Agric. Res. Serv., U.S.D.A.*

A society as efficiently organized as the honey-bee colony certainly would be expected to have a means of communication. The language of bees doesn't involve an alphabet or words, and it was little understood until recent years. Professor Karl von Frisch, after some 40 years of observation and research, was able to interpret the language of bees. His experiments clearly showed that the bees have an accurate language based upon characteristic dances, odor, and taste perception. When a foraging bee locates a source of pollen or nectar, she can communicate this information to other bees in the colony accurately as to direction, distance from the hive, and the kind of plants supplying it.

The language dance performed within a colony is oriented on the combs in relation to the sun. The angle between the sun, food source, and hive determines the direction of the dance orientation. A dance straight up on the comb's vertical axis means towards the sun; to the right, so many degrees to the right of the sun; and to the left, so many degrees to the left of the sun. A rapid dance means a short distance; a slower dance means increased distance. The bees do not actually have to see the sun to be capable of transmitting or interpreting this food source information, since they can perceive and interpret direction from the polarized light they receive from the sky. The plant producing the food is identified by the odor association of the food gathered by the dancing bee.

Assume that a scout bee finds food in an apple orchard one mile to the east in the direction of the sun at 8:00 o'clock in the morning, the dancing forager will move over several cells straight up the vertical axis of the comb, vibrating its abdomen from left to right at a frequency appropriate to the distance. She then turns first right then left to reverse herself and repeats the straight-line run of the wagtail dance, pausing occasionally to give food to surrounding bees. She usually repeats the dance a number of times in one location and then moves on to another and performs the identical dance again. The bees of an age to respond to food gathering leave the hive in search of food from the same source in the direction and distance indicated by a dancing bee. These bee recruits will not stop to visit plums, pears, dandelions, or some other kind of blossom after receiving the odor association of food from apple blossoms. If food is available from this same orchard at noontime, the dancing foragers will make the straight-line run of their wagtail dance 90' to the left of the vertical axis of the comb. If food is still available in the evening, the dance will orient along the vertical axis but in a downward direction.

Scout bees forage for food sources before the main force of food-gathering bees venture forth to the harvest. The recruited bees also dance when they return to the colony as long as food is available. Thus, the number of foragers increases at a rapid rate, the increase being limited by the Station in cooperation with the Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment . Approved by the Director of the Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment Station.food available. When the supply from a given plant species is limited, other scouts from the same colony may find plants of a different species and location producing pollen or nectar. Thus, there may be more than one informative dance performed in the hive at one time. Honey bees once oriented to a plant species rarely visit others as long as the first source continues to supply food.

Dances similar to those giving direction for food are performed by scout bees who locate a domicile to be occupied by a swarm that has issued from a colony. There are many other dances performed by bees that obviously extend the area of communication beyond food gathering and locating a domicile.

Many people know only that bees make honey and sting. Practically all bees, hornets, and wasps are stinging insects. Only the females have stingers and only the worker honey bee has a barbed stinger, These barbed stingers are left in you when you are stung. A sting from a bumblebee, hornet, or wasp is often more severe than that from a honey bee. If you are attacked by these insects, they are likely to sting several times in rapid succession as their sting is not barbed.

If stung by a honey bee, scrape the stinger free from the wound as quickly as possible. This will reduce the amount of venom injected and the consequent irritation. Because the poison sac of the honey bees' stinger is attached to it, any attempt to grasp the stinger to pull it out will only squeeze more poison into the wound.

Beekeepers usually receive enough bee stings to become immune to the swelling within a short time, but the initial pain which lasts 10 to 15 seconds is just as intense following the last sting as the first one. Local swelling following a sting is normal. The various treatments you may have heard about have only psychological value because you do "something."

Stings are rarely serious, though the swelling that follows is uncomfortable for I to 3 days if no immunity has been developed. Those rare individuals who experience difficulty in breathing or have some other abnormal reaction following a sting should see a doctor immediately.

If you learn how interesting a study of bees can be before you get stung and your reaction to stings is normal, that is only local swelling with the accompanying itching, you are not likely to let a few stings deter you from the bees. Honey bees will not attack unless they are disturbed by yourself or someone else, Honey bees, like people, differ in temperament. While some strains of bees are vicious and some are cross, the great majority can be handled without difficulty. When the bees of a colony are unusually prone to sting, the colony should be requeened with a more gentle strain.

An accident is unlikely to occur when the element of fear is not present. If a bee stings because it is sat on or gets under a persons clothing, the victim is just as apt to think he or she was stuck by a pin as stung. Bees that happen to get into moving vehicles can cause serious acci

"The Life of the Honey Bee, its Biology and Behavior with an Introduction to Managing the Honey-Bee Colony" was written to stimulate interest and use in secondary school Biology courses and to make available to beginners basic information about bees and their managemnet. In this introduction to management, the whole procedure is portrayed with a series of pictures. In this article appears how bees communicate and sting, followed by an introduction to keeping bees, In the next issue will appear a picture story of colony management.

Students if the drivers or occupants panic because of fear of being stung. It is well to remember that none of the "stinging bees" will attack the occupants under such circumstances, so the driver should pull off the road, stop, and let the bee out.

Exposure to the interesting facts about the life of honey bees may have "whetted the appetite," so to speak, so that the reader may wish to keep a colony or two. Selected references are appended which will provide useful information in such a venture. (The two National Geographic Magazine articles contain exceptionally fine colored photographs of bees and describe their activities.)

Beekeeping will prove much more interesting and you will probably be more successful if you become acquainted with other bee enthusiasts in your locality. Your county agent, state agricultural experiment station, and state department of agriculture can help you establish contacts and provide information on local problems. A number of cities have bee associations with memberships up to several hundred. There may be either a local or a county association in your community; also there will be state-wide organizations in practically every state.

Honey-bee colonies can be kept anywhere-in urban locations or in the country provided they are situated where they do not become a nuisance to one's neighbors. Because a colony of honey bees may forage over 8,000 to 25,000 acres, there will be adequate pollen and nectar producing plants for your bees, even in heavily populated areas.

Before deciding to keep bees in a populated area, be sure you know your neighbors. Stimulate their interest in the bees and plan to share a little honey. Locate the colonies where shrubbery or other objects will direct the flight of the bees above your neighbor's property. Consider locating them in the garage using entrance tunnels to the outside. Work the colonies only when the bees are flying freely. If the bees of a colony prove to be cross, requeen it with more gentle stock without delay.

It is desirable to start with two colonies because if you only have one colony and it loses its queen, it may mean the end of your beekeeping. Loss of both queens in two colonies is unlikely. A comb of brood can be taken from the queen-right colony to hold the morale of the bees if a queen is lost in the other until a new queen can be obtained and introduced. Investment in bees and equipment for more than two colonies is seldom justified until you are certain you enjoy working with bees and until you have gained enough knowledge and experience to manage them successfully.

Many disappointments can be avoided if, before making an investment, you read and study books or bulletins on honey- bee management, as well as bee journals and trade supply catalogs. Instructions vary widely on the choice of equipment, how much you will need, and how to start the colony. Factory-milled hive equipment is desirable, but, if you have a power saw and prefer to build your own hives , obtain one unit of a factory-cut hive and make your hives with exactly the same dimensions.

The Langstroth or standard 10-frame hive with frames inches deep has been most widely used throughout North America since the Rev. L. L. Langstroth designed it in 1852 , based upon his discovery of the principle of the bee space, Any size or style of hive equipment can be used if it provides the required space for the colony to develop and store honey without restriction when the space is kept properly organized in conformance with the normal behavior of bees. The hive chosen must, of course, have movable frames and provide the normal bee space between combs and sets of combs. All sections of the hive should be of the same dimension and interchangeable.

A shallow type of hive taking frames 6-4 inches deep is recommended in preference to the standard Langstroth hive. Shallow hive bodies permit better colony control with less individual handling of the frames than the standard equipment; they can be used successfully as brood chambers and supers for surplus honey, making these interchangeable; and they are lighter to handle when full of honey. Many commercial beekeepers have adopted the inch shallowframe hive body for use as supers and, as their standarddepth equipment requires replacement, it is likely many will adopt the shallow brood chamber to obtain uniformity in their hive equipment. The beginner who is establishing his colonies in new hives will do well to choose the shallow equipment.

The beginner is advised to produce his surplus honey in these shallow frames for use as comb honey. Section comb honey production requires specialized skills, and to extract honey from the comb requires a honey extractor and other equipment that the beginner can do without.

Eight 10-frame shallow hive bodies are needed for each colony. The frames for four of these (40) should be assembled with a reinforced foundation. The frames for the other four chambers should be assembled with thin surplus foundation if the honey is to be used as comb honey. When the honey is to be extracted, the same foundation is used in the supers as in the brood chambers. Provision of less equipment than this will make management problems more difficult and possibly result in the loss of surplus honey.

Three-pound packages of bees with young queens should be obtained for establishing the colonies in new equipment on foundation. (The 2-pound package is used when the beekeeper has combs of honey and pollen available from other colonies. The package bees should be introduced into the hive early in the spring when flowers are abundant and weather conditions permit the gathering of pollen that is needed for raising brood. The proper time will be approximately when willows, fruit trees, and dandelions bloom. The new colonies will have to be fed 15 to 45 pounds of sugar (cane or beet) made into sirup by dissolving two parts of sugar in one part of hot water. This sirup is needed for the bees to secrete wax and draw the foundation into comb and to supply food until plants secrete nectar abundantly from which they can make honey. Feeding should be continued until all the combs are drawn in the brood chambers or until the bees are gathering nectar freely from the field. A colony will not take sirup from the feeder when nectar becomes available.

The establishment and growth of the colony in the shallow 10-frame equipment is shown pictorially in the accompanying sequence of pictures. A special hive split through the middle, hinged at the back, with one half supported on casters, was prepared for the purpose of photographing the colony to better show the growth of the colony from the time it was established until it is ready to overwinter.

A smoker, bee veil, and hive tool are essential in the handling of bees. The smoker is indispensable and one must quickly learn to use just the right amount of smoke, neither too much nor too little, so that the bees remain quiet on the comb. A bee veil should always be worn, and the hive tool is much more satisfactory than a screwdriver for separating the hive chambers or frames.

What you see the bees do will prove fascinating; what they produce for your table will prove delicious; and, it is just possible you may have some fruit trees that will be more fruitful because you are keeping bees.

The Honey Bee. James I Hambleton. Smithsonian Publication 4494. (Smithsonian Report for 1961, pp. 465-478). Washington, D. C. 1962.

Man's Winged Ally, The Busy Honeybee. jas. 1. Hambleton. National Geographic Magazine LXVII(4):401-428. April 1935.

Inside the World of the Honeybee. Treat Davidson. National Geographic Magazine CXVI(2):188-217. August 1959. [Files of the National Geographic Magazine available in most public libraries.]

The ABC and XYZ of Bee Culture. John Root, 1962 edition. A. 1. Root Company, Medina, Ohio.

The Hive and the Honey Bee. R. A. Grout, 1963 edition. Dadant & Sons, Hamilton, Illinois.

The American Bee journal. Dadant & Sons, Hamilton, Illinois 62341.

Gleanings in Bee Culture. A. 1. Root Company, Medina, Ohio.

The Bee World. The Bee Research Association, Hill House, Chalfont St. Peter, Gerrards Cross, Bucks., England.