THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVEW 



17 



turn back after putting his hand to the 

 plow; for I have heretofore found it a bit 

 difficult to hold him to the point, much 

 more to bring him to the acceptance of 

 the truth in the somewhat loose science 

 of grammar, or of principles sustained by 

 the argument of mere prose language, 

 and I hope, since he has come into this 

 domain of hard facts, we may be able 

 to stand sometimes upon the same plank. 

 The experiment was in many respects 

 well-conceiyed, and well carried out, and 

 although defective in some points, at 

 least in the observations taken, that is a 

 thing to be looked for in a first attempt. 

 His general plan was to procure the de- 

 positing of eggs in a series of combs (five 

 in this case), one after the other, so that 

 the time when the eggs were laid in any 

 one comb is known within a few hours, 

 and then to give the combs, the oldest 

 containing larvif more than three days 

 old, and the newest eggs not yet ready to 

 hatch, to a colony presently rendered 

 queenless and deprived of other brood, 

 and then to observe frequently, and to 

 take note of the age of larvae devoted to 

 royalty at the time they are selected for 

 that purpose. To distinguish them, the 

 combs are lettered "a" to "e"' inclusive, 

 a was inserted for eggs June 28, lo A M.; 

 d and ewere inserted July 3, at the same 

 hour, though neither the hour of inser- 

 tion nor removal were at all regular a, 

 b and d were removed the next day after 

 insertion; c and e on the second day. All 

 these combs, as they were removed, were 

 put in the super of a queened colony to 

 receive proper care. On July 5, at 4 P. 

 M., this colony was unqueened and all 

 brood removed except that in these combs 

 which was left for the colony to select 

 larvic from for queen rearing. 



It is very tantalizing in so important an 

 experiment to be left without any further 

 information concerning the condition in 

 which the colony and combs were left. 

 Did the colony have other combs with- 

 out brood in the lower story ? Were the 

 experimental combs placed in the lower 

 story, or left in the super? lu what or- 



der were they arranged ? The doctor 

 says the colony was "tolerably strong" — 

 a very indefinite description These 

 points have each an important bearing, 

 I think, and I shall touch on one or more 

 of them later. 



After the unqueening, the colony was 

 examined once each day, for results, from 

 July 6 to July 13 inclusive, with the ex- 

 ception of July 9, and notes taken at each 

 examination of new cells begun upon each 

 comlj; when, of course, it would be a 

 mere matter of substraetion to determine, 

 within the limit of time allowed for the 

 depositing of eggs in that comb, the age 

 of each larva at the time it was selected 

 to be fed and housed for the production 

 of a queen. In all, thirty six queens 

 were produced; and, if we are to accept 

 the doctor's figures. 



15 larvte were selected when within 3 

 days of age. 



12 larvte were selected when it was 

 doubtful whether they were more or 

 less than 3 days old. 



9 larvae when more than 3 days old. 



Three days is accepted as the limit of 

 the age of a larva when selected by the 

 bees, for the production of a good queen; 

 so this experiment is a very important 

 one; and it is no less important that its 

 results should be correctly estimated; so I 

 have taken pains to verify the doctor's 

 figures and statements by appealing to 

 his facts. The doctor says "I must not 

 evade the observation that something 

 more than 5 >^ days after the removal of 

 the queen the bees started cells over too 

 old larvie when younger larvte were pres- 

 ent." And this, which I suppose may be 

 taken as the doctor's final resume of the 

 more important results of the entire ex- 

 periment; "If the combs with the cells be 

 taken within the first five days [of queen- 

 lessness] and put in the upper story of a 

 colony having a laying queen there will 

 be no too old larvit- in the case." 



I am quite a stranger to the reasoning 

 used to reach these results, but let me try 

 its use and see what eflfect it will have, 

 for insUnce, on the table just given. 



