1896 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



465 



BEES KILLING OFF DRONES. 



Question. — I have ten colonies of bees which 

 wintered well in the cellar. They are strong 

 in bees and brood, and are working well on 

 white clover, but they are killing off their 

 drones. What could the drones have done that 

 they are thus killed? They are making a 

 business of killing them, as much as if it were 

 September. What is the cause, and what will 

 be the result? Two colonies swarmed a short 

 time ago. 



Answer.— The questioner seems to think that 

 his drones must have done something very 

 wrong to cause the bees to kill them; but I 

 hasten to assure him that his drones were not 

 "sinners" above other drones, for all drones 

 are treated in the same way under like circum- 

 stances. The failure of flowers, or the flowers 

 failing to secrete nectar, on account of unfa- 

 vorable weather, often causes the bees to kill 

 their drones as early as May or June, as well 

 as later on in August and September; and if 

 the scarcity of nectar is great enough, drones 

 just hatching are dragged out at once, before 

 they get even a sip of honey; and if the colony 

 is on the verge of starvation, drone brood, in 

 its milky state, is torn from the cells and suck- 

 ed dry to prolong the existence of the colony. 



The questioner did not tell us any thing 

 about what kind of weather he had been hav- 

 ing in his locality; but I suspect it was very 

 much the same as we have been having of late; 

 namely, cool, cloudy, and windy, with more or 

 less rain. During such weather as this the 

 bees rush out every time the sun " breaks the 

 clouds," and appear to be working well, while 

 they are not getting a living for themselves and 

 the brood, to say nothing about storing suffi- 

 cient to afford the presence of these "gentle- 

 men of leisure." Such a state of affairs as this 

 during while-clover bloom is not an uncom- 

 mon occurrence, and I believe a failure of nec- 

 tar in the clover-blossoms, in our questioner's 

 locality, is the cause for the killing of the 

 drones. The fact that only two of the colonies 

 have swarmed, and no swarming is being done 

 at the time of writing, shows that there is 

 no secretion of nectar to amount to any thing, 

 else his colonies would keep on swarming. 

 Only two swarms, with the bees killing off the 

 drones, is proof to ray mind that clover is yield- 

 ing no honey, even though the bees may appear 

 to be working well. 



As to what the result will be, I see no reason 

 to fear any thing bad. Nature makes no mis- 

 takes, and bees never kill off drones where they 

 are needed. The colonies which have not 

 swarmed have given up all idea of swarming 



for the present, without doubt, so they have no 

 need of drones; and I will venture the asser- 

 tion, that, if he look into the two colonies which 

 have swarmed, he will either find plenty of 

 drones or a young laying queen; for a colony 

 having queen-cells or a virgin queen will pre- 

 serve their drones, even till the whole colony 

 perish with hunger. If the failure of nectar 

 continues, then the drones in these two colonies 

 will be killed as soon as the young queens get 

 to laying; but our questioner can rest assured 

 that, until said queens become fertile, the 

 drones in those hives will not be driven out as 

 useless consumers. 



SINGING queens; WHY QUEENS PIPE. 



Question.— I have an Italian queen that sings 

 like a hen. What do you think is the cause of 

 it? She sings while moving among the bees as 

 well as when still, and so loudly that she can 

 be heard five feet away when the hive is closed. 

 The day before I heard this strange noise I cut 

 out all of the queen-cells, but could not find the 

 queen. The next day I resumed the search for 

 her, and very soon, upon opening the hive, I 

 found her singing as happily as a lark. It was 

 not a piping noise, but a regular singing like a 

 laying hen; and, besides, it was an old queen, 

 and it is only young or virgin queens which 

 pipe. 



^7isM;er. — Notwithstanding our correspon- 

 dent says, "It was not a piping noise" which 

 he heard, I am inclined to believe that it was 

 just that and nothing else. It is a mistaken 

 idea that many adhere to, that virgin queens 

 are the only queens which pipe; for I have 

 heard queens two and three years old pipe 

 many times, although the noise made by them 

 is not quite so sharp or cut up so much as that 

 of the virgin queen, where there are rival 

 queens in the cells. There seems to be a more 

 Intense hatred toward rivals on the part of a 

 virgin queen than with laying queens; but 

 when thwarted in her purpose, a laying queen 

 will resent it as well as a newly hatched virgin. 

 Although I have never heard any queen-breed- 

 er say so, yet I think I am jus^tified in saying 

 that there are few of them who have not heard 

 laying queens pipe, or call to each other, where 

 a number of cages containing queens placed 

 near together were left near each other for a 

 short time; and I doubt not but that very 

 many who are not queen -breeders, who have 

 ordered a plurality of caged queens sent them, 

 have heard this piping or singing noise produc- 

 ed by the queens while in the confinement of 

 the cages. I have heard it hundreds of times 

 with queens when preparing them for ship- 

 ment, and many times from the cages of those 

 which I have received. Any thing which en- 

 rages queens and causes them to cease laying 

 will cause them to go to piping; and the cut- 

 ting of the queen-cells from the hive, as did 

 our correspondent, at a time when the queen 



