The St. Johns herald., 1898-02-05
LITTLE WEATHER PROPHETS.
Bees Seem to Know in Advance What
 the Weather Will Be.

The question whether various insects And animals have the powers popularly attributed to them of knowing in ad- vance what the weather is going to be, and in particular of predicting the se- verity of a coming winter, has ire 1uently been discussed. A correspond ent of Cosmos, NJ. F. de Ridder, writes to that journal that he believes the bee to posses this power beyond doubt, and ne proceeds to give his reasons for that helief. 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 southward, seeking under a warmer sky a refuge against the cold and rigors of the north.
 But every one does not know of the admirable foresight shown by the bee about the time of the earliest cold weather. It also feels the approach of winter; nay, more, the bee seems to understand a long time in advance whether the winter Is to be mild or se- were. 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 special instinct of foresight, an Instinct which I make bold to call the bees meteorology.
 But the bee does not know how to
 dee 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 I 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, noticed that about the beginning of October the bees stopped up these two entrances with wax so as to leave pass age for only one bee at time, thus giv- ing 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- who then form a compact ball.
 There are others who believe that precautionary measures taken by the bee are only the result of and that chance plays the chief part in them. This hypothesis Is not tenable. Besides, the bee-keepers Dt all countries agree in saying-and their attention must have been often called to the phenomenon-that every time that the bees have taken care to seal dramatically the entrances to the hive, so as to leave but a minute pass age for air, the winter has been of ex- treme rigOr. On the other hand, the years when the bees have done nothing 10 preserve themselves from the cold have been marked by relatively mild winters during which no heavy frosts nave occurred.
 Here the question naturally pre- ;ents itself: How can the bee foresee he weather so far in advance, when nan with all his intelligence and his has not yet succeeded in do- ng this?
 ''In truth, I find no satisfactory an- ;wer to this question.
 Must we suppose that, toward the md of the summer, rigorous winter is leralded by drafts of air of exception lily low temperature, that escape our perceptions and our instruments, but Ire perceived by the bee, and utilized 1 y it as signs that it must take meas tres, In due time, for protection against | he cold?
 However it may be, before this in- tance of prediction, whose exactness is ot open to doubt on the testimony of a lrge number of bee-keepers, every ob- erver of meteorological phenomena hOuld stand confounded and express is admiration for the mysterious me. eorology of the bee" e."-Literary Digest,