Jsnnary 80, 1866 ] 



JOUENAL OF HORXICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GABDENER. 



97 



Those cases of qneen encasement which have occnrred in my 

 apiary during the past season, I could trace, with only one ex- 

 ception, to the entrance of stranger bees. Of this I have not 

 the remotest doubt, and it wUl be remembered this was one of 

 the conclusions at which I had formerly arrived. 



The exceptional case first. I had brought to my apiary in 

 July last, a magnificent hive of black bees presided over by one 

 ol the largest queens which I think I ever witnessed. Its in- 

 mates I drove, and lodged in an empty Hnber, and I gave the 

 hive, teeming with worker-brood, to a Ligurian swarm. Coming 

 from an early locality every drone had been extirpated, and no 

 drone brood even was in the cells. To aid comb-building, I fed 

 with honey and sugar syrup, and brood-rearing proceeded at a 

 rapid rate. Towards the end of August I noticed symptoms of 

 the queen's encasement. I opened the hive, and found the 

 magnificent queen imprisoned, and in fetters, for what reason, 

 alas ! it did not appear. I simply examined the prisoner, and 

 left her in this instance to her fate, knowing how little good 

 sometimes follows any interference. Two days afterwards, how- 

 ever, observing that she was stiU the object of persecution, I 

 again opened the hive and released her on two several occasions, 

 but introduce her where I might, her reception was of the same 

 character. I ultimately closed the hive, and left matters to their 

 natural course. Next day the queen disappeared, and I was 

 under the impression that she must have taken flight in dis- 

 gust, as no trace of her could be found. On examining the 

 hive I found three royal cells well advanced. I then introduced 

 a whole swarm of bees with their queen to see what would 

 follow. A great number were killed, and the queen was rigidly 

 imprisoned. Seeing this I immediately cut out aU the royal 

 cells, and on examining the interior next day, I found the 

 queen was at liberty, but the bees very excitable and furious. 

 As I know not this queen's antecedents, I merely state the case 

 without comments. 



Another case occurred in the straw hive into which I had in- 

 troduced the Ligurians above referred to, after being brought 

 back from the heath in the middle of September. It was placed 

 on a site occupied by bees which were previously joined to 

 another hive. The population being Ligmian, I had reason to 

 feel satisfied that several of the former occupants of the site 

 had found entrance. The quaen was encased, and I drove the 

 bees to try the releasing system once more. It temporarily 

 succeeded, content seemed to prevail, but the next day wit- 

 nessed a recurrence of the same state of things. Wishing to 

 try the effects of isolating the queen for some time, I again 

 succeeded in extricating her from a cluster at the bottom of the 

 hive, and confined her twelve hours in a wire cage, which I 

 placed under the hive. After releasing her I introduced her at 

 the top orifice, and she descended among the combs pursued 

 by the bees. Dui'ing the night the queen had escaped, as I 

 found her next morning lying benumbed and motionless in 

 front of the hive. I first thought she had been extruded dead, 

 but under careful nursing she gradually revived, though she 

 seemed very languid, and unable to fly. I returned her to the 

 hive by the top orifice, and she was immediately pounced 

 upon, hundreds of bees crowding around either to destroy or 

 defend her. Next morning I found her surrounded in a cluster 

 at the bottom of the hive. I took the cluster away and put it 

 down on the green grass to examine more minutely their pro- 

 ceedings. The surface bees were excited and furious, anxious 

 and eager to displace those beneath them, and to penetrate to 

 the object of their concern, while those in the centre were 

 motionless and quiescent ; but there was no yielding of those 

 beneath to either force or fnry. Well, what am I to do ? Shall 

 I replace the cluster in the hive again, or shall I take a look of 

 her hapless majesty once more, if only to see how far she has 

 recovered fi'om her exposure the night before, or rather how 

 much more injured she would be by another night's encase- 

 ment ? The sun shone warmly out from a cloudless sky, as I 

 began to uiu-avel the mysterious knot. Slowly and carefully I 

 proceeded to clear away the surrounding bees, tOl I came to 

 the last few around the queen. Now is the critical time thought 

 I, a rescue or a ruin ; but so, too, thought my supposed in- 

 valided queen, for by an effort as rapid as it was urjooked for, 

 she freed herself of her remaining trammels, and boimded 

 away Uke a shot through the blue serene, to my scarcely sup- 

 pressed chagrin, and inconsolable grief. I looked around as 

 bewildered, I dare say, as a schoolboy who sees some Uttle 

 winged favourite escape through his fingers, and soar away 

 never to return. 



In the other instances the evidence of encasement being 

 caused by the entrance of stranger bees was of a stUl more con- 



clusive character, I need not repeat details. In September I 

 shifted some outlying hives, and drove others for a like pur- 

 pose into my bee-house. The position of the shifted and 

 driven hives was such as to cause little apprehension of many 

 bees going astray. The exterior of the bee-house, however, 

 was so urdike their former domiciles, that for two or three days 

 afterwards the adjacent hives were a good deal disturbed by 

 stray bees entering them. The result was the encasement of 

 the queens of two hives. 



Apiarians may accept it as a demonstrated fact, that not a 

 few of the queen encasements which take place in an apiary 

 where experiments and shiftings are constantly being carried 

 on, are caused by the unwitting entrance of stranger bees. It 

 is quite true, as Mr. Woodbury says, that there is an extraor- 

 dinary commingUng of bees in every apiary without any inter- 

 meddling with them whatever — thanks to the introduction of 

 the Italian bee for this among some other discoveries — but it 

 is not such stragglers as these that do mischief. Very young 

 bees find their way, I have often noticed, into hives when re- 

 turning from their first flight, and once entered there they 

 continue to dwell. Hence a black hive in close proximity to 

 a Ligurian, is sm'e to procure a considerable number of yeUow- 

 jaekets to adorn its ranks. A yonng bee, it must be remem- 

 bered, is rarely refused admittance ; indeed, I have for a long 

 time past been in the habit in early spring, when happening 

 to have any weak hive in my apiary, of seizing some hundreds 

 of young bees as they made their appearance for the first time 

 on the stool of some strong stock, and transferring them to the 

 weak colony before taking wing. These additions gi-eatly 

 benefit a weak stock. But besides these stray young bees 

 being fonnd located in other hives than their own, I also admit 

 that adult bees sometimes fraternise with their neighbours in a 

 similar way, but in neither case are these the bees that give 

 rise to the turbulence and commotion of a queen encasement. 

 It is only those that inadvertently by mistake, or forcibly 

 from experiments, or shiftings, or some such cause, enter other 

 hives, that become their pest and terror. Such stranger bees 

 find themselves suddenly and unexpectedly in the midst of 

 aliens, and are not prepared to offer, nor do they seek to re- 

 ceive, friendly oveitures. They not only are disposed to dispute 

 the occupancy of those they commingle with, but to look upon 

 the queen wliich they meet as being as much an enemy as if 

 they found her traversing theh' own hive, and hence the evU 

 consequences which ensue. 



There is a cm-ious result which follows a queen encasement, 

 which makes it doubly calamitous. I must repeat my con- 

 viction, now strengthened by further experience, that when a 

 queen once passes through this ordeal of imprisonment, espe- 

 ciaUy if long-continued, there is the utmost danger of her for- 

 feiting all regard from her own subjects. A mutual jealousy 

 seems to spring up, or rather suspicion on the part of the bees, 

 and alarm on that of the queen. So much is this the case, 

 that the bees appear to be carried away by a kind of wild 

 delh'ium when they come into contact with her, and but for the 

 invariable encasement which ensues, I believe so temfied does 

 the queen become that she would escape trom the hive al- 

 together, if not thus prevented. And here I may be permitted 

 to say that I prefer the term encasement as the best appUcable 

 to such phenomena, for I am unwilling to go the length of de- 

 signating all the bees that thus imprison a queen as regicides, 

 or would-be regicides. Additional light may yet be thr-own 

 upon this part of the subject, but in the meantime I am still of 

 opinion that the encasement itself may be intended by Nature 

 as the very means by which the commingling intruders and 

 disturbers of the hive may be singled out and destroyed, the 

 colony restored to peace, and the queen's own safety ultimately 

 secured. 



I am still more unwilling to believe, because opposed, I think, 

 to the analogies of natural law and order, that bees are actuated 

 by regicidal dispositions towards youthful queens which return 

 from successful wedding flights. That they are encased under 

 such circumstances is beyond a doubt. It is sufficiently attested 

 by Mr. Woodbury, and also by Mr. T. B. Miner, of New York, 

 who says that " young queens are generally found in a cluster 

 like a hen's egg dming the first few days of their inhabiting 

 their new tenement, at the entrance of the hive, or near it ; " 

 but I can neither indorse the opinion of Mr. Woodbury, that 

 this clustering around the queen can be characterised as a 

 regicidal attack, nor that of his distinguished Gennan corre- 

 spondent, that the workers in such a case "treat her as a 

 stranger." I would rather seek a solution, as I said before, 

 upon principles more in accordance with the purposes and 



