BEES HOAXED

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 7 February 1928, Page 6

BEES HOAXED

ROUSED BY ELECTRIC I,Him NOVEL PLAN INCHEASIiS MONEY CROP The busy bee has been hoaxed to make him busier, and the trick has netted a gain averaging seventeen pounds of honey to the hivo (says a, London paper). Mr ){. Borlase Matthews, who tonj.' r ago' conceived the idea of waking liens up in the middle of tin- night with a. Hood of electric light so that they would eat more and lay more eggs, told the Electrical Association of Women the. other day how he perpetrated a hoax on his bees. He wasn t aware how the hoax had worked until he harvested his summer honey crop. The experiment was tried early in the spring. A beam of liglit, he said, was thrown on the entrance of the hives from electric lamps. This had the same effect as a dinner gong in a boarding house and stirred the bees to action.

The sleepy bees rubbed their eyes in anticipation and hurried out into the open to greet what they thought was th(! first real sunny day of spring. Stimulated by the electric, rays which the bees thought came from Old Sol himself, the early bees scampered back into the hive to tell the queen bee and all the fellow-bees that spring had come. Then the work bees got busy, gave the hivo a. good airing by flapping their wings, and the queen bee began to lay eggs just as fast as she could.

Mr Matthews said his artificial sun caused such a. commotion that he could not bear the thought, of deceiving the bees further, so he prepared a feast for them. Directly in front, of the beeb' home a. table, was set and the lights kept burning. There were plates of nice golden vinegar, plates of artificial pollen, and other dishes, with plenty of nice. pure water. Bees are always very thirsty early in the spring. On the table also was a. great vase of flowers, to provide the bees with an admixture of real polclen and to complete the illusion.

In the end it was ascertained that the bees got out weeks earlier than they would have if they had waited for nature. They fertilised thoroughly the apple crop, which was a record-breaker, while a gain of seventeen pounds in honey was recorded for each hive on which the hoax was worked.