1889 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



855 



brid (this was long ago, before there was a 

 market for hybrids), we experimented with 

 them by swapping. We opened two hives 

 at the same time, and traded queens, pick- 

 ing them right off from the combs, and put- 

 ting the others right in their places. I was 

 greatly astonished to find that the greater 

 part of them went right along to work in 

 the new hives just as well as in their own. 

 This may be astounding to a good many. 

 We tried it in good weather, when the bees 

 were peaceable and quiet. I believe this can 

 be done safely in the majority of cases ; and 

 this fact accounts for the great number of 

 processes for introducing queens. The in- 

 ventor of these processes often feels sure 

 that he has made an important invent inn, 

 simply because he has introduced a good 

 many queens by his plan and had no trouble. 

 One more instance : Neighbor II. once had 

 a very prolific hybrid queen that he did not 

 value, simply because she was a hybrid ; 

 therefore he for quite a time practiced mov- 

 ing her from one hive to another in order to 

 get said hives filled with eggs and brood. 

 He just set her right on the combs without 

 any caging, and she was thus moved from 

 hive to hive for quite a time without injury. 



QUEEN AND DRONE IN COPULO. 



VALUABLE TESTIMONY' BY AN EYE - WITNESS IN 

 THREE CASES. 



fROFESSOR COOK asks for further proof that 

 queens while in copulo drag the male bee 

 along the ground. I have been a close ob- 

 server of the busy bee since I was a boy of 13 

 years. It is nearly 33 years since I had my 

 first swarm. I have witnessed the mating of but 

 three queens in all that time. 



In 1883 I gave a mature queen-cell to a small nu- 

 cleus of about 100 bees. With so small a nucleus I 

 could more easily see the queen go out and return, 

 and -could witness her maneuvers better. On the 

 eighth day after emerging from the cell she came 

 forth arrayed for her wedding-trip, about 4 p. m. 

 She went through the general maneuvers to locate 

 her home, then flew away. ] could follow her with 

 the eye for some time, as she hovered over the apia- 

 ry. In eight minutes she returned without accom- 

 plishing her purpose. Next day she came forth at 

 3 p. m. There were thousands of drones flying at 

 this time. She slowly circled over the apiary a 

 while, about 15 feet high. Three or four drones 

 followed. They finally clinched, and gradually set- 

 tled to the earth, dropping into a piece of sweet 

 corn in the garden. I was there as soon as they 

 dropped. The queen had clung to a fallen corn- 

 stalk, while the drone was trying to get away. 

 They finally separated, the drone dying instantly. 

 I went back to the hive, and in about two minutes 

 the queen returned, with the drone organs attach- 

 ed. The bees on the alighting-board spread their 

 wings in glad delight that she had returned. I gave 

 them two frames of hatching brood, and two quarts 

 of baby bees. In five days T opened the hive to see 

 how they were prospering. The queen's body was 

 distended to an enormous size, but not an egg had 

 she laid. She seemed to try hard. I caught her 

 and held her between some cotton batting, and 

 gently pressed on it. Her lower extremity grad- 



ually distended, and I could see a small gummy 

 substance, which 1 removed very carefully with a 

 pin. In seven days 1 looked again, and the hive 

 was full of eggs. This was a daughter of the im- 

 ported queen 1 bought of A. I. Root the same 

 spring. 



The next season, as the prime swarms came off I 

 would take them in three or four days afterward to 

 an out-apiary just four miles away. I noticed 

 where the hives had stood containing the queens of 

 the imported stock. Many bees came back with 

 their legs full of pollen, but no bees from other 

 strains of Italians came back. That convinced me 

 that the newly imported stock was strongerof wing, 

 and had been nearly to my out-apiary after honey 

 before being carried there. 



Again, this past season, 1889, I was passing a hive, 

 No. 39, which contained a very prolific queen one 

 year old. What should 1 discover but two bees 

 slowly settling downward, going over and over? 

 When they got on a level wjth my face I saw it was 

 a virgin queen and a drone. The queen was trying 

 with all her might to gain the entrance of the hive, 

 and the drone was going the other way with all his 

 might. The queen being the stronger, she drew 

 him down to the alighting-board. She grabbed on 

 with her feet, crawling toward the entrance. They 

 then broke apart, the drone dying instantly. I sup- 

 posed I had lost my queen in 29; but on opening the 

 hive, not an egg was to be found— all sealed brood. 

 The old queen was there, but her body was uncom- 

 monly distended. I caught her and pinched her 

 head, and opened her body. It was filled with a yel- 

 lowish fluid. She would never have laid any more, 

 as I had kept one several years ago in the same 

 condition. In due time the young queen com- 

 menced to do her duty. 



Two days before basswood ceased to yield honey, 

 as I was passing a hive I noticed a large bee trying 

 to fly from the alighting-board; but every time she 

 rose two feet in the air, down she came again. It 

 proved to be a virgin queen. Her wings were too 

 short to carry her body. They were perfect in 

 every way, with the exception of being shorter 

 than the wings of a virgin queen usually are. She 

 would get perhaps four feet from the hive, and 

 crawl back into the hive, and immediately come 

 out again and try again to fly away. I watched her 

 maneuvers for two days. I then thought of a plan 

 to have her fly and not get scared by handling. I 

 made a cone of wire screen around the hoe-handle, 

 a foot in length. I plugged up one end, and tied 

 it to the tip end of an 18-foot cane fish-pole. At 

 two o'clock, when thousands of drones were flying, 

 I gently dropped her into the cone and quickly 

 raised it high in air, and kept watch of the tip of 

 the pole. In about two minutes she took wing and 

 slowly circled over the apiary, gradually settling 

 downward. When within nine or ten feet of the 

 ground, several drones rushed after her and clinch- 

 ed and immediately dropped to the ground. I was 

 on hand instantly. The queen and drone were in 

 a seemingly deadly embrace. After two or three 

 minutes they tore asunder, but the drone died in- 

 stantly. The queen I returned to her hive, and in 

 due time she filled her hive with brood. I had sup- 

 posed this hive had a tine queen; but on opening it 

 not an egg could be found nor sealed brood; every 

 cell was full of honey. I removed combs of honey 

 and gave empty combs. The old queen must have 

 been gone some time; no knowing how long the 



