AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



491 



course, to see how things were coming 

 on, and about the second frame I took 

 out had 5 or 6 queen-cells on it, one or 

 two already capped. I thought my new 

 queen was a " goner," sure ; but on tak- 

 ing out another frame, what should I 

 see but my yellow queen walking around 

 as if everything was all O. K. I didn't 

 see any eggs, but robbers were bad, and I 

 wished to have the hive open as short a 

 time as possible, so I didn't look very 

 much for eggs. To-day I looked again, 

 saw the queen, and she looked all right, 

 had " fleshed up " some, was laying nice- 

 ly, for this time of year — I have been 

 feeding every night — but they had some 

 queen-cups started again (I destroyed 

 the others), and one of them had an egg 

 in it. 



Being anxious, for the reason stated 

 above, to close the hive, I looked at only 

 two frames, so I don't know whether 

 there were more cups with eggs in or 

 not. I have read your " Year Among 

 the Bees," Root's "A B C of Bee-Cul- 

 ture," Doolittle's " Scientiflc Queen- 

 Rearing," and several papers, but I do 

 not remember seeing anything about 

 bees building cells except to supersede 

 or swarm. So I thought I would ask 

 you, as I dislike opening hives late in 

 the fall. 



Do you think they will supersede her ? 

 If so, why ? Would you advise any one 

 to buy another queen in case they do, 

 and introduce her this fall ? 



Do you use the Hoffman frame? The 

 Hoffman frame and Italian bees have 

 just about made me disgusted with bee- 

 keeping. Mrs. Atchley says if she had 

 to keep black bees she would only keep 

 enough for her own use. I am just on 

 the point of saying the same, only I will 

 change black to Italian. I never had 

 bees come four or five rods from the hive 

 and hunt a person up on purpose to 

 sting him till I kept Italians. I never 

 knew what robbing was till I got Ital- 

 ians. The little, yellow sinners will rob 

 rather than work on the flowers, except 

 in an extra honey-flow. True, they 

 stand on the comb better than blacks, 

 but when one pops off it means business 

 with the sharp end. There is nothing 

 delights her quite so much as to kill 

 other bees. Why, Italians of mine will 

 actually tackle other bees 20 rods away 

 from the apiary, at the watering trough! 

 A small nucleus of them will sometimes 

 rob a full colony of blacks ! 



I have had six or eight Italian queens, 

 and not one as prolific as a black queen 

 reared by a small colony to supersede 

 the old one in the forepart of May, 

 1893. Now you will say, like my wife. 



"What in the name of sense are you 

 buying Italian queens for, then ?" Well, 

 in the first place, Dr. Miller, Mr. Root, 

 Mr.Doolittle, and 99 out of every iOO 

 that write on bee-keeping, say they are 

 the best. In the second place, they have 

 been introduced into Denison and vicin- 

 ity to such an extent that it would be al- 

 most impossible to keep blacks anywhere 

 near pure. In fact, my blacks are mon- 

 grels — hybrids— but I've got some that 

 are pretty black. 



What is the matter in my case '? Have 

 I not had a fair sample of Italian bees, 

 or am I one of those individuals that 

 turns up every once in a while, that 

 don't like anything just because every- 

 one else does? Please don't say, "I 

 don't know," but give us a good " out 

 and out," if it takes all winter ! 



Now, Doctor, I will beg your pardon 

 for being so familiar, as I might happen 

 to see you some time. E. S. M. 



Denison, Iowa, Sept. 25. 



Answer. — Yes, I'll say so when ques- 

 tions become too numerous, but that 

 will not be, so long as I can answer in 

 print and the questions are such that 

 answers cannot readily be found in the 

 text-books. 



You say you have seen nothing about 

 bees building cells except to supersede 

 or swarm. You mean bees with a 

 queen, for of course you know that bees 

 build cells intended for neither super- 

 seding nor swarming when they have no 

 queen. I don't think bees with a queen 

 ever build cells with any other inten- 

 tion than to supersede or swarm. There 

 is a case, however, that might almost be 

 considered an exception. A colony may 

 have a queen that is entirely satisfac- 

 tory, and one perhaps that they will re- 

 tain for the next two years, but if some- 

 thing seems to threaten the life or 

 usefulness of that queen, they'll start 

 cells. Cage the best queen you have, 

 and the bees will likely start cells. It's 

 a plain case to them that their mother 

 doesn't make very good work laying, 

 and it is natural for them to suppose 

 she's about played out. This summer 

 the bees of colony No. 2 hadn't things 

 to their mind in their own hive, and 

 entered the nearest hive, No. 1. Next 

 time I looked in No. 1 I found queen- 

 cells started. I let them alone and I 

 think the bees tore them down. Very 

 likely the queen was balled by her own 

 bees for safety on the influx of foreign- 

 ers, and the committee which had that 

 matter in charge concluded she wasn't 

 fairly discharging the duties of her 

 office, so thought it was best to rear a 



