Dooembor 12, 1865. ] 



JOUBNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE aABDBNEB. 



493 



icoolve them. Tho other two IdndH of commotion coming 

 uujer Mr. Lowe's first class — namely, those which arise from 

 the removal of a qiiecii in summer when there is brood in the 

 hive, or in winter when there is none, are very iiccurately 

 described. 



It is, however, to what ho calls the second-class of commo- 

 tions, that the scientific apiarian'.s attention is chiefly directed. 

 These, we are informed, are distinRuished from other commo- 

 tions by the agitation being comparatively local, by the pro- 

 minent part taken in it by tho younger bees, ami particularly 

 by the strange fluttering noise whicii may be di-stinctly heard 

 in the interior of the hive. This peculiar noise, which in a 

 glass liive sounds like a continuous half-suppressed wail of 

 distress, no one who has heard it onite can fail to recognise a 

 second time. It is just the sound that is emitted in all cir- 

 cumstances in which a queen is encased by bees. 



Now, as wo have reached the season of tho year when little 

 can be foimd in tho apiary to engage attention, it may not be 

 uninteresting to take another glance at some of the statements 

 advanced in Mr. L iwe's new chapter. 



Regarding the iiueen, then, which was encased by her own 

 !(ubjects, after b'.'ing released from imprisonment in a strange 

 hive, I am inclined to think Mr. Lowe may, by mistake, have 

 removed the wrong queen. If the introduced queen were ever 

 lost sight of, or nut distinctly marked, it would be impossible 

 to identify her again. I have seen both a reigning and a 

 strange queen eucused on the floor-board of a common straw 

 hive within a few seconds after the introduction of the latter 

 and a small number of attendants. It is possible that a short 

 period of imprisonment by strange bees may serve to imbue a 

 queen with a particular odour so that her own subjects may 

 not immediately recognise her, but this can only be expected 

 to happen in warm weather. An injury to the queen is not 

 likely to result in an encasement ; for, as Mr. Lowe proves in 

 his case 1, tattered wings and deprivation of a leg did not pre- 

 vent one of his from being a prolific mother, and receiving all 

 due homage. Nor do I believe the fact of a queen being 

 reared artificially has anything to do with encasements. That 

 queens produced naturally are much, if at all, superior to 

 those raised artificially, is very questionable. In both cases I 

 find those that first emerge from the cells faultless. I confess, 

 however, that I am not in love with the youngest or last born 

 of an artificial batch. They are sometimes unfortunate, and 

 often diminutive. 



As to the conditions or elements of success in artificial 

 swarming, there must not be wanting, if I understand Mr. 

 Lowe, the piesence of drones in the young queen's hive. Now, 

 I apprehend, tho presence of drones in the apiary only, if 

 there be fine weather, abundant food, and an overflowing 

 population, is all that is needed towards successful artificial 

 swarming ; for Mr. Lowe knows very well that young queens 

 are not prone to mate with the drones of their own hives. In 

 the majority of cases, pure Italian queens though reared amid 

 thousands of pure Italian drones, will go and contract mar- 

 riage with those of the black species, if within reach. It is 

 next to impossible to prevent Ligurian and common bees sited 

 within a mile of each other from crossing. 



There are two conclusions which Mr. Lowe arrives at — viz., 

 that queens may be imprisoned when superannuated and 

 infirm from age, from any natural defect in their procreative 

 powers, or from being unfecundated beyond a certain age, and 

 when in an .abnormal condition. Encasements in such cir- 

 cumstances I am inclined to think are merely accidental. To 

 my mind the cases adduced hardly warrant the inferences 

 drawn from them ; for in case No. 1, page 80, the queen, 

 though rmprolific and languid, is not stated to have been aged 

 or oven encased, and her successor may just have been an 

 instance, like that of Mr. Woodbury, of a second queen, whose 

 rearing began in inexplicable circumstances. In No. 9 the 

 queen was four years old, but she does not appear to have been 

 languid or unprolific. In No. l.S the queen was five years old 

 and encased, but slie turned out to be drone breeder. She 

 being in a box hive, Mr. Lowe may not have been able to 

 preserve indubitable proof of her age, and I can imagine his 

 supposed aged queen to have been a supplanter, one that, un- 

 observed by him, came into existence out of season, and that 

 would, consequently, prove a drone breeder. These remarks 

 will also apply to No. 5, but Mr. Lowe will, perhaps, ex- 

 plain by what means he ascertained the different ages of his 

 queens. 



The other conclusion come to by Mr. Lowe is this, that 

 queens may be imprisoned or encased by reason of the en 



trance of stranger bees into the hive. In this conclusion I am 

 at present disposed to agree, although I am aware that it 

 meets with no favour from that talented and distinguished 

 correspondent " A Devonsuiue I3Ei:-Ki!EPEa." 



Here let me remark that by " stranger bees " I do not mean 

 marauding or robber bees. With Mr. Woodbury I beliovo 

 these characters are intent upon plundering only. Rarely, if 

 ever, when destroying a hive do they put its soveroign to 

 death, or even into durance vile. These, though strangers, are 

 not the bees that obtain peaceable access to neighbouring 

 hives — on the contrary, every attempt made by such to pass 

 sentinels on the watch, meets with most determined resistance, 

 liy " stranger bees," then, I mean those bees which, without 

 any intention of plundering, find their way into other hives 

 than their own. 



That bees, which are not plunderers, do obtain unchallenged 

 entrance to other hives than their own can scarcely bo dis- 

 puted. The time spent in the new, but usurped, dwelling, 

 may be longer or shorter according to circumstances, but if in 

 their peregrinations over the combs, one or more of these bees 

 approach the queen and find she is not their own sovereign, a 

 rcgicidal note will be sounded, the rcgicidal frenzy will take 

 possession of the hive, and the queen will be immediately 

 imprisoned. That a marauding bee, as related by Mr. Wood- 

 bury at page 89-5, should have faUed to excite the frenzy in its 

 attack upon tho queen i.s, to me not surprising ; for it will be 

 observed that at the moment the marauder made the assault 

 his bees were in another kind of frenzy — they were con- 

 cerned about the safety of their queen. When once the rcgi- 

 cidal mania is awakened it does not immediatclj' subside, and 

 during its continuance a sharp look-out is kept at the en- 

 trance of the hive. Dense knots of regicides may also be 

 seen at a considerable distance from that in which the queen 

 is encased. 



It may be stated as a principle, that bees which are conscious 

 of possessing a queen, or unconscious of not having one, will 

 not tolerate the presence of a foreign sovereign ; whereas bees 

 that are conscious of being without a sovereign will readily and 

 peaceably accept of any other. If a queen from any cause 

 perish in winter, the bees for a long time may be unconscious 

 of their loss, or, if conscious of it to-day, they may, by getting 

 into a hybernating st.ate, be unconscious of it to-morrow. In 

 this condition it would be dangerous to present them with a 

 new queen ; but arouse the hive — make the bees run about and 

 discover that their sovereign is gone, and they will readily re- 

 ceive any queen oftered to tliem with demonstrations of joy. 

 In an empty hive the absence of a queen is soon detected by 

 the bees ; but in a hive with combs the discovery may not be 

 ! soon made, and if the loss be unfelt the labom-s of the hive 

 ! will be continued. Now apply this principle. Present a queen 

 1 to bees that are conscious of having a sovereign, or not con- 

 scious of being without one, and they will immediately encase 

 her. Reverse the process, and you have the same result. Now, 

 suppose bees, without any intent of plundering, enter a hive, 

 and be the occasion of imprisonment and death to the queen, 

 what will follow ? These wanderers on returning home will 

 communicate with their fellows, and knowing that a queenless 

 hive offers but feeble resistance, will go back with others of 

 their family and endeavour to carry off the stores of the victim 

 of misfortune. Indeed, a hive in which a regicide has taken 

 place may be known to be in this condition by the robbers that 

 are continually hovering about it. 



Various causes lead stranger bees into other hives ; these 

 have been referred to in the .Joui-nal, such as shifting hives, 

 removing, or siting them too near each other. Last spring I 

 found a very strong hive queenless from the simple circum- 

 stance, I believe, of having in the autumn previous inadvert- 

 ently, and without any precautions, removed a small hive ad- 

 joining it to the distance of a hundred yards. Some of the 

 removed bees returned, and entered what had formerly been 

 their nearest neighbour, and, although I did not witness their 

 proceedings, I have no doubt they occasioned a regicide. 



Bees must recognise their queens by means of the odour or 

 aroma from her person. Hence the benefit of peppermint 

 water in forming junctions. If the queen of A were held for 

 some time in a warm perspiring hand, and if the queen of B 

 were held immediately afterwards in the same hand, the bees 

 of A would have some dilficulty in discovering the queen of 

 B to be a stranger, owing to the aroma of A having been com- 

 municated to some extent to B. 



According to Mr. Woodbury's experience, attacks are often 

 made upon young queens immediately after their return from 



