1893 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



705 



least, they were there the last time I visited 

 them, only a few days ago. In one case both 

 queens are laying, and in the other two the 

 younger Queens have not yet commenced to lay. 

 I doubt whether two queens often continue to- 

 gether very long in one' hive, the older one 

 being about played out. I think. 



I think there is a tendency to pin our faith a 

 little too closely to established tradition in a 

 good many cases, and there is also too great a 

 tendency to settle rules upon too limited an ex- 

 perience. Not very long ago I raised the ques- 

 tion whether laying workers were ever present 

 before all brood had disappeared. I was prompt- 

 ly answered that laying workers often com- 

 riienced their work while brood is present, and 

 since then I have had more than one case of 

 the kind, in some cases a young queen being 

 either present or on the way. I once saw a 

 queen sting to death a worker, and reported it. 

 It was a somewhat dangerous thing to do, for 

 my veracity was called in question, simply be- 

 cause the one who disputed it had never seen 

 any thing of the kind himself. 



Now. at the risk of being called an idiot and 

 a liar. I"ra going to say that, in a number of 

 cases. I have seen two virgin queens together 

 for some time before there was any tight, al- 

 though the queens could not but be aware of 

 each other's presence, as they touched more 

 than once. On the other hand, I have seen two 

 virgins fight to the death not a minute after 

 emerging from the cell. 



There are exceptions to all rules generally, 

 and sometimes the exceptions are so many that 

 it is hard to say which is exception and which 

 is rule. C. C. M. 



[Referring to the matter of a virgin queen 

 being fertilized more than once before laying, 

 we would say the facts observed by our corres- 

 pondent are rather new. Has any one else 

 observed the same? We have always taught, 

 and have been taught, that once meeting the 

 drone sufficed.] 



TAYLOR'S NON- SWARMING PLAN. 



WHY THE I.ANGDON PLAN WON'T WOKK. 



Friend Root: — The fact that I am and have 

 been experimenting on a non-swarming hive or 

 system of manipulation to efl'ect that purpose, 

 is generally known to the readers of the bee- 

 journals, t se<' that tlie Langdon devic(! has 

 failed lo come to time, the results and reports 

 of R. L. Taylor and Mr. Secor settling that 

 fact. Tlie editor of tlie Bee keepers' Review 

 knows that I have never had any hoj^e of the 

 Langdon plan succeeding, there being more 

 than one reason for expecting failure, to one 

 who liad already practically explored the 

 ground occupied by both Langdon and Aiken. 



My experiments this year have not darkened 

 the hope of yet perfecting a practical plan 

 whereby swarming can be controlled, even if 

 we could not get quite so much honey. A phin 

 that would enable us to escape tiiat constant 

 watching thiough the whole woi'king season 

 that is now a necessity, and enable us to keep 

 either a home yard or out-yards by visiting 

 them and giving a little attention once a week, 

 would be a great boon. This much I will as- 

 sure the bee-keepers: I will not offer anything, 

 either for sale or even trial, until I have some- 

 thing certain to offer. The plan I am now 

 working on is radically different from the 

 Langdon plan. There is a similarity in some 

 respects; but the radical difference is. that the 

 plan of Mr. L. contemplates two hives and two 

 entirely distinct families, with entirely separate 

 entrances: while my plan is one hive with 



practically but one family, all the bees using 

 one common alighting-board and entrance, 

 but with two queens, these queens to be kept 

 separated by a wire-cloth partition through the 

 center of the hive. This partition, however, 

 serves other purposes than keeping the queens 

 apart, as it is entirely necessary in order to ma- 

 nipulate the bees as desired. The possibility 

 of working a single colony of worker bees with 

 two queens in a single hive divided by a gauze 

 partition is no longer an experiment. 1 now 

 state here the fact that I am working such col- 

 onies with entire success, the whole colony of 

 workers using either side of the hive, and ac- 

 cepting either queen, without the least dis- 

 turbance. This is what I claim as my discov- 

 ery, and I shall keep myself protected legally 

 in its use, so that, if it ever proves successful in 

 serving a useful purpose, there will be no ques- 

 tion of priority to dispute about. 



The bees I used in the new hives this season 

 were blacks; and to determine whether the 

 bees did fully fraternize I removed one black 

 qtieen from each of two hives early in the sea- 

 son, and replaced them with pure Italians. 

 Thus there was a black queen in one side of 

 each hive, and an Italian in the other. The 

 point aimed at was to see whether the Italian 

 bees, after they hatched out, would all retnain 

 in their own side of the hive with their mother, 

 or would accept the whole hive and both 

 queens as their home. After several examina- 

 tions I found, to my great joy. that the yellow 

 Italians were equally distributed in both apart- 

 ments, and were indiscriminately intermixed 

 throughout the hive. 



I next tried removing both black queens and 

 substitttting Italians, to see whether the bees 

 from the other side would regard them with 

 disfavor; and, after releasing the new queens 

 and waiting several days. I examined the hives 

 and again was overjoyed to find my pet queens 

 peacefully and quietly doing duty. 



Now, friends. I have good reason to hope that 

 I shall yet succeed in accomplishing my task 

 of working out a successful non-swarming hive. 

 I have had a higher motive in my ni'.e years' 

 work in this line than the making of money; 

 and if I succeed I will never use it other than to 

 benefit the bee-keeping fraternity. 



I see that friend Secor smothered two of his 

 best colonies in trying the Langdon machine. 

 I should have exp'cted this result where a full 

 colony was given no greater means of exit than 

 a passage large enough for only a single bee to 

 pass out. In my own device there is no danger 

 of smothering the bees, as the closed hive may 

 have the entrance at the back opened the 

 v/hole width of tlie hive if necessary. I have 

 frequently noticed that, where bees from differ- 

 ent hives get mixed together in natural swarm- 

 ing, they are ([uite prone to swarm out again 

 after being hived. They seem to be in an ex- 

 cited and unnatural condition. Now. when 

 two swarms are thrown together, as in Mr. 

 Langdons plan, the bees are entire strangers, 

 and I think \\V\< accounts for their strong pas- 

 sion for swarming, as reported by U. L. Taylor. 

 In my plan tlie bees are not strangers that are 

 S'lddenly thrown together, but members of a 

 common family, and they will be free from 

 that excitement that would naturallv follow 

 from the home being suddenly crowded with 

 strangers, aud I believe I sliall not fail from this 

 cause. In Lungdon's hive, every bee that 

 leaves the closed hive had to go into the al- 

 ready ovei-crowded one. In mv hive no b(M'S go 

 to the full hive. After those used to flying 

 have left the closed hive, tne young bees that 

 have their first fiight will My from the back 

 entrance and will return there. Friend Lang- 

 don tried to criticise this feature: but I regard 



