is stopped up, except for 
