Evening star., 1939-08-20
Specialists
Study Ways
OF Colonies
Beltsville Center
OF Experiments
In Bee Culture
By James Nevin Miller.

little army OF Federal b-men is
tracking down the secrets of Mr..
and Mrs. Honey Bee. These in
vestigators, under the supervision
OF James I. Hambleton, chief api-
culturist of the Bureau of Ento-
mology and Plant Quarantine, De-
partment of Agriculture, have de-
veloped a number of new devices
that help throw important new light
on the bees business.
There is, for instance, a unique
observation hive, made of glass,
which reveals with little trouble
and perfect safety many of the
innermost mysteries of the hive.
Also employed from day to day is
delicately- balanced scale which de-
termines exactly how changes in
temperature, intensity of the sun,
humidity and other weather fac
tors affect the activity of a colony
Of honey manufacturers.
The Beltsville scientists determine
the activity Of each bee colony dur
ing honey-f1ow time by making a
careful checkup of changes in
weight. A healthy colony increases
In weight by as much as 20 pounds in
q single day during good honey
flow in favorable weather.
An unladen honey bee can fly
about Is miles an hour, the spe-
cialists estimate. but seldom goes
faster than Is miles an hour. When
weighted with nectar, it often flies
as rapidly as when unladen, al
though it sometimes stops to rest
on a long journey. There are oc-
casions when bees with heavy loads
become exhausted when flying over
lakes or rivers, fall into the water
and are drowned. A heavily-laden
bee sometimes makes an ungrace-
full landing at the apiary, humping
into the hive or dropping to the
ground before it. The load OF nectar
which the bee brings to the hive
varies with the density Of the nee
tar, but the average load is about
40 milligrams, or about one-half
the weight of the insect.
Cosmetics Contain Beeswax.
Lipstick, rouge, mascara, eye
shadow, face cream and a goodly
list of other beauty aids depend each
year upon the honey bee for a
million pounds or more of the prod
ucts entering into their manufac-
ture. According to H. j. Clay Of the
Bureau of Agricultural Economics,
most present-day cosmetics con-
tain beeswax as a part of their prep
aration. Fully so products used on
the face and hands include some
beeswax, but the chief use of bees
wax is in cream and such items
OF makeup as lipstick and rouge.
Typical cold cream contains from
3 to IL per cent of beeswax. Deodo-
rant sticks may contain as much as
IS per cent, camphor ice Is per cent
and epilating wax 20 per cent. Cold
cream, from formula that has come
down from the Roman era, includes
beeswax. According to Mr.. Clay, no
synthetic substitute has yet appeared
that will adequately take the place of
beeswax. The cosmetics industry
now ranks second only to the pro-
duction of special types of candles
In the quantity of beeswax consumed.
The honey bee is often spoken OF
as domesticated, but this is far from
true, the Federal scientists find. AL
though men and bees have been
closely associated since the dawn of
history, the honey bee is apparently
as wild today as it was centuries ago.
Wild animals have yielded to mans
influence and many of them are now
as dependent upon man as man is
upon them; but the bees in apiaries
are as wild as their cousins in dense
forests.
Bees taken from bee tree and
placed in modern hive are as much
at home as though they were de-
scended from generations of hive
raised bees. On the other hand,
swarm that has left modern apiary
and settled in hollow tree fares as
we'll in its new environment as did
any of it's ancestors in cave or forest.
Bees are no more demesticated than
are the bats in the barn or attic.
The Beltsville specialists explain
this unchangint trait in bees by
stating that the queen and the drone
that mates with her-the only bees
having the power of reproduction
have no contact with the outside
world, and therefore have no new
experiences to pass along to their
offspring. The worker bees, who are
constantly subject to new conditions,
have no offspring and no opportunity
to pass on to future generations the
benefits of their experiences.
Man has been able to control the
mating of most plants and animals,
but with bees this is impossible be-
cause the queen mates only on the
wing, while high in the air. At
tempts to control mating by con-
fining queens and drones in hives or
even in large greenhouses have
failed.
Longer Tongues Wanted.
In recent years, scientists of the
Agriculture Department have been
s1ccessful in impregnating queen