The Valentine Democrat. [volume] (Valentine, Cherry Co., Neb.) 1896-1898, 1898-01-06
LITTLE WEATHER PROPHETS.
Bees Seem to Know in Advance What
the Weather Will Be.


the Weather Will Be.
The question whether various insects
and animals have the powers popularity
attributed to them of knowing in adj
vance what the weather is going to be,
and in particular of predicting the Sc
verify of a coming winter, has fire.
Quently been discussed. a correspond
ent of Cosmos, NJ. =. de Ridder, writes
to that journal that he believes the bee
to posses this power beyond doubt, and
he proceeds to give his reasons for that
belief. We translate his letter below.
Says NJ. de Ridder:
Every one knows that at the ap.
proach of winter certain birds leave
northern regions and fly southwark,
seeking under a warmer sky a refuge
agalnstthe cold and rigors of the north.
But every n does not know of the
admirable foresight shown by the bee
about the time of the earliest cold
weather. 1t also feels the approach Of
winter; nay, more, the bee seems to
understand a long time in advance
thC "ihtS 10 W NC hiiu VI cS
we're. Between the migratory birds and
the bee there is this difference: The
former are driven away by the cold
and the bad weather from the regions
where they are; the latter are guided
by a special instinct Of foresight, an
bees meteorology.
But the bee does not know how to
flee before the approach of the winter,
and cannot do so; he cannot abandon
the store so laboriously laid up during
the fine weather; he cannot leave the
hive where he has put away the neces-
sites of life for the coming winter.
MANY times have 1 witnessed the
vigilance and foresight Of the bee. For
ty years ago ~bee-keepers were still
using the old miter-shaped straw hives
with two openings or entrances. Well,
l noticed that about the beginning Of
October the bees stopped up these two
entrances with wax so as to leave pass
age for only n bee at a time, thus CIV
ing a lesson to the bee-keeper who had
neglected to put a board over the en-
frances to prevent the introduction Of
cold air.
Certain persons think that the bee
plasters up these openings as the cold
increases, but this is an error. The bee
knows enough to take his precautionary
measures in good time, for when the
temperature of the air falls to about 40
degrees Fahrenheit he does not leave
the hive, and when the temperature
approaches freezing he cannot without
exposing himself to paralysis and death
separate himself from the mass of in
ball.
There are others who believe that
extraordinary precautionary measures
taken by the bee are only the result Of
coincidence, and that chance plays the
chief part in them. This hypothesis is
not tenable. Besides, the ~bee-keepers
Of all countries agree in saying-and
their attention must have been often
called to the phenomenOn-that every
time that the bees have taken car to
seal Theoretically the entrances to the
hive, 81 as to leave but a minute pass
age for air, the winter has been Of ex-
IRENE rigor. On the other hand, the
years when the bees have done nothing
TO preserve themselves from the cold
have been marked by relatively mild
winters during which no heavy frosts
have occurred.
Here the question naturally pre-
sents itself: How can the bee foresee
the weather so far In advance, when
man with all his intelligence and his
knowledge has not yet succeeded in do
ing this?
I'm truth, 1 find no satisfactory an
swer to this question.
Must we suppose that, toward the
end of the summer, q rigorous winter Is
heralded by drafts of air Of exception
ally low temperature, that escape our
perceptions and our Instruments, but
r perceived by the bee, and utilized
by it as signs that it must take meas
ures, in due time, for protection against
the cold?
However it may be, before this in
stance of prediction, whose exactness is
no open to doubt on the testimony of a
large number of bee-keepers, every OBJ
server Of meteorological phenomena
should stand COMPOUNDED and express
his admiration for the mysterious me-
teorology Of the bee."-Literary Digest.
"Woolly" Journalism