16 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



plenty up into the empty one, but will know from the 

 hum if there is plenty. The queen is among the 

 first to run— so that you are sure that you have her — 

 into the empty one. Set your new swarm where the 

 old stock hive stood, setting the old one a few yards 

 distant to either side ; contract the entrance till 

 they get stronger, to prevent their stronger neigh- 

 bours from plundering them. The best time for 

 this operation is about five or six o'clock, in the 

 month of May or June, when the bees have mostly 

 returned from the fields. I have tried them in the 

 morning, but I found that there was mostly a stir 

 among them then ; but when done at night they 

 are quietly settled and at work in the morning, the 

 same as if nothing had happened. Do not be alarmed 

 although there are not many working in the old stock 

 for a few days, for it will require the most of them 

 left to nurse the brood for about a week. Or, 

 another way of drawing a hive : — Take a strong lying- 

 out hive, cut a small piece of comb with eggs in it 

 out of some other hive, where you have a healthy 

 queen, fixing it in the top of your empty hive ; then 

 lift your lying-out stock hive about midday, when 

 the most of the bees are in the fields, and put the 

 empty one down on its stand, making it as like the 

 old one in outward appearance as you possibly can, 

 setting your stock down in some other place of your 

 apiary. The bees returning from the fields will ap- 

 pear a little confused, going in and out, flying about 

 a little, but will soon settle and rear a queen out of 

 the eggs you put in with the comb. 



At page 278 of your last number, Mr. C. H. 

 George says that he thought it was already 

 thoroughly proved and universally acknowledged 

 that bees' eggs when laid were of different sexes. 

 Now, I am of the opinion that they are all one sex 

 when laid, and that the bees can rear queens out of 

 eggs either laid in drone or workers' cells if taken 

 from a healthy well-doing hive. I am surprised that 

 such an easily tested point regarding bees remains 

 disputed, and trust that some of your bee-keeping 

 readers will try the simple experiment, publi shing 

 the results during next summer. He says that in 

 the year 1868 he saw drones unusually early at a 

 hive, which excited his suspicions of the capabilities 

 of his queen. I will explain the cause of his queen 

 producing only drones. The hive that she was in 

 would lose their queen some time in the month of 

 September preceding, when there were still eggs ; but 

 by the time that they reared a young queen from 

 the workers' eggs the drones would all be killed ; 

 therefore she would not be fertilized. Consequently, 

 all the eggs that ever she would lay would produce 

 drones; if laid in workers' cells they would be 

 small ones, little larger than the working bee, and 

 those in the drone cells would just be like common 

 drones. He says that on the 5th of June he drove 

 his hive and gave them a piece of worker comb con- 

 taining eggs from a pure Ligurian stock, and his bees 



only attempted to raise one queen, in which they 

 were successful. I think that this proves that 

 they are of one sex when laid, or how could they 

 raise a queen from a worker's egg ? He further says, 

 " She had the characteristic marks of the Ligurian, 

 but was very small, and turned, muclr to his surprise, 

 a drone-breeder, &c." The cause of this was that 

 his young queen was not fecundated; — drones pro- 

 duced from an unfertilized queen, and there would 

 only be that sort in his hive. And he further says 

 " that on the 15th of July he removed a queen from 

 a black stock of bees, and on the 23rd of the same 

 month he destroyed every queen cell, giving it a 

 piece of worker comb containing eggs and brood in 

 all stages. From this breeder the bees formed many 

 queens' cells ; but everyl cell produced a drone, 

 &c." Now eggs of unfertilized queens cannot be 

 changed by the workers ; so that was not a fair 

 experiment to test whether the eggs were all one 

 sex or not (page 282). 



Mr. "E. G. W." mentions he would like to hear 

 more of the iron cover invented by me, which I 

 herewith give ; they are made of sheet iron wel 

 painted inside and out. 



Fig. 12. Hive-cover. 

 a. The cover for ventilator to draw up and down as it may be 



required. 

 A. The ventilator; small holes pierced in the sides of it to 



admit of air. 



c. The lid of the cover hinged at the back, with a hasp for a 



padlock at front. 



d. The body of the cover. 



c, e. Hasps fixed to the cover, with a hole in them to admit of 

 a bolt to go through below floor-board, so that you can 

 lock the whole together. 



