The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-01-08
BEES FOR USE In WAR.
HERE'S A MAN WHO SAYS THEY
ARE THE BEST.
Very Interesting Experiments Flew
Home as Unerringly Carrier Pr
geons, with Dispatches ON Their
Backas

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- " T IS more than like
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ETT2ss3.ssssN Iksl 1y that the next
great European war
III q M will be signalized
x yN1&A<N@l by some altogether
NNENE>4l remarkable innova-
SQOxAA tions in the way OF.
NS&1S7S@ carrying military
INV dispatches. b Q
q 81 carrier carrier pigeons ot : oaat of a
back are certain to
be super seded, perhaps by storks, per-
haps by sparrows. Experiments have
already been tried with both these
birds, and with a fair degree of success.
The stork, however, despite his swift
ness of flight and his strength. is too
easy a mark for the Lebel bullet, and it
is questioned whether the sparrow is
sufficiently strong. In this uncertainty
an English apiculturist offers bees as
messengers of war. He has tested their
packet-carrying abilities, and can
vouch for their speedy return, upon
liberation, to the place whence they
came. While at first sight the turning
of bees into couriers may seem some
thing of a joke, it is nevertheless re-
garded seriously throughout England.
The man who suggested it took few
bees from his own house to that of a
friend four miles away. He waited
several days, so that >the bees might
become familiar with their surround
ing He then let few of them loose
in a room, in which was a plate of
honey. The bees settled upon this, and
while they were busy eating mock de-
spatches were fastened on them by the
apicuiturist's trained hand. The thin
nest of all thread bound the little pack
cts, which were of the flmiest of paper,
to the bees backs. Great care was
taken to leave the head and wings abb
solutely free. The windows were then
opened and the bees thrown out into
the air. With the certainty of carrier
pigeons, they started off at once for
home, arriving there in an incredibly
short time, with the packets secure up
on their backs.
Naturally this project would only be
possible in summer and in warm CHI
mates, for the reason the bees would
be unable to endure severe weather.
Bees would have the advantage over
pigeons or birds because of their in
visibility. Nor would there be any diff
Guilty in going through the enemy's
lines. The apiculturist says that they
could travel fifty miles quite as easily
as they could four.
Though this is the first time that bees
have been suggested as army messen-
gers, there have been many cases when
they have proved invaluable as defend
ing forces. At one time, several CEN
turtles ago, the city of Tamly, in the
Spanish territory of Xiatine. was be-
sieged by the Portuguese. The invaders
were winning bastion after bastion,
when the beleaguered citizens were
struck with a brilliant project. They
brought all the hives that they could
find in the place and set them upon the
city wall, building great fires under
meath them The smoke and the flames
so incensed the bees that they rushed
out in swarms and flew down upon the
enemy, making a panic instanter and
causing them to flee.
Very much the same plan was tried,
and with equal success, by a statesman
of Thuringia, whose house was sur
rounded one day by furious mob. He
marched his servants out with all his
beehives and threw them one by one in
would not have been half so effective
as were these strange and unexpected
weapons. 1t took but moment to clear
the space around the statesman's dwell
ing.