November, 1913. 



American Vae Journal 



come any time after that until the last 

 workers are out. Indeed, the swarm 

 may issue and sail about without any 

 xjueen, even settling for a time upon a 

 tree, as I have seen many a time with 

 a clipped queen. I hardly think it is 

 generally taught that the queen really 

 leads the swarm. Certainly no experi- 

 enced beekeeper ought to think so. 



But from the fact that he does not 

 particularize upon that, and from what 

 he says afterward, that can hardly be 

 the thing to which he objects, and the 

 only other thing I can think of is the 

 teaching that when the old queen 

 leaves with the swarm she "leaves in 

 the hive several unhatched queens." 

 But, Prof. Bigelow, "seeing is believ- 

 ing," and I have seen the cells of the 

 unhatched queens often. Indeed, I 

 think I never had a swarm issue with a 

 laying queen that I did not within a 

 week look for queen-cells (to destroy 

 them), and I am sure there never was 

 a case when I did not find them. 



Since writing the last paragraph it 

 occurs to me that the thing to which 

 you object is the teaching that the un- 

 hatched queens are for the future 

 benefit of the old colony, with the im- 

 plied teaching that none of them goes 

 with the swarm. You say: "I have 

 made some careful studies, and thus 

 far I have found that almost invariably 

 there are several queens in the swarm- 

 ing cluster." If you should say, " I have 

 examined a thousand swarms, and in 

 each one of them I found several vir- 

 gins," I would have no right to dispute 

 it, but I could say with very great con- 

 fidence, "Each of those thousand 

 swarms was a last swarm ; and if you 

 will examine a thousand prime swarms 

 with laying queens you will not find a 

 single queen beside the old one." 



You say, " It is my opinion that there 

 is no war between the queens of a col- 

 ony so long as the colony is in flight 

 or in a clustering condition, but when 

 the bees have settled upon a home, 

 then comes the war of the queens, and 

 and only one survives." I am sure 

 you would change your opinion if you 

 should see the proofs to the contrary I 

 have seen. I have seen two virgins 

 engage in mortal combat not three 

 minutes after emerging from their 

 cells. Certainly that was before they 

 were " in flight or in a clustering con- 

 dition." I have seen a virgin digging 

 into the side of a cell to kill a rival be- 

 fore it had a chance to emerge from its 

 cell, and I have seen more than one 

 case in which a virgin in a nursery, 

 after having emerged from its cell, 

 diligently dug into the side of that cell, 

 as if seeking to destroy a rival sup- 

 posed to be in the cell. Just put two 

 virgins within speaking distance any 

 time, and see if they postpone battle 

 until having settled upon a home. 



You cite a case in which a swarm 

 had four clusters, a queen in each clus- 

 ter. Nothing strange about that. 

 Plenty of such cases. But you don't 

 say that one of the queens was a lay- 

 ing queen. You may rely upon it that 

 such a swarm is always a hist swarm, 



Apiary of D. E. McDonald, in British Columbia. 



and that such a thing never occurs if a 

 laying queen is with the swarm. 



You say, " I wonder if any of our 

 veteran beekeepers have positive proof 

 that in any swarming cluster there is 

 only one queen." Like enough they 

 might reply that the burden of proof 

 was upon you, and ask whether you 

 have positive proof that in tiny case 

 you ever found a virgin in a swarm 

 with a laying queen. For I notice that 

 in mentioning cases with more than 

 one queen you do not in any case say 

 one of the queens was a laying one, 

 y£t you plainly advocate that drones go 

 with a laying queen for the purpose of 

 mating with the virgins that you be- 

 lieve are in the same swarm with the 

 laying queen. Although I may not 

 satisfy you with positive proof that no 

 virgin is ever in a swarm with a laying 



queen, I can give you something tend- 

 ing quite a bit in that direction. Thou- 

 sands of times I have searched through 

 colonies for queen-cells, finding them 

 in all stages of advancement, and never 

 yet did I find a vacant cell from which 

 a virgin had emerged prior to the issu- 

 ing of a prime swarm. Such a cell is 

 very easily recognized, and if virgins 

 were in the habit of emerging even 

 occasionally prior to the issuing of a 

 prime swarm, surely I ought to have 

 spotted at least one of them. Plenty 

 of such cells I have seen a week or so 

 after the issuing of the prime swarm, 

 at which time the virgins emerge. 



Moreover, if. Prof. Bigelow, it were 

 as common a thing as you suppose for 

 virgins to be in a swarm with a laying 

 queen, don't you suppose the thousands 

 of beekeepers who have had hundreds 



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