Vol. XTllI. 



DEC. 15, 1890. 



No. 24. 



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NOT LE88 



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QUEENS STINGING WORKERS. 



TWO (tUEENS IX A hive: THE VOlNCi OXE SU- 

 I'EltSEDED FIKST. 



Several yean-^ ago I saw a young quocii, that 

 had just liatehcd. grasp hold of a worker in a 

 kind of awkward (Mubraco: and the worker, 

 which had previously appeared all right, was 

 dead when the Queen lei go. Heretofore I never 

 dared to report this case, being so firm in the 

 belief that a queen never stings any bee except 

 a queen, and never seeing any exception re- 

 ported, that I thought there might have been 

 some mistake in my (ibservation. 



A second case of the same kind having occur- 

 red this summer, wliich my assistant also wit- 

 nessed. I feel safe in saying that, in rare in- 

 stances, a young (lueen may sting a worker. 



During the past summer I experimented 

 somewhat largely with queen-cells ami virgin 

 queens. I wanted to decrease the chances for 

 swarming by means of young queens, for I 

 believe it is pretty generally conceded that a 

 colony, with a young queen of the current year, 

 is less likely to swarm than one with an older 

 queen. I read in Doolittle's excellent book, 

 that it is dailg<'rous to allow a young queen to 

 hatch in a hive wiiere there was an old queen, 

 as the old queen would be destroyed if the colo- 

 ny did not swarm. I said to myself. •• Now I 

 have it. I"ll get a young iiueen into thi> hive 

 before there is danger of swarming. She"ll 

 supersede the old queen, and very likely there 

 will be no swarming that .season. Certainly 

 there will be none for a good many days after 

 the young queen takes iiossession, and. if neces- 

 sary, I can again suiiersede )ti'r befoi-e she is old 

 enough to swarm. I b:'lieve Tve struck it at 

 last."" Then I made a lot of Doolitth^'s cell- 

 protectors. i)ut a sealed (jueen-cell in each, and 

 put in each hive to be ojierated on a cell thus 

 IJi'otected. The cell was put between two 

 combs, just under the t-oji-bars. a place being 

 maih' for it in the combs by i)ressing wit h the 



ends of my fingers. As soon as it was time for 

 the cells to hatch, or perhai)s sooner, I went 

 with no little interest to lind what progress was 

 made. I found every cell destroyed by the bees. I 

 had put the cells in horizontally; the protectors 

 were pretty large for the cells, and when the 

 bees pushed against the point of the cell it fell 

 back into the protector, thus letting the bees 

 inside gnaw into the side of the cell. I said. 

 "All right. I've lost my cells, but I've learned 

 something." So I tried another lot, and put 

 them in perpendicularly, point down. Again I 

 examined with eagerness, and found some of 

 the cells intact and some open. Were they torn 

 open by the bees, or had a queen hatched out ? 

 I couldn't tell. Finally I came to one which 

 made me call out to my assistant, who was 

 equally interested, "Come quick, Em. wSee 

 that?"' To which she replied. "Sure as any 

 thing. There's the hinged ca|). A ([iieen has 

 hatched out of that cell, wherever she is now."' 



We looked but a short time, and found the 

 young queen. A little to our disappointment, 

 we also found the old qu(>en. "Let's take her 

 away." said Emma, "and then this colony's all 

 right." 



" No,"' said !, " I want to follow this out to 

 the end. Let them both stay. We're sure the 

 two queens are here now, and we'll see whether 

 tlie old queen will be destroyed and replac(!d by 

 the young one." 



Subse(iiient examinations ri'X'ealed the fact 

 that, in some way. the young (pieen had disap- 

 peared. Others lurnetl out the same w ay. The 

 cells showed that a (pieen had hatched out. but 

 later (\xainiiiations failed to denote her contin- 

 ued jiresence. Out of :")."). all failed with but a 

 single exception. In that case the niMttccted 

 cell was given May :.'S. and Iti da\s later the 

 young queen was clippetl. A number of very 

 young qucH-ns wei'e also jilaced dii'ectly ou the 

 comiis. and met the same fate. \\'hether I did 

 something ditferent from Driolittle. or w bet her 

 the poor season had sometliiuif to dn with it. I 

 don't know. 



