42 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[Feb. 1, 1S70. 



Bees Deserting. — Your correspondent, Mr. "W . 

 Balchin, has very kindly forwarded to me, carriage 

 paid per rail, the whole of the combs from one of 

 his " deserted " hives, and wishes me to give particu- 

 lars of it in Science-Gossip. I have therefore the 

 pleasure of doing so. On examination I find that 

 all the combs are worker brood-combs, and they 

 are not likely to have been used by a queen for 

 drone brood. All the brood I have found in the 

 combs have been drone brood, raised in worker cells, 

 and therefore elongated by the bees ; for the queen 

 is unable to deposit drone eggs in worker cells, from 

 her great size at the drone-egg period — indeed in 

 the transition cells she cannot deposit ; therefore 

 there can be no doubt but a, fertile toorker existed in 

 the hive, and these can only lay drone eggs in very 

 limited numbers in worker cells. These undergrown 

 partially developed queens seldom can be detected 

 from the common workers. These fertile workers 

 are raised frequently in large cells adjoining the 

 royal cells where the walls have been cut down to 

 form a queen's cell, and thus permit the queen to 

 deposit worker eggs in drone cells which are thus 

 raised to fertile workers only. Besides these cir- 

 cumstances, there is a doubt as to the age of the 

 queen which accompanied the swarm ; also, when 

 she "perished or left the hive, she had evidently 

 finished her first laying, as most of the cells have 

 been used for breeding purposes, except the side 

 pieces, where honey and pollen or bee-bread had been 

 attempted to be stored, and a queen's cell left for 

 raising another queen, which has been abortive, but 

 still an attempt made, as it was sealed over, though 

 not in the usual way. Either the queen has never 

 been out after her new settlement, or has never re- 

 turned to her new locality after her first wedding 

 trip. A similar circumstance occurred last year in 

 my own apiary in a stock of Ligurians two years old, 

 but was headed by a beautiful Ligurian queen, 

 which was hatched on the 21st of July last ; but on 

 the 8th of October I found this stock to be 

 queenless, but an abundance of drone brood in drone 

 cells. There were only three worker cells occupied 

 with brood, which on examination proved to be 

 drone brood. On October 18th I examined every 

 comb, and again on the 26th, but was unable to 

 discover the fertile worker. On the 5th of Novem- 

 ber I introduced a black queen, which was well 

 received, and on the following day appeared quite 

 "at home." On the 8th I found the drone brood 

 all hatched, but on the 14th of November I found 

 the poor black queen turned out dead. On Novem. 

 ber the 26th I thoroughly examined every comb 

 on both sides, as I shifted it from one hive to 

 another, but could never discover the fertile 

 worker. Dec. 2nd, I found ten drones turned out 

 dead. Here were drone cells, and drones were bred 

 by a fertile worker until October ; but on December 

 5th, although this stock was well stored with honey, 



I found all the bees dead, about seven hundred in 

 number : drones and workers about equal in num- 

 ber. There are most curious and interesting facts 

 connected with the honey-bee, and although hives 

 with fixed combs may be the best for producing 

 honey, they do not give us the opportunity of ob- 

 serving the internal arrangement of a hive as those 

 with movable combs, the invention of which is due 

 to an English gentleman (Major Munn), who in 

 1834, first introduced the bar frame system. — 

 W. J. Pettitt, Dover. 



Slow-worm.— A day or two ago I noticed a 

 slow-worm in my vivarium in its twirlings and 

 turnings, arrived with its head just over the spot 

 where its tail was disappearing in the moss. The 

 head immediately plunged in, in chase, and when the 

 tail's tip emerged about five inches distant, the 

 head came out close behind. This kitten-like 

 manoeuvre was probably due to its mistaking its tail 

 for a worm. — G. Guyon. 



Cole Titmouse [Varus ater, Linn.). — This 

 species is generally distributed in Turkey, in Asia 

 Minor, and Europe. Is partial to old woods with 

 clear open bottoms. Is scarce in numbers, and 

 rarely seen in the open country ; in the winter is 

 found feeding amongst cypress trees, but always 

 scarce, and searching for its insect food generally 

 in the midst of the cypress. It is very difficult to 

 discover, and not easy to procure. It is also partial 

 to searching amongst decayed leaves for its insect 

 food, scratching and turning them over for its- 

 hidden inmates. It makes its nest in holes of trees, 

 holes of walls, and in the ground. It builds early, 

 and its eggs are rarely to be met with in the country. 

 It is a constant resident in Turkey. — The Levant 

 Times. 



Bee Parasites.— On the 14th of April last I 

 found a wild bees' nest at the foot of a fir-tree. 

 In some of the cells which I opened were yellowish 

 grubs or larvae. The nest I laid by, to see what 

 they would turn to, and on the 14th of June a num- 

 ber of the honey-moths (Jphomia colonelld) came 

 out, and in the course of a few weeks I should say 

 fully a hundred issued from this small nest, about 

 the size of a hen's egg. No bees appeared.— if. C. 

 Leslie. 



Snipe Food. — A relative, whose word may be 

 relied on, about the middle of last month killed a 

 full Snipe, and finding the crop very much distended 

 he opened it, and found therein a horse-leech entire 

 and alive. The general food of the Snipe is con- 

 sidered to be small aquatic insects, for the capture 

 of which its long and highly sensitive bill is espe- 

 cially adapted. — TFilliam Cozens. 



The Pine Beetle {Hylurgus juniper da) has 

 committed such ravages on Scotch Firs in some 

 localities, as to ruin the plantations. 



