310 



American IBae Journal 



Angry Bees 



BY ELVIN M. COLE. 



PROBABLY most beekeepers have 

 noticed how savage a nucleus often 

 is when in possession of queen- 

 cells; I don't know if this is true of 

 baby nuclei, but in the strong 2 and 3 

 frame nuclei in which are hatched the 

 few queens I rear they are sometimes 

 almost unmanageable with any amount 

 of smoke. 



Mr. G. M. Doolittle mentions this on 

 page 48, in "Scientific Queen-Rearing," 

 but I do not recall ever seeing it men- 

 tioned that these same bees become as 

 gentle as usual when the cells have 

 hatched; and this explains, I believe, 

 the remarkable change sometimes no- 

 ticed in the temper of cross bees when 

 requeened from gentle stock. 



Miss Emma M. Wilson gives an in- 

 stance of this in the Bee Journal of 

 February, 1914, page 47: "The colony 

 was already queenless, a new queen of 

 best stock was given, and the temper 

 of that colony began to improve imme- 

 diatelv, not even waiting for the new 

 generation of bees." It hardly seems 

 possible that the new queen could in- 

 fluence the temper of the colony ex- 

 cept as her bees hatched and replaced 

 the original stoek. I believe such col- 

 onies are trying to supersede their 

 queen, and when the cells hatch, or 

 they are supplied with a good queen 

 their temper improves. 



Here is my reason for thinking so : 

 On June 1, last year, I received a queen 

 by mail; a fairly strong colony was de- 

 queened, the new queen clipped and 

 "smoked" in. A few days later, wish- 

 ing to use some of her brood, I opened 

 the hive and the bees came at me with 

 such vindictiveness that they nearly 

 drove me to cover. Their fury re- 

 minded me of some of my nuclei with 

 queen-cells, and I concluded that they 

 had cells and were superseding the 

 queen; an examination proved this to 

 be the case. I kept the cells cut out of 

 this colony for more than two months, 

 the bees continuing so ill-tempered all 

 this time that I came to dread opening 

 the hive. The queen was not nervous, 

 and on more than one occasion I 

 watched her deposit eggs in the cells 

 while I had the comb out of the hive. 



On Aug. 18, I opened the hive and 

 failed to receive the usual welcome. 

 The bees were as gentle as could be 

 desired and required almost no smoke; 

 so much did they remind me of a nu- 

 cleus in which a queen-cell has hatched 

 that I felt sure I had missed a cell and 

 a queen had hatched. The open cell 

 was soon found and later the young 

 queen. 



I have been re-reading some of the 

 back numbers of the Bee Journal, and 

 in the May number, 1914, page 168, I 

 notice the following : " But I beg to 

 call his (Dr. Brunnich) attention to 

 the fact that the male bees are not at- 

 tracted to the queens by odor, but by 

 wing sound." I will admit I don't 

 know just how the drone is attracted to 

 the young queen, but the virgin queen 

 may occasionally be seen playing in 

 front of the hive with the other young 

 bees, flying back and forth, making 

 plenty of wing sound, but not attract- 

 ing the least attention from the drones. 



This doesn't prove that they are at- 



tracted by odor, but it doesn't help the 

 wing sound theory any, and leaves it 

 reasonable to suppose that the drone is 

 not attracted to the young queen until 

 sexual odor is developed. 

 Audubon, Iowa. 



[Our correspondent gives evidence 

 of a careful perusal of the varied ex- 

 periences and statements published in 

 the American Bee Journal, while doing 

 practical work and making remarks 

 himself. Let us have more of this, all 

 around. 



Concerning the different theories on 

 the manner in which the bees, workers, 

 queens or drones recognize each other, 

 is it not likely that all the organs of 

 these highly developed insects are used 

 in their relations to each other as well 

 as in their search for food ? Is it not 

 most reasonable to surmise that sight, 

 odor and sound serve in their recogni- 

 tion of each other, as sight odor and 

 taste serve in their search after food ? 

 — Editor.] 



Moving Bees By Rail 



Spring Dwindling — Conditions in 



Northern California— Beemen 



Hard Hit 



BY J. G. GILSTRAP. 



SLIGHTLY over-crowded ranges for 

 bees, together with my fast failing 

 health in Stanislaus Co., Calif., 

 where I had resided about 20 years in 

 the bee-business, and 20 years in Tulare 

 and Fresno counties, 10 of which were 

 in beekeeping pursuits, determined me 

 to move to wider fields. So on Feb. 1, 

 1916, my oldest boy, 15 years old, and 

 I started from Keyes, Stanislaus county, 

 with one carload of bees and one car- 

 load of extras ; household goods, team, 

 implements, etc., billed for Montague, 

 Siskiyou Co., Calif., a distance of over 

 300 miles. 



READY FOR SHIPMENT. 



I had had my bees prepared for ship- 

 ment by leaving all two story high, the 

 brood-nest and super well cleated to- 

 gether with four common pine house 

 lath strips, two on each side near the 

 corners; screen covers made from 

 screen just the size of the hive, then 

 with laths I made a rim, two thick- 

 nesses of laths with the screen placed 

 between, and then with 2-penny nails, 

 firmly nailed and clinched, this rim 

 made a neat but firmly built screen 

 cover for each hive. About 450 in all 

 were loaded on the car. The entrances 

 were closed with lath strips. The 

 screen covers were fastened on with 

 ten 4-penny cement nails, three to each 

 side and two to each end. 



When placing in car we put the back 

 of the hive to back end of the car, one 

 tier across, and then nailed 1x4 pieces 

 on top of the hives, one at the front 

 end and one at the back end, then an- 

 oth :r tier of hives, and so on, finishing 

 up in the center of the car where all 

 were firmly wedged and braced. The 

 hive lids were piled on top above^ the 



cross slats of the hives. The car end 

 window ventilation and each side door 

 a little ajar. Two days, and a little over, 

 landed us at our destination. 



OUR FIRST TROUBLE. 



I had paid, on loading, the approxi- 

 mate charge of $98 per car, or $196 for 

 the two cars, estimated at the minimum 

 rate of 20,000 pounds per car. On the 

 road my cars were rolled on the scales, 

 and at my destination I had a gentle 

 surprise handed me. They called on 

 me to " cough up " $126.50 more freight. 

 Say, brothers, there may (?) be lots of 

 fun in moving bees by railroad, but let 

 me tell you, if you live in the West, it 

 is an expensive luxury. Counting my 

 screen covers, cleats, lumber and hired 

 help at each end, and the railroad fare 

 of my family that followed about a 

 week later, my move cost me $450. 



Fig. 86— F. W, L Sladen, Dominion Api- 

 arist OF Canada Before a Spruce 

 Tree on the College Grounds 



However, we landed in good shape 

 with only a loss of two colonies ; they 

 having "leak holes" allowing the bees 

 to escape. 



The territory around here is rather 

 in patches, and the best locations were 

 taken before my arrival, so I had to 

 scatter mine. I have eight locations, 

 twice as many as I had hoped to require 

 to give my bees room, and they are so 

 scattered that it takes 57 miles of con- 

 tinuous driving to reach each apiary 

 and return home. 



unfavorable season. 



Thisjspring has been the worst ever 



