68 . BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



bees not being worn out by raising a brood, they will, perhaps, 

 continue until late in the fall, and the next thing the bee- 

 keeper knows, he finds in the spring that his hive is without 

 bees, but with plenty of honey. 



Question. Is the queen a bee that very often goes out 

 from the hive? 



Mr. Jeffries. A queen goes out ©n two occasions from the 

 hive ; once for the purpose of mating, and after that for the 

 purpose of leading a swarm. Under no other circumstances 

 are queen bees, as a rule, known to leave the hive, except 

 when they are taken out. 



Mr. Van Hoosear. What do people mean when they say 

 "the king bee?" Do they mean they do not know anything 

 about it ? 



Mr. Jeffries. That is it, exactly. They show that they 

 are ignorant of what they are talking about. There were 

 works written years and years ago in which the chief one of 

 the hive was spoken of as "the king bee;" but Francis Huber, 

 in 1796, gave to the world a positive elucidation of the fact 

 that the chief bee in a hive was a female, consequently, a 

 queen. But she is not a queen, so far as any royal power is 

 concerned. 



Question. When a colony leaves their home with more 

 than one queen, what is the cause and the result ? 



Mr. Jeffries. If a stock of bees issues with more than 

 one queen, it is from one of two causes. First, if the stock 

 contains an old queen in the spring, and they feel disposed to 

 supersede her and raise another one, they are going to " make 

 assurance doubly sure" by trying to raise several. If three 

 or four, more or less, of those hatch at the same time, the 

 bees, if the stock is very strong, will protect those young 

 queens, and, not being disposed to have more than one, or not 

 allowing more than one to stay in the hive, they will attempt 

 to swarm, and very often all the queens there are in the hive 

 will issue with that swarm ; consequently, when they are 

 hived, they haVe a fight, and one remains. Then the result 



