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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



WITH 



REPLIES by Prominent Apiarists. 



Losing Qneens by Death. 



Query, No. 111.— I bought a colony of 

 Italian bees shipped from Michigan. The queen's 

 wings were clipped. When they swarmed I picked 

 np the queen from thealighiing-board.and placed 

 her in a clean, common tumbler. The hives were 

 changed, and upon the return of the swarm, the 

 queen was let loose at the entrance, and ran into 

 the new hive. After the bees were all in. the hive 

 was removed to its stand, and the old one re- 

 placed. The next morning the bees came out of 

 the new hive, and a part of them returned to the 

 old one, while the remainder came b.icb. 1 found 

 the queen dead at the entrance of the hive. I 

 afterwards caught another queen and placed her 

 in the tumbler. She also died while contlned. 

 which was about 20 minutes. A wire-screen was 

 placed over the tumbler to prevent the escape of 

 the queens. What was the cause of their death ? 

 They had not been harmed in any way by hand- 

 ling.— Nora Springs. 



The queen must have been ready to 

 die. It is difficult to exphiin all such 

 cases. Of course every queen must 

 die sometiaie.— Pkof. A. J. Cook. 



No one can tell the cause of death, 

 from the information given above. 

 There are many causes that might be 

 surmised, none of which might prove 

 correct. 1 should guess, however, 

 that this queen was injured while 

 being handled, in putting her into the 

 tumbler, or in removing her there- 

 from.— J. E. Pond, Ju. 



It is not safe to confine a queen long 

 without accompanying bees. The 

 first did not likely die from the ef- 

 fects of the continement.— Dii. G. L. 



TUJKER. 



I have often known queens to die 

 ■when confined in any kind of a glass 

 dish. The lieat becomes nnbearahle 

 in such a place. Always use a wire- 

 cloth cage.— G. M. Doolittle. 



If the tumbler was placed in the 

 sun, that would cause the queen's 

 death.— Dr. C. C. Miller. 



Why your old queen was killed is 

 hard to tell. Perhaps strange bees 

 mixed with the swarm, and they 

 stung her. They would be more 

 likely to do so, because her wing was 

 clipped. You say, " Afterward I 

 caught another queen." How long 

 "afterward V" Wheredoyou "catch" 

 queens '{ Is not all this very indefi- 

 nite V Perhaps this "caught " queen 

 that died in the tumbler was stung 

 before you placed her there. I sup- 

 pose she was a virgin queen. The 

 description is too indefinite— James 

 IIeddon. 



If the tumbler was exposed to the 

 sun's heat while the queen was con- 

 fined in it, the retlection of the heat 

 through the glass may have been the 

 cause of her death. But the most 

 probable cause was hei* efforts to 

 climb the smooth surface of the 



tumbler to the top, and then falling 

 back until she was exhausted. Doubt- 

 less slie died from exhaustion. Two 

 years ago, I removed a queen for one 

 of my neighbors, to introduce another 

 in her place, and his little boy put the 

 removed queen into a glass bottle, 

 and she struggled herself to death in 

 a short time. Moral : Do not put 

 queens into glass or tin cages. — G. W. 

 Demaree. 



Italian and Black Bees. 



Query, No. 112.— Why do I find well- 

 marked ItaMan bees )n the same hive with blacks, 

 or nearly blacks, when the brood is all from the 

 same queen 7—1.. J. K. 



That is very common with hybrid 

 bees. Most persons without experi- 

 ence expect to see hybrid bees show 

 intermediate markings altogether. 

 Siicli is not the case. In all direct 

 crosses between the Italian and Ger- 

 man bees some of the workers will 

 look like pure Italians, and some like 

 pure Germans ; and then, you will see 

 bees of intermediate markings also. — 

 G. W. Dejiaree. 



If I am not mistaken, this is always 

 the case when a pure Italian queen 

 meets a black drone ; in other words, 

 the first cross. — Dr. C. C. Miller. 



Well marked workers (all Italians 

 and blacks) often result from mating 

 a hybrid Italian queen with an Italian 

 drone. Hybrid queens may produce 

 some well marked workers of both 

 the parent races. In the case of a 

 pure Italian queen mated with a black 

 drone, I stated some years since my 

 belief that the workers were markecl 

 more or less black, according to the 

 number of spermatozoa entering the 

 ovum in passing the spermatheca.— 

 Dr. G. L. Tinker. 



Hybrid bees will quite frequently 

 show this peculiarity of bright and 

 dark bees in the same hive from the 

 same queen.— Dadant & Son. 



Either the queen has mated with an 

 Italian drone, or el.se Italians from 

 other hives mix in with the bees in 

 the hive above mentioned. Hybrid 

 (so-called) bees are variously marked ; 

 some are wholly black, some have one 

 and some two bands ; while some will 

 have the full three bands and cannot 

 be distinguished from pure Italians. 

 —J. E. Pond, Jr. 



A hybrid queen often produces 

 black, hybrid, and three-banded bees. 

 — W. Z. Hutciiin.son. 



Because they are hybrids. This is 

 very common. Often nearly all will 

 be marked as pure Italians, while a 

 few with less than three tiands, and 

 some all black, will show the admix- 

 ture of German blood.— Prof. A. J. 

 Cook. 



During the busy working season, 

 bees often, when returning loaded, 

 enter other hives and remain there; 

 but you do not say whether you have 

 other colonies or not ; nor how close 



by, if any ; nor how many bees that so 

 greatly differ from each other. I 

 think it is possible for one queen to 

 produce workers that do so greatly 

 differ from each other, but it is very 

 uncommon. — James Heddon. 



Age of Qneen before Laying. 



Query, No. 1 1 3.— One of my colonies cast 

 six swarms in 2,s days from the time the first Bwarm 

 issued. I found no eggs in the hive of the old col- 

 ony, and thought them queenless; but two days 

 afterward I opened the hive to give them brood, 

 and i found eggs; this would make the queen over 

 12 days old before laying. Is It a common occar- 

 rence ?— J. A. 



I think so.— Dr. C. C. Miller. 



It frequently occurs. — W. Z. Hutch- 

 inson. 



I have known queens that did not 

 commence to lay until 24 days old, 

 but as a rule I expect to find them 

 laying at 10 days old.— G. M. Doo- 

 little. 



In my locality queens begin to lay 

 (when speaking of the average) on the 

 tenth day ; but some few queens lay a 

 few eggs on the ninth day, and a 

 greater number delay until the 

 eleventh, twelfth, and even to the 

 sixteenth day. I would say that the 

 case you mention is not a " common 

 occurrence," but it does frequently 

 occur.— G. W. Demaree. 



There is certainly nothing uncom- 

 mon in a queen not laying until 12 

 days old, or even older. They usually 

 mate about the fifth day after emerg- 

 ing from the cell, and deposit eggs in 

 about two days thereafter. I have 

 had queens that did not mate, owing 

 to stormy weather and scarcity of 

 drones, till the 2.5th day after emerg- 

 ing from the cells. — J.E. Pond, Jr. 



This is not very uncommon, I think, 

 nor very exceptional. The old colony 

 must have had a very great amount 

 of brood. It is very unusual for a 

 colony to be swarming 28 days after 

 the first swarm leaves. — Prof. A. J. 

 Cook. 



There is reason to believe that bees 

 may protract the time of sealing up a 

 queen-cell several days. Again, some 

 queens are tardy about mating. Some 

 years since I had a queen that mated 

 on Oct. 29 ; she was hatched on Sept. 

 30. She flew out a great many times, 

 and often several times in a day, but 

 refused to mate with a drone from the 

 same hive from which she came, till 

 after the expiration of 30 days. She was 

 large and fine, but proved to be below 

 the average in prolificness. — Dr. G. 

 L. Tinker. 



This description is also very indefi- 

 nite, and nothing is said at about 

 what times during these " 28 days " 

 the swarms issued. Yes, it is quite 

 common for queens to live over "12 

 days" before laying. They have been 

 known to remain unfecundated nearly 

 twice that length of time, and then 

 become good, fertile queens. — James 

 Heddon. 



