1908 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1259 



FIG. 5. THE APIARY AFTER 11 \\ As MOVED TO LONG POINT ISLAND. 



ience and the rapid handling of the Langstroth 

 in its various modified forms. 



We wish to say of Mr. Mickwitz that he won 

 the esteem and respect of his fellow-workers dur- 

 ing his brief sojourn at The A. I. Root Co. 's 

 plant. He will go back to his fatherland well 

 equipped, and we doubt not he will be an im- 

 portant factor in modernizing methods among 

 his own people. — Ed.] 



QUEEN KILLED BY A RIVAL QUEEN. 



BY J. L. DAVIS. 



In Gleanings for Aug. 15, third item of Stray 

 Straws, you speak of the bees and not the queen 

 as killing the other queen. Some years ago I 

 opened a hive that had a young queen that was 

 laying some three weeks. Her mother was in 

 the hive laying also, as they happened to be on 

 the same card. As I ran my eyes over the surface 

 of the card next tome the old queen came through 

 a hole next to the frame in the upper corner. She 

 took a zigzag course down across the comb, stop- 

 ped near the lower corner, and seemed scared. 

 She was breathing fast. I watched her about five 

 seconds, and pop came the young queen through 

 the same hole in the upper corner. She came 

 racing down across the comb. Just as nearly as 

 I could tell, she followed in the same track that 

 the old queen did. She came until she got with- 

 in about an inch of her mother, and stopped for 

 an instant. The old queen appeared to know that 

 the daughter was after her, and was near. She 

 started to go as if. to do so carefully, and not be 

 discovered by the other; but as she started I could 



not tell whether the young queen jumped or ran, 

 as she was so quick about it. However, I notic- 

 ed that the three or four bees that were between 

 herand the old queen did not get out of her way. 

 She went right over them and grabbed her moth- 

 er, as I thought, by the middle leg on one side 

 close to her body; then a desperate struggle began 

 on the part of the young queen to swing around 

 to sting her mother in the mouth. The old queen 

 did not fight, but tried with all her power to keep 

 the young queen from getting her sting in her 

 mouth. In about ten seconds she succeeded. 

 In an instant she let go and started off as uncon- 

 cerned as though nothing had happened. The 

 old queen seemed paralyzed, and started to roll off 

 the comb, her jaws working and legs twitching, 

 and she was soon dead. 



The next year I saw the same thing in Mr. 

 Barnes' apiary, only the queens met while I was 

 holding the card. Both of the young queens 

 acted as though they had been drilled by the 

 same master hand to do the killing. 



I have owned bees for 54 years. Bees emigrat- 

 ed through and from here and the next county 

 west about 40 years ago. 



Dimondale, Mich. 



[As a general rule we may say that where there 

 are two queens in a hive the death of one of them 

 is caused, not by the bees, but by the rival. But 

 there are clearly some cases where the bees take a 

 hand in it. This was clearly shown in the in- 

 stance related in the Straw in our issue for Aug. 

 15 to which you refer. 



Again, it may be stated that, if a strange queen 

 be dropped into a colony where there is^already 

 a queen, the bees will immediately attack her— 



