THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



273 



weeks in the summer, I have concUided to 

 give an instance going to prove the truth of 

 tiie assertion. 



My experience witli the honey bee is, tliat 

 in a number of things they appear to follow 

 a directly opposite course to that pursued 

 by other animated natures. And in re- 

 gard to their longevity they do certainly 

 seem at iirst glance to transgress the laws 

 of nature, for it is only when a stand of bees 

 are surrounded by the most favorable cir- 

 cumstances that they live so short a time. 

 It seems that one of the laws governing 

 them is, that just in proportion to the pros- 

 perity of the colony do individuals die. 



I have had this fact well demonstrated 

 this summer. In the spring I bought 7 

 stands of black bees which 1 proceeded to 

 Italianize. On May 10th I took out the 

 black queens, and introduced the Italians 

 caged. Those black queens had lots of 

 brood and eggs. It took the eggs 21 days to 

 hatch, which would be the 1st of Jime. At 

 this time — July 10th— in most of those hives 

 you can scarcely find a black bee, say one 

 in fifty, but in two of them which became 

 queenless, and were so for at least four 

 weeks, there are a great many, say two- 

 thirds. These different colonies were sur- 

 rounded by exactly the same conditions, 

 except that the two spoken of were queen- 

 less, which fact instead of causing the bees 

 to die, as some persons believe, has caused 

 them to out-live those which had queens. 



I think the explanation of this is easy. A 

 certain number of bees always remain in 

 tlie hive, to regulate the heat, nurse, etc. 

 Now as brood hatches and the young bees 

 attain a certain age, they take the place of 

 the older ones, which go out to work, and 

 leading a more active life wear out sooner 

 than their neighbors, who having no young 

 bees to take their places, are necessarily 

 compelled to stay at home and lead an easy, 

 indolent one. 



So we see that there is at least one lesson 

 taught by the busy bee, viz.: that idleness 

 is conducive to long life; which if we 

 would do well we must avoid. 



W. O. Langdon, M.D. 



For ttie American Bee Journal. 



Eggs Laid in Queen Cells. 



Friend Newman:— In looking over the 

 July number of the Journal we notice T. 

 F. Bingham's article and your comments 

 upon "Eggs laid in queen cells," and hav- 

 ing just now had an item of expei'ience 

 which goes to show that, at all times at 

 least, queeus do not lay the egg directly in 

 the cell which is to produce the queen, and 

 that bees do move eggs to suitable locations 

 for establishing then- cells. 



We deprived a stock of all their brood, 

 young enough for queen rearing, and in- 

 serted a strip of comb containing eggs and 

 just hatched larva, in ain empty or dry 

 comb, o la Quinby,— believing his theory 

 the correct one for producing the best 

 •queens. In the course of 2 or 3 days, upon 

 examination, we found the strip had fallen 

 from its position and lay upon the bottom- 

 board, and that the bees had started 2 or 3 

 •cells upon another part of this dry comb. 

 There could not have been any other eggs 

 in this stock, for they were prepared 

 especially for queen rearing. We find it 

 •unsafe to depend upon any fixed rules in 



bee practice, if it be done you will often 

 slip up in your calculations. 



One other point, a late wi'iter (in the 

 Journal,! think) says: "Young queens 

 don't destroy other queen cells and their 

 occupants, but the bees bite open the cells 

 and destroy the inmates." This is an entire 

 mistake, as I have too often lost cells in my 

 lamp nursery; sometimes six or more in a 

 night, and not a solitary worker around. 

 Have repeatedly caught the royal ladies at 

 their work, and have seen them curve their 

 body and sting to death the rival specimen 

 of royalty. 



We quite agree with friend Heddon, that 

 the Bingham is the boss smoker. We were 

 so well pleased that we oi'dered a second 

 one. Let no bee-keeper be without one. 

 We have tried the Quinby, and for our use 

 'tis nowhere. 



The foundation made by C. O. Perrine 

 works well, with us, in the brood chamber, 

 have not j'et tried it for boxes. 



The season has been short here; weather 

 now so cold— plays mischief with queen- 

 rearing rapidly. J. Oatman. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Honey-Dew. 



My bees commenced gathering dark 

 honey on May 12th and I soon discovered it 

 was from that source. It has been most 

 abundant on the poplar and on the oak, 

 especially on that variety which has a leaf 

 resemWing the chestnut. I have seen a 

 little on the sweet gum, dogwood, wild 

 cherry and holly. I hear it has been quite 

 abundant on the beech in some places, nave 

 not seen any myself on it this year. I have 

 had no opportunity of observing the walnut 

 or hickory. A gentleman says it is some- 

 times found in great quantities on the 

 leaves of the cottonwood. Dr. W. F. Rob- 

 erts, of Clinton, La., once saw a shower of 

 it fall; some of it fell on him, and he dis- 

 covered its character by its being sticky, 

 which induced him to taste it. Dr. Roberts 

 knows a man on whose cotton so much of 

 it fell one year that he was seriously afraid 

 it would interfere with its being ginned. 



I once saw a great deal on the leaves of a 

 wild plum ti'ee. It was entirely different 

 from this. It was crusted over the leaves 

 dry or nearly so, and looked like the manna 

 we see in the drug stores. I thought, and 

 still think it must have been very similar to 

 the " bread of Heaven " on which the chil- 

 dren of Israel fed in the wilderness. The 

 Bible says, "When the dew that lay was 

 gone up, behold upon the face of the wilder- 

 ness there lay a small round thing, as small 

 as the hoar frost on the ground. It was 

 like coriander seed, white; and the taste of 

 it was like wafers made with honey. When 

 the sun waxed hot it melted." At a certain 

 temperature sugar melts, and 1 am not sure 

 that it is not sometimes hot enough on the 

 sand in the sunshine, even here to approach 

 if not reach the melting point. 



AVhen dry, the honey-dew of this season 

 looks like a varnish on the leaves, is in 

 little spattered spots on most of them, 

 though it covers the entire surface of the 

 leaves on some trees and drips from the 

 edges. The honey from it is dark and in- 

 ferior. I have examined the leaves and the 

 trees repeatedly, and in every case they 

 seemed perfectly healthy. No one seeing it 



