Oct. 3, 1901. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



635 



and vegetables. The mature insect — the imago — that loiups 

 from these fierce, formidable ant-lions, looks much like a 

 dragon-Hy or darning-needle, but is easily told as the latter 

 has very small antenniv, which are hardly visible, while 

 those of these insects, though not large or long, are plainly to 

 be seen. 



I have just been visiting a sandy tract where these fun- 

 nel-shaped holes and homes of the ant-lions were very much 

 in evidence. 1 hoi>e all our boys and girls will hunt them up, 

 and collect the fully grown ones, that they may rear the flies. 



Questions and Answers, i 



auestions on Breeding of Bees. 



1. In selecting queen and drone mothers, what is the 

 most important part to look to, to improve the stock ? 



2. Why do the most of queens produce drones not uni- 

 formly marked ? And some queens will produce uniformly 

 Tnarked drones. Does it denote impurity with those that do 

 not produce uniform drones ? 



3. Do you think it best to have the queen mother and 

 "the drone mother of no kin ? or does it not make any differ- 

 ■ence if they are closely related ? 



4. Are the drones pure from a queen that is mismated, 

 but reared from a pure mother ? South Carolina. 



Answeks. — 1. In either case the important thing for 

 practical purposes is to have mothers whose worker progeny 

 show good results in the harvests gathered. All the better 

 if of pure-established blood, but in any case the workers 

 should be good honey-gatherers. 



2. I don't know why. I hardly think that a difference 

 in the appearance of drones is a sure proof of impurity. 



3. Other things being equal, it is decidedly better that 

 ■there shall be no close relationship. Those who breed for 

 improved strains make some of their greatest triumphs 

 through using closely related blood, because it is easier to 

 find the same characteristics in two animals nearly related ; 

 but while it is easier to perpetuate good qualities through 

 •close relationship, it is also easier — perhaps I ought to say 

 it is still easier — to perpetuate bad qualities through close 

 relationships. On the whole, I believe it is a pretty safe 

 thing for common bee-keepers like you and me to let close 

 breeding alone. 



4. If I should be obliged to answer that question in a 

 single word, I should say yes, and for all practical purposes 

 that is the right answer. But if you draw the matter very 

 fine, it will be said that when a dam has borne an offspring 

 her own blood may to a slight degree be affected by the 

 blood of her offspring, and hence the drone offspring may 

 be slightly affected. Dzierzon, however, always counted 

 that the mating of the queen had no effect upon her male 

 ■offspring. 



Several aueen Questions. 



1. I have been working a few colonies of bees for six 

 years. I now have 30 colonies, and this season I have been 

 more perplexed than ever at their actions. In the first 

 place, my text books and papers teach me that with the seal- 

 ing of the first queen-cell the old queen will issue with a 

 swarm ; but I have had several instances this summer where 

 it failed to be true, after watching them for several days, 

 after the cells were sealed, for swarms. I either killed or 

 ■caged the old queen and destroyed all but one cell. What 

 was the cause of their acting so ? Was it a case of 

 intended supersedure ? If so. how am I to tell which is 

 intended to swarm or supersede ? 



2. The queen of one of my best colonies disappeared, 

 and they swarmed with a very small virgin queen. My 

 wife caught her, but she got away and the swarm returned 

 to the old hive. This was about S o'clock p.m. The next 

 morning I looked through the colony and found a very fine 

 virgin queen, and several capped cells, so I closed the hive 

 and watched for a swarm. The queen kept peeping, off 

 and on, all day, but no swarm issued, and after watching 

 for two days I opened the hive again and found the fine 

 <}ueen gone, and a small one in her place, and cells all des- 

 troyed. What was the cause ? 



3. I had several colonies in normal condition, that 

 sealed queen-cells without anything in them ; or, at least, 

 after waiting beyond the required time I opened them and 

 found them empty. 



I received a premium queen and tried to follow direc- 

 tions very carefully, but after eating the pasteboard off 

 and part of the candy, they quit and kept clustered very 

 tightly over the cage. After waiting three days I smoked 

 them and turned the queen loose, but they balled her imme- 

 diately, so I re-caged her and took four frames of hatch- 

 ing brood and set over a strong colony, with a flour-sack 

 between, for several days. I kept her caged with her 

 attendants for a day, then turned her loose, and after two 

 or three days I set the hive on a stand by itself, and opened 

 the entrance ; but the next time I opened the hive she was 

 gone. Now, what became of her ? She acted like a virgin. 



Nebraska. 



Answers. — 1. " Bees do nothing invariably," and there 

 are exceptions to all rules. It is impossible to say whether 

 queen-cells are intended for swarming or supersedure by 

 the appearance of the cells, but you can generally make a 

 pretty good guess from attendant circumstances. If you 

 find only two or three cells, you are pretty safe in guessing 

 that swarming is not intended. Of course that refers to 

 cells well advanced, for when first begun for swarming 

 there may be only one or two. If 8, 10, or more cells are 

 started, you may feel pretty sure that swarming is in con- 

 templation. The time when cells are found will help you 

 to make a guess. Early in the season, when swarms are 

 issuing every day or so, the presence of queen-cells points 

 pretty strongly toward swarming; when the honey-flow is 

 about over, they point toward supersedure. 



2. A little hard to say. It is just possible that the 

 small queen you saw last was the fine queen you had pre- 

 viously seen ; for sometimes a queen just out of the cell 

 looks quite different in size and color from what she does 

 later. But it may be that the bees concluded not to swarm, 

 and allowed all the queens to emerge, or to be destroyed. 

 The piping of a queen is usually an indication of a forth- 

 coming swarm, but not always. To be a reliable indica- 

 tion of a swarm, there must be the piping of the free queen 

 and the quahking of the young queen or queens still in the 

 cell. A young queen may pipe if no other queen is in or 

 out of a cell in the hive, and a young queen may quahk 

 before emerging without the piping of another queen. 



3. Are you sure that nothing had been in the cells ? It 

 is a common thing for bees to fasten the cap on again after 

 the young queen has emerged, and sometimes they play a 

 practical joke on a worker that happens to be in a cell from 

 which a virgin has emerged, by fastening the worker in the 

 cell. 



4. It is possible that in some way the colony had a vir- 

 gin queen — one might fly into the hive without your knowl- 

 edge, or a queen-cell may have escaped detection — and so 

 there was an unconquerable hostility to the stranger, which 

 would be in a less favorable condition for acceptance 

 through the journey in the mail and the prolonged impris- 

 onment. Such a queen may look very like a virgin, and 

 then after commencing to lay become as large as she was 

 before mailing. The probability is that the bees killed and 

 dragged her out. 



Dividing Colonies in Double Hives. 



I have three double colonies. Would you recommend 

 giving the top chambers a queen, and putting it where the 

 bottom chamber is. and putting the bottom one on a new 

 stand ? Or what is your plan ? Indiana. 



Answer. — In this case the supposition is that a colony 

 in two stories is sufficiently strong to be divided. As to the 

 best procedure, conditions must be consulted. The plan 

 you suggest is all right if the upper story is weaker in brood 

 and bees than the lower. In other words, leave on the old 

 stand the weaker of the two stories, giving it the new 

 queen, putting the stronger story with the old queen on the 

 new stand. If the desire be to have the two colonies more 

 nearly equal in strength without considering the honey 

 crop, you might make the division at a time of day when 

 most of the bees were in the hive, and put the stronger half 

 on the new stand with the old queen, fastening the bees in 

 the removed hive for a time, perhaps till the middle of the 

 next forenoon, and carefully guarding against smothering. 

 Of course the new queen must be caged as a newly intro- 

 duced queen. But it's pretty late in the season to talk 

 about dividing now. 



