1896 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



143 



any effort to loosen it and have the egg remain 

 intact, unless part of the cell-bottom is also 

 carried away with it. A transferred egg would 

 also have to be secured (in its new place) in a 

 natural position; that is, standing on end at an 

 inclined angle. (It seems as if this would be 

 difficult for a bee to do.) It is a fact, that the 

 embryo in an egg, lying on its side, dies before 

 it could develop sufficiently to break through 

 the shell— in other words, hatch. 

 Naples, N. Y., Jan. 8. 



[I can not tell you what malted milk is. Very 

 likely it is a secret preparation known only to 

 the manufacturers. 



With regard to eggs being moved by the bees, 

 you seem to express some doubt. Quite a num- 

 ber of cases were reported in our back volumes 

 where bees were known to carry the eggs and 

 deposit them in another portion of the combs. 

 In looking over our back numbers I ran across 

 one given in 1883, page 338. I believe I have 

 before reported having myself seen the bees 

 carry eggs. I did not see them take them out 

 of the cells, and was not interested enough at 

 the time to watch to see what they did with 

 them.— Ed.] 



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I 'ANSWERS TO 



BY G.M.DOO LITTLE.BORODINO.N.Y. 



IIDIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII 



AT WHAT AGE DO QUEENS I,AY ? 



Question. — Last season 1 had a colony that 

 cast several swarms. Ten days after the last 

 swarm issued I looked into the hive but could 

 see no eggs. Two days later 1 opened the hive 

 to give them some brood, supposing them to be 

 queenless, but now I found some eggs. This 

 would make ihe queen about twelve days old 

 before laying. Is this common '? 



Answer. — As a general rule I expect to find 

 queens laying when ten days old; but I have 

 found them laying when only seven days old, 

 and had fecundity delay as long as twenty-four 

 days. The young queen, when weather and 

 every thing is propitious, generally leaves the 

 hive in search of the drones when she is from 

 five to eight days old, the majority going on 

 the seventh day to a successful mating. Some 

 -queens meet the drone on the first flight; but 

 the majority fly out and are gone a few mo- 

 ments, to return without matiug—my opinion 

 of this being that tliey fly a few rods from the 

 hive at'tliis time, to carefully mark their location 

 and void their feces. The next time they fly, 

 they go for the sole purpose of their wedding- 

 trip, ai.d they will usually be found laying in 

 two days from this second flight, if the day is 

 fine and drones plentiful. The time of the year 

 and the state of the weather have much to do 

 with the lime a queen begins to lay. In early 

 ■spring or during the fall, queens rarely lay till 

 they are from twelve to fifteen days old; and if 

 •a week or ten days of stormy, cloudy, and 

 'windy weather should happen to occur when 



any young queen is about five days old, she 

 would not even attempt to leave the hive till 

 she was from twelve to fifteen days old. Thus 

 the questioner will see that what he gives is 

 only a common occurrence. Many a queen- 

 breeder has had stormy weather prevent the 

 mating of queens till it would so happen that 

 the queens from nearly all of his nuclei would 

 fly out and begin to lay at about the same time, 

 although such a state of affairs is not to his 

 liking, as it means the destruction of many 

 queen-cells which he hoped to save, and then a 

 shortage of cells when he most wishes them, 

 owing to his being obliged to send off so many 

 queens all at one time. 



QUEENS BEING "BALLED." 



Question. — Last summer I had two swarms 

 come out very nearly together. The first had a 

 queen with its wing clipoed, and the most of 

 the bees had returned when the other issued, 

 this last swarm having a queen with perfect 

 wings. The swarm clustered and was hived in 

 the usual way. In half an hour or so this 

 swarm began leaving its hive and went strag- 

 gling back to the parent hive. After a little 

 I opened the hive and found a ball of bees near- 

 ly as large as ray fist on the bottom-board, and 

 in this ball of bees was the queen. Why did 

 these bees act in this way ? 



Answer. — In this question the writer has 

 touched what has been to me one of the great- 

 est nuisances in natural swarming, for I have 

 had scores of very similar cases. Often, when 

 I was about leaving home for church or some 

 other place, when time was precious, I have 

 had ;swarms issue, I hiving them with the 

 thought that I had done a nice thing in a little 

 time; but by the time T would get the horse 

 hitched up and all ready to depart, the bees 

 would begin to show a commotion and return 

 to the old hive. If I had hived them on the old 

 stand, as I generally do, they would scatter all 



ver, going into other hives only to be killed, 

 or received according to the condition of the 

 colonies where they went, this often keeping 

 me at home, or making me so late that the 

 pleasure of the trip was nearly or quite spoiled. 

 I have carefully studied into the cause of such 

 procedure, and believe it comes about by a few 

 bees from other swarms or hives entering the 

 new hive with the new swarm; and as these 

 bees are strangers to those composing the 

 swarm, the queen is balled for safe keeping till 

 all get acquainted, or from some other reason 

 best known to beeology. As soon as a queen is 

 balled for ;iny reason, the result is very nearly 

 the same as would be the removal of the queen, 

 which, as all know, is a stampede and general 

 search for her. Failing to find her, their only 

 alternative is to go home, if they would pre- 

 serve their existence; for. staying where they 

 are, without a queen, means that they go out of 

 existence as a colony, when the bees which 



