388 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 



complied with, the colony is thrown out of balance, 

 and then it is that bees will perform nearly every of- 

 fice of the hive at nearly every age, even to laying 

 eggs, which office is usually restricted to the queen. 

 In these experiments, we have found that queens 

 reared under the swarming impulse attain the aver- 

 age age of fonr yeans, even under the forcing pro- 

 cess of spreading the brood. We had one which 

 lived to be nearly six years old, laying proliflcly till 

 within about three months of her supersedure. 



The worker bee rarely attains to a longer life than 

 45 days, during the months of June, July, Aug., and 

 Sept., while those hatched in Sept. live till the next 

 May, if not injured by our winters. The life of the 

 drone is about the same as that of the worker, under 

 favorable conditions, but a very precarious life he 

 lives; for, if a scarcity of honey prevails, and the 

 hives are not fed by the apiarist, the drones are un- 

 mercifully driven from the hive or killed by the 

 workers. Friend Salisbury tells us, on page 299, 

 Aug. No., that the drone does not live one half the 

 length of time the worker does, and cites, as proof, 

 his experiments with a nucleus. Does not friend 

 Salisbury know that drones have the privilege of 

 entering, unmolested, any hive where their own 

 drones are allowed to remain? and that, if they are 

 driven from one hive, they are allowed to enter 

 another that retains its drones? Such is our experi- 

 ence. A nucleus having a queen just fertilized has 

 no more need of drones, and persecutes them till 

 they leave; or, if they persist in staying, kills them. 

 With an isolated hive, our position, that drones live 

 about 45 days during the worker season, can be 

 proven. That drones live over the winter we have 

 proven by twice having our hives so plentifully 

 filled with honey, as to have drones flying every fine 

 day during the fall and winter, the excess of honey 

 causing the bees to allow them to live as long as 

 life held out. It was really amusing to hear their 

 merry hum from many hives during February and 

 March. As the pleasant days of April came on, they 

 gradually grew less and less, till all were gone about 

 the middle of that month. G. M. Doolittle. 



Borodino, N. Y., Aug. 6, '79. 



— » l« i 4 



FROM ANABC SCHOLAR. 



HAVE just been reading Gleanings for Aug. 

 and enjoyed the cartoon therein very much. I 

 thought I recognized in it the visions and 

 dreams of a young man about my size and looks, 

 especially as to the large fine queens he was unable 

 to find. I have one colony in which I have been un- 

 able to discover her majesty, although I have looked 

 several different times for her. The stock is very 

 strong, and besides I cannot keep the hive open very 

 long now, on account of the robbers. I am going to 

 send to you for some queens before long, and then 

 she will be somewhat like the honey in the clover 

 which friend Hasty talks about, "We have got to 

 have it." 



The mortality among bees in my vicinity the last 

 winter and spring has been fully H or J£, especially 

 among farmers and box*hive men ; and even those 

 who try to put away their bees in the most approved 

 way, have not been exempt from severe losses. I 

 packed my 12 swarms last fall in chaff , and they all 

 came through till spring rficely, when three took to 

 dwindling, and kept It up till I had to break them 

 up entirely. Of my other nine, eight were good and 

 one very weak. The weak one contained the queen 



you sent me last fall; but, with care and attention, 

 I soon built it up to a prosperous colony, and they 

 have done well. I have now 20 strong swarms, all 

 Italians and hybrids. I have taken but very little 

 honey so far, as I did not aim for that so much as to 

 increase my stock with safety; but, should we have 

 a good fall supply, I've got the bees to take advan- 

 tage of it. Bees did very well while the white clover 

 lasted, which was fully two weeks shorter than last- 

 year. They are now making about a living on mel- 

 lllot. 



ARE THEY PURE ITALIANS? 



In the summer of 1876, 1 cut a swarm of bees from 

 a troe. They wintered nicely, and the next spring 

 were a strong, prosperous swarm. The progeny of 

 the queen were from pure blacks to one and two 

 banded Italians. In the summer of 1877, I raised 

 one queen from her brood. This queen showed 

 slight marks of Italian blood, and her workers were 

 very good Italians. This stock swarmed in June, 

 1878, from which I saved six queen cells. These 

 queens were better marked than their mother, and 

 the bees from about half of these queens were still 

 an Improvement on the last old stock. This year, 

 on June 17th, one of the best of these queens led out 

 a very large swarm from this old stock. I have 

 three young queens whose brood are now out. One 

 of these queens is just as bright yellow as any queen 

 I ever saw, and her progeny are all very bright, three 

 banded bees, much brighter than from my tested 

 queen. Of course, I do not know what kind of 

 drones these several succeeding queens met, but, 

 from their bees, should think they met Italian 

 drones. The question I wish to ask is, are these 

 last named bees pure Italians or not, starting as 

 they did from the bees I got from the woods? I am 

 sure they would deceive the most experienced eye, 

 if they did not know their pedigree. 



I have a curious phenomenon to report; at least, 

 I have never heard of any thing of the kind before. 

 I had a small, observing, glass hive, in which there 

 was an unfertile queen. One afternoon, I chanced 

 to see this queen fly out to meet the drones. In 

 about twenty minutes, back she came with the evi- 

 dences of impregnation attached to her. I saw her 

 every day for the next week, with this white mass 

 still clinging to her, but not so much as at first. 

 After the third day, I saw her try repeatedly to lay 

 (at least, she would go through the same movements 

 other queens make while laying), but never laid an 

 egg. Well, after a week, I thought I would play 

 doctor and try a surgical operation. So I caught 

 the queen and held her by the wings, with my left 

 hand, while, with my thumb and fore finger of my 

 right hand, I extracted this white substance. It was 

 quite tenacious, and I had to give it quite a little 

 pull. This did not seem to hurt the queen, for 

 when I let her go she run on the comb and among 

 the bees the same as usual. She still did not lay any 

 eggs, and in three or four days I found her outside 

 the hive dead. Whether the bees killed her or not I 

 do not know. I would like to know if you ever had 

 a similar case, and what was the cause of it? 



I would like to tell you about the real, live fun I 

 had the other day, cutting a bee tree; but I know 

 I've tried your patience already. J. W. Keeran. 



Bloomington, 111., Aug. 6, 1879. 



The bees you mention, friend K., of 

 course, are not pure, for you state yourself 

 that you know they contain black blood; 

 but, for honey, they are, probably, just as 



