1882 



GLEANINGS IN I3EE CULTURE. 



447 



isted in everj' hive at the same time, I must assume 

 that this crippled state was the cause of their being 

 savagely pounced upon and removed. 



TWO QUKENS IN A HIVE. 



This season gave me my first experience with two 

 queens in one hive living with perfect harmony and 

 accord. On the 15th of July a swarm issued; was 

 hived, and placed on its stand, hut in a few moments 

 every bee struck out for home again. 1 at once 

 opened the parent hive, and found the old queen 

 and about 20 capped (^ueen-cclls. Not wishing that 

 particular colony to swarm, I, as I supposed, destroy- 

 ed all the queen-cells; but I must have missed one, 

 for on the 22d I opened the hive and found the old 

 queen and a young one, apparently a day or two old, 

 both on the same comb. They were both traveling 

 around as though this were the regular way; and al- 

 though I forced them ^o closely together that they 

 touched one another, no antagonism was shown by 

 either. Upon examining the virgin queen further, 

 I found she had a defective wing, and I therefore 

 destroyed her. I shall experiment with this queen, 

 and perhaps I may find that she will allow another 

 daughter to remain with her after fertilization (if 1 

 can get a supply of drones), and thus have an im- 

 mense colony by reason of double production. That 

 this is not a case of liees superseding a worn-out 

 queen, is proved by putting a frame of fdn. in the 

 hive in place of a full frame, and the queen has fill- 

 ed that with worker brood. 



DECIDING THE SEX — DO THE BEES OB THE QUEEN 

 DO IT? 



Whether bees can change the sex of eggs or not 

 after they are laid, I can not tell; but I don't be- 

 lieve in the compression theory yet. I have now a 

 frame of comb built up from worker fdn., in which 

 there is not a single drone-cell, and which, since it 

 was fully drawn out, has been filled with brood. 

 When the eggs were first laid there was no ditference 

 in appearance of any part of this comb (the comb in 

 the hive was all built from worker fdn.); but when 

 the cells were capped, about 50 on each side of the 

 center proved to be drones. I pulled some of them 

 out, and found them very small; and, having no use 

 for under-sized drones, I shaved their heads off at 

 once. Now, if compression causes the queen to lay 

 worker-eggs, these eggs were all worker when laid, 

 and were changed in sex; but I believe yet that 

 compression, so far as the size of the cells is con- 

 cerned, has nothing to do with the matter, but the 

 sex of the eggs is entirely at the volition of the 

 queen ; and in this case, as there were no drone-cells 

 for her to lay in, she deposited drone-eggs in worker- 

 cells simply because she was obliged to. Now, who 

 can prove the contrary? 



FERTILE QUEENS GOING VISITING — FURTHER FACTS. 



Since finding the queen balled outside of the hive, 

 referred to in article in August Gleanings, I have 

 seen another straw which tends to show that fertile 

 queens do sometimes go a visiting. On opening a 

 hive I could not find the queen at all. 1 searched 

 carefully, but could find nothing of her. Just as I 

 had given it up as a bad job, and was closing the 

 hive, thinking I was a nice queen "out," back she 

 came from flying somewhere, sailed in on top of the 

 frames, and down she went into the brood-chamber; 

 this was the same queen before mentioned; she 

 could not have been on the frames when I opened 

 the hive, for I took them out and looked them over 

 carefully and set them in another hive, and looked 

 them over equally as carefully when I returned 



them, so she must have gone out on an excursion, 

 and this time without a retinue accompanying her, 

 sure. 1 give th(^ facts and my own conclusions. 

 Others may differ; still, I shall hold to my opinion 

 until I see a better reason, and especially when I see 

 a solution of mysteries related by careful observers, 

 which mysteries can not be explained in any other 

 manner. Brothers, if we can't agree in our conclu- 

 sions, let us all agree to differ, and each of us strive 

 to ascertain the truth. J. E. Pond, Jh. 



Foxboro, Mass., August, 1883. 



Friend P., you will find the milkweed pol- 

 len described and illustrated in the A J> C, 

 but I do not know that I have before heard 

 of the bees carrying out all those thus fet- 

 tered.— Two queens in a hive, especially a 

 queen with a laying daughter, is not a very 

 unusual thing, as many of our friends have 

 found to their cost, after losing queens they 

 were trying to introduce. After having 

 caught and destroyed one queen, they natu- 

 rally supposed the hive queeuless ; but I tell 

 you", friends, my oft-repeated injunction, to 

 make a colony start queen-cells before you 

 decide it to be queenless, is a very safe one. 

 Where I lind a colony with an unusual 

 amount of brood, I usually look fo)' two 

 queens, and I am seldom disappointed.— In 

 regard to workers being able to decide the 

 sex : Ernest has just brought me a frame 

 having strips of worker brood attached to 

 cross-bars all over the frame ; and along the 

 lower edge of every strip are rows of drone- 

 cells. The brood was taken out of a comb 

 having worker-eggs evenly and regularly 

 laid on fdn. All that remained in the hive, 

 in the comb it was cut out of, has been 

 capped as worker brood. Will friends Pe- 

 ters and Dadant try the experiment them- 

 selves y and if they lind they are puzzled, 

 will they be so kind as to stand up and say 

 so V I know that we often lind a drone-cell 

 in the midst of worker brood, even on fdn. ; 

 but young queens do not often lay many 

 drone-eggs the first season. Is it not i»ossi- 

 ble that the extra food given a worker near 

 queen-cells may sometimes destroy the sper- 

 matozoa, causing the egg to mature as a 

 drone V I hope my good friend Peters will 

 not think I have got into one of those " men- 

 tal relapses " again.— Friend Pond, in regard 

 to that matter of old queens flirting around 

 out of doors, I should like to ask if you may 

 not by some mistake have been watching a 

 queen that was not fertile V Did you see 

 her go down into the hive and take up her 

 neglected work of egg-laying that surely 

 must have suffered from such spells of ab- 

 sence of doubtful propriety V Will you 

 please make sure on this point V It should 

 be borne in mind, that we know queens do 

 not generally have such freaks as this, be- 

 cause thousands of them have their wings 

 clipped, and yet are found always at home 

 for one, two, or even three years. True, 

 they may occasionally take a promenade or 

 two on foot, but it can't be a very common 

 thing, as it seems to me.— In regard to your 

 poor season : Are you sure, friend Pond, 

 that Uoolittle would not have secured a fair 

 crop of comb honey, with your locality and 

 exactly your circumstances V Suppose you 

 had used an extractor, and not tried to get 

 them to work in empty boxes V 



