130 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 



is not of rare occurrence, and can be easily explain- 

 ed. We have put a heavy swarm in an empty hive, 

 whose frames can admit 100,000 worker-cells. The 

 bees hasten to build combs at the rate of 3500 cells 

 daily; the queen follows them, laying in every cell 

 as soon as half constructed. Such going, hand in 

 hand, of the queen with the workers, lasts 15 days; 

 then the flowers, becoming scarce, the building 

 ceases, together with the laying of the queen. Six 

 days after this interruption, the hatching of eggs, 

 laid on the first day, begins, leaving, eveiy day, 3.500 

 cells empty. If this dearth of nectar continues tor 

 15 days more, then 40,000 cells, of the 50,000 which 

 had received eggs, are ready to be filled again. If, 

 at that time, some other flowers have begun to 

 give honey, the laying of the queen is resumed, 

 together with the building of comb. But the queen 

 is no more near the builders, .to require worker 

 cells: she is far away, laying in the first comb. 

 Then the bees, no longer restrained by her pres- 

 ence on the spot, fill, with store-combs, the half of 

 the hive, which, so far, had remained empty. Had 

 the queen rejoined her bees after a while, the build- 

 ing of worker comb would have been resumed, and 

 the hive would show a patch of store-cells in the 

 middle of its worker combs. 



Every bee-keeper has noticed such irregular 

 building of combs; but nobody, so far, has tried to 

 explain it. In fact, it is inexplicable by any theory 

 other than the one which I have just developed. 

 We are accustomed to endow bees with so much 

 knowledge that this theory could not come to the 

 mind of our best authorities in apiculture, on ac- 

 count of its extreme simplicity. 



The facts related above show that the circum- 

 stances of the building of worker and drone comb 

 vary ad infinitum; and it is to such varied condi- 

 tions of building that the diversity of results, as de- 

 scribed by Miss Cora Major, page 716, is due, and 

 not, as Mr. Hutchinson supposes, to the foresight 

 of bees, who, " knowing that their queens are old, 

 have in mind the superseding of them, and think 

 that drones must be provided for the fecundation 

 of the young queens." 



In the experiment of Miss Cora, 10 swarms had 

 built very little or no drone comb; 5 had from one- 

 fifth to ;;one-half of the space given, filled with it. 

 If we admit the idea of Mr. Hutchinson, we have to 

 acknowledge that the bees of these five colonies 

 were very far-sighted ; for, the life of a queen last- 

 ing, on an average, about 36 months, the 15 swarms 

 had less thanj one queen to supersede every two 

 months. Then the workers, of some of these five 

 colonies, prepared comb, to raise drones, 8 or 10 

 months previous to the death of their queens; 

 while some of the 10 colonies, which did not pre- 

 pare any drone; combs, or which prepared only a 

 few square inches, could repent of not ^having pre- 

 pared ^themselves for the emergency, if, for some 

 unexpected cause, their queen had to be replaced. 



I had just written the above when I saw, in 

 Gleanings for^JJanuary 1, page 51, the relation of 

 an experiment, made by Mr. J. A. Buchanan, which 

 confirms my theory. 



A large swarm had been hived on 10 Langstroth 

 empty frames. Seven days after, the hive was en- 

 tirely filled with;?i worker and H store cells. Mr. 

 Buchanan cut out the store, or dronejcombs, which 

 were rebuilt by the bees, with worker^.and a little 

 drone comb. These last having been removed also, 

 the bees rebuilt them also with worker comb. Every 



bee-keeper has noticed, that, when drone comb is 

 removed from the hives, the bees, in nearly every 

 instance, build nothing but drone comb in its place. 

 Then why did the bees of Mr. Buchanan act differ- 

 ently? My theory explains ,this fact, not only easily 

 but conclusively. A ten-frame Langstroth hive 

 has room for about 80,000 worker cells. Then the 

 bees of this swarm, having filled the hive in seven 

 days, had built about 11,600 cells everj' day, on an 

 average. Of course, the queen was unable lo fill so 

 many cells as soon as they were constructed. But 

 such a fast building is always caused by a heavy 

 crop of honey. This honey, stored in the cells as 

 soon as they were built, had helped the queen to 

 follow the builders with her laying during the four 

 first days. 



If we suppose that the queen had laid 3.500 eggs 

 daily, there were, on the fourth day, 3.500 hatched 

 grubs to nurse. But this nursing, consuming honey 

 and pollen, increased the number of empty cells, in 

 which the queen could lay. Besides the ripening, 

 or evaporating, of the honey gathered during the 

 three first days, and the subsequent transporting of 

 this condensed honey in the upper cells, offered also 

 to the queen a quantity of empty cells, that she was 

 no longer able to fill, without ceasing her control 

 on the builders, which, unrestrained, began to pre- 

 pare drone - cells. The removal of those store- 

 combs, by Mr. Buchanan, three days later, delayed 

 the workers and allowed the queen to regain her 

 place among the builders, and to obtain the build- 

 ing of worker-cells. But the queen was soon again 

 left behind, and the building of drone comb was re- 

 sumed. The second cutting of drone comb, by Mr. 

 Buchanan, disturbed again the bees, which were 

 soon overtaken by the queen, and compelled to 

 finish their building with worker-cells. Had Mr. 

 Buchanan postponed, for 21 days, the removing of 

 the store-combs, the queen, having daily at her dis- 

 posal about 3.500 cells from which the first-laid eggs 

 had emerged, the workers would have replaced 

 with drone-cells all the combs removed. 



Fjom this interesting experiment of Mr. Bu- 

 chanan, coupled with my theory, we can draw the 

 inference that, if we desire to have the drone coinb 

 of a hive replaced with worker comb by the bees, 

 we ought to deprive the queen of all the empty cells 

 before introducing our empty frames, remember- 

 ing that, if the queen had cells in which she can lay 

 far from the builders, the bees will construct store- 

 cells exclusively. Chas. Dadant. 



Hamilton, 111. 



Friend D., your idea is ingenious and 

 wonderful; but I confess I shall want to tiiink 

 about it and watch it a little before I am 

 ready to accept it. So far as I have observ- 

 ed, I have not been able to learn that the 

 queens control or "boss'' any thing about the 

 hive. I do know this, however : After she 

 is taken away, the bees, with very few ex- 

 ceptions, change from worker to drone 

 comb. I have seen one or two exceptions, 

 nevertheless, where bees built worker comb 

 at the same time they were building (jueen- 

 cells. It used to be said, that the queen led 

 out the swarm ; but in most cases it has 

 seemed to me that the bees led out, and the 

 queen followed along with the rest. I should 

 think it quite likely, that, if the queen were 

 in one part of a large hive while the comb- 

 builders were in any other part, they might 

 build drone or store combs. If this be true. 



