AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



117 



that they have noses to breathe through, 

 and don't go on church spires at all to 

 do their breathing. Well, I never saw a 

 bee on a church spire a-breathing, but I 

 guess Webster is right about their not 

 having noses. 



Once more : Webster says that an in- 

 sect is an articulate animal, whose body 

 is divided by cross-lines or incisions, 

 into a number of segments or rings, but 

 he forgot to say that a bee when in just 

 the right position would make a person 

 articulate things which he would not say 

 in his sober moments? The writer of 

 this has so articulated many times, and 

 yet, when asked in the Lodge if he has 

 violated his obligation, he concludes he 

 was sober enough after all, so he says he 

 has not. 



Then, bees gather honey from the 

 flowers. A man asked me one day if 

 the bees had made any honey yet. Just 

 as though the bee was a confectioner, 

 and could make honey at any time ! No, 

 bees do not make honey, but they do 

 cell it, and strange to say they keep all 

 they cell. 



Again, a bee can sing ; ,and when a 

 bee really sings for all it is worth, it 

 always has at least one interested list- 

 ener. This singing seems the most im- 

 portant always when it sings in a per- 

 son's hair. Let a bee once commence a 

 tune in the hair, and the person is all at- 

 tention at once. First, the person list- 

 ens, then gesticulates a wonderful ap- 

 plause ! Next, listens again to see if he 

 is to have more music, and on hearing it 

 again the gesticulations are greater than 

 before, and some complimentary words 

 put in ! But there is usually an end to 

 this singing, the same as to all other 

 things, but this ends more pointedly. 



A young lady was once at my house, 

 and one of the bees came and sung in 

 her hair. She had never heard such 

 music before. The applause which she 

 gave was very affecting. When asked 

 what was the matter, she was so af- 

 fected just at that moment that she 

 said, " There is a bun-h-y h-e-e-e in my 

 hair !" 



But the hired man gave the most as- 

 tonishing results when one sung for him. 

 The first we knew that one was singing 

 for him, was a sudden leap into the air, 

 and a tremendous clawing at the head; 

 then he bounded off around the house 

 like a deer, expressing his approval at 

 every bound by yelling, "Kill him ! Kill 

 him !" Three times around the house 

 he went in this way, and when partly 

 around the fourth time he was heard to 

 say almost in a groan, " Kill hi-m-m !" 



stopping short and turning very red in 

 the face. We knew then how deeply he 

 had been impressed. 



But I am reminded that ray time is up, 

 so I will stop short. 



Good Templar. 



IiitroiUTO SMiel Oueens. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



BY H. G. QUIRIN. 



I see in an article on page 823 of the 

 American Bee Journal, a possible ex- 

 planation of the difference in opinions 

 between different queen-breeders, as re- 

 gards the injury done to queens during 

 shipment. Now, no doubt, there is 

 something of the kind — that queens are 

 injured while being shipped long dis- 

 tances — but hardly, if ever, are they in- 

 jured when confined but a few days. I 

 wonder whether Doolittle, and others 

 who think queens have been injured 

 through shipment, are certain that these 

 queens which came under ther notice as 

 being impaired in general hardiness and 

 laying qualities, were not injured while 

 being introduced, as it is a well-known 

 fact, that by most of the methods of In- 

 troducing, queens are sometimes balled, 

 and such queens are usually injured 

 more or less. I will cite a few cases in 

 which I might have laid the cause of in- 

 jury to shipping. 



Last season, while introducing some 

 queens to colonies, I found, on examin- 

 ing them, that one of these queens was 

 being balled, and was nearly dead, 

 whereupon the queen was given back 

 where I had taken her from, and in four 

 days afterwards was successfully intro- 

 duced to the bees which had balled her. 

 Now this queen kept ten Langstroth 

 frames crowded with brood before intro- 

 ducing her, while after she was intro- 

 duced she hardly filled four frames ; the 

 bees superseding her five weeks after- 

 wards. You see, this queen was not 

 confined five minutes of her life. 



Another case was where I united some 

 colonies, the queen also being balled. 

 This queen acted exactly like queen 

 No. 1. 



Does it not appear plain that had I re- 

 ceived the above queens from abroad, 

 and not knowing they were balled, to 

 lay the cause of injury to shipping ? 

 Isn't it reasonable to believe that a 

 queen has the power to discharge the 

 accumulated egg-material, which is sup- 

 posed to do the injury ? or to use it to 

 nourish her in place of honey ? 



