1887 



GLEA241NGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



546 



chance and g-ood luck only; but when, with the 

 same form of protection. I obtain the same 

 results year alter year, 1 have the rig'ht to 

 think and believe that 1 have solved the winter 

 in-oblem, and the best of reasons for making- no 

 change in my wintering- method. I can but say, 

 that the "bridge that carri(\s me safe over " will 

 probably carry others safe over also, and I advise 

 them to do as I have done, this coming fall. One 

 thing, however, must be understood: 1 am particu- 

 lar in preparing my bees in precisely the same way 

 and manner each year; and while a (liffercnt i)lan 

 may be eiiuall.v safe, 1 can only ailvise doing jiist as 

 I have done, asa change may bring ditfercnt results 

 from those I have invariably found to follow my 

 own course of procedure. 



This wintering (juestion is the most troublesome 

 one we have. Settle it, and bee-keeping is placed on 

 a sure and certain lootiiiu-. I C any try the method 

 outlined above, I shou'd like to have them report 

 next spring the results they Hud, stating- full partic- 

 ulars at the same time. .1. E. Pon'd, Jk. 



Foxboro, Mass., .Tune ~'7, It^i-V. 



THE PIPING OF QUEENS. 



CP:LL-l'l«()-rECT()l{S, KTC. 



fN page WZ, Gi-EA.MNO.s for .June 1,5, 1 see Mr. 

 Dewey thinks Doolittle is not correct regard- 

 ing the piping of queens, and after-swarms, 

 as I gave on page 4'j4. Bi-o. Dewey says: "I 

 most emphatically deny that there is only 

 one (jueen allowed to leave the queen-cells at a time, 

 or that only one pipes at a time, or that, as a rule, 

 only one <iueen accompanies the second, third, or, 

 in fact, any after-swarm." Now, friend Dewey, 

 won't you please turn to page 434 again, and read 

 carefully and see if Doolittle said any thing to con- 

 flict with your views, or made any assertion to the 

 etfect that onli/ onr (pieen piped at a time, or that 

 ()M?.j/ ""6 'lueen accompanied after-swarms? I have 

 carefully read my article over, and do not see any 

 such assertion made No one can say all that could 

 be said on an.v sub.jcct in one article; and as it 

 is necessary to condense matter as much as possi- 

 ble, to give to all room in Gi.kaning.s for a few 

 words. I do not go over all the ground of the past, 

 many times, in order to he brief. All who have 

 read my writings in the pa«t. know that I believe 

 that more than one (jueen pij es at a tinjc, and that 

 more than one queen goes with after-swarms; and, 

 to nntke all plain to new beginners, I will sa.y this in 

 addition to what is written on pnge 434: A queen 

 pipes only when there are other (lueens {in cells) 

 in the hive, of mature age. To make it a little 

 plainer: A young queen ma.> mature and hatch two 

 or more days before any of her rival sisters come to 

 maturity; but as far as 1 have observed, she rarelj- 

 if ever peeps till some of those sisters come to ma- 

 turity. As soon as this occurs, the first hatched 

 seems to get in a rage and begins to peep; and in 

 from si.v to eight hours after maturity, although 

 kept back in the cells, these rivals begin to peep, 

 often half a dozen answering (the oni- having her 

 liberty) at a time. These (jueens being in their cells 

 g-ive off a kind of muffled sound, so it is easy t- lling 

 their peep from the one which is out. I spoke only 

 of the liberated queen as regarding piping on page 

 434. This is plain, is it not, friend Dewey? Well, 

 when second swarming commences this ([ueeu that 



has had her liberty all the while, leads, or is about 

 the first bee out, often Hying back and forth sev- 

 eral times, as if to urge the bees out. In the hurr.y 

 and bustle of swarming, the queen-cells are left to 

 themselves for a time, and one or two, sometimes 

 more, of the mature (|ueens I have spoken of, hasti- 

 ly finish biting the cover of the cell off, and get out 

 with the bees in the air before the guards in the 

 hive realize what has happened, so that two or 

 three ((ueens with a second swarm is quite a fre- 

 (|uent occurrence: but it is a rare thing- to And 

 moi-e than three with such a swarm. Now, if a 

 third swarm is to issue, the guards collect about the 

 cells again, allowing one queen her liberty, and 

 keeping the rest in their cells. If more than one 

 are out in the hive, all are killed but one; for 

 queens at liberty with the bees intent on swarming, 

 soon get together and all but one are killed. At 

 third swarming- there are fewer bees and more nni- 

 ture<iueens, as a rule, than at the time of second 

 swarming-, so that, when the cell-guards become 

 "routed" by the hurry and bustle of another 

 swarm, more queens leave the cells, so that 1 have 

 known as many as from 13 to 30 queens with a third 

 swarm, but rarely more than from 3 to .5. Thus you 

 will see " we two D.'s " agree pretty well finally, 

 after the rest of the story left untold on page 434 is 

 brought out. 



Now, what 1 do claim, which many of the brethren 

 don't seem willing to admit, is, that queens at ma- 

 turity are white-looking, feeble things, and can no 

 more peep nor fl.y than a newly hatched worker; 

 and all queens which can fly at hatching matured 

 from eight hours to a week before, but were kept 

 back and were fed in the cells by the guard-bees. 

 Who ever knew a queen which had .just cut through 

 the covering to her cell, in a queen or lamp nurser.v, 

 to be able to fly? If any one ever did, then I am 

 down. If not, those opposing may well investigate. 



(^UEEN-CELT/ PROTECTORS. 



Before closing I wish to say a word or two about 

 those queen-cell protectors, spoken of on page 483. 

 I see Ernest and the apiarist are not having suc- 

 cess with them. 1 can not understand this, for 

 many very flattering reports come to me from those 

 using them, and I have not had a single failure 

 from the first cell tried, some two years ago, till the 

 present moment. The sample protector sent me 

 has been in almost constant use for the past si.v 

 weeks, giving birth to (jueen after (jueen, with a 

 certainty which only those can appreciate who in 

 years gone b3- have ha,d cells by the dozen destroyed. 

 The cell is pushed down in the apex of the cone as 

 far as it will go, so that there is barely room for the 

 cover of the cell to come open when the (lueen 

 bites it ott'. I said I had not made a failure, by 

 which I meant that in no case had the queen been 

 destroj-ed before maturity. Where such a caged 

 cell is put in a full colony for the purpose of super 

 seding a laying (jueen, if the bees think their old 

 queen doesn't need replacing they kill the young 

 queen and drag her out at the entrance. I use only 

 cells that will hatch in from 6 to 3t) hours in the cell- 

 protector. Perhaps using too "young" cells maybe 

 your trouble. G. M. Doolittle. 



Borodino, N. V., .July. ,887. 



You may be ri.i;lit. friend D., in your last 

 suggestion. At any rate, when we were 

 using the cell-protectors there was an almost 

 entire lack of honev, and the bees were more 



