ing its weapon of defense ? When persons 

 are visiting our apiary and one of them is 

 stung, or a bee loses its sting by any means, 

 then you will hear it said : " That bee will 

 soon die." But how soon? We don't know, 

 neither does A. W. F., unless he gets his 

 foot on it. 



Many times we have bees about us while 

 at work in the shop, apparently wishing to 

 sting and some even do try it ; but upon ex- 

 amination we tind they are minus a sting ; 

 we have also caught them in the house, etc. 



It has long been a mistaken idea that the 

 queen rules ; that she leads out a swarm ; 

 that she causes them to swarm ; that there 

 would be no swarming unless slie wislied ; 

 by her directions queen cells are built, etc. 

 On the contrary, we find it is the bees that 

 rule the queen; true they love and respect 

 her, but only as a mother, and only when 

 she acts as mothers do, they respect her as 

 such by feeding and giving her room, 

 allowing her to pass where she wishes ; 

 when she ceases to lay eggs, or but few, she 

 gets her food outot tlie cells and crowds her 

 way among the bees the same as a worker. 



Will A. W. F. help me to examine a few 

 hives? See those queen cells with holes in 

 their sides ? The queen did that and killed 

 the young queens. Why? Because she did 

 not wish to leave the hive, and there she is 

 to-day. 



We open another. Hear that piping of 

 queens ? Hold that comb ; there is the old 

 queen. Do you see that pile of bees in the 

 center of it? We brush them away and see 

 what is in there; they stick and hang. There, 

 now you can see. See what ? Only one bee 

 and she has her head in a queen cell. Pull 

 her out and see that young queen. She came 

 out of that queen cell. The bees were 

 determined to swarm, and the old queen did 

 not wish so to do. See the bees pushing the 

 old queen back ; now she goes on another 

 part of the comb where bees are not so 

 plenty and tries to pass. What for? Be- 

 cause she wishes to kill that rival ; knowing 

 that unless she does kill her, she will have 

 to leave the hive. The bees rule, though the 

 queen does not wish to swarm. 



Since reading the A. W. F.'s article 1 have 

 found several who have seen the bees pull, 

 drag and crowd the queen out of the hive, 

 and many times she is liberated only to 

 return to the hive to be again forced out by 

 the bees. In some cases they kill her, then 

 in a day or two, take a young queen with 

 them ; sometimes the queen appears (from 

 outside viewing) to come out of her own 

 freewill. But to find how mucli forcing was 

 used, it is necessary to examine the interior, 

 as we did in those two hives. 



And now for No. 3. " The queen is never 

 acconipained by a guard of 12 workers, 

 neither more nor less (i. e. by any certain 

 number.) but a part of the time she is accom- 



Eained by workers, which caress and feed 

 er just in proportion to the number of eggs 

 laid." 



That which I enclose in the above ex- 

 plains itself. A. W. F. asks : "How did 

 you obtain the fact of this proportion, Bro. 

 D. D.?" 



We answer : For many years we kept an 

 observintj nive (orie comb with glass on each 

 side) and by careful experimenting and 



419 



watching at all hours of the day and night, 

 and all seasons ; we obtained the above 

 fact and many others. " Go thou and do 

 likewise." 



STATISTICAL TABLE. 



In the Journal for Oct. is a table of the 

 product of 200 apiaries, in answer to a call 

 viz : " How many pounds of comb honey, 

 extracted, also wax have you produced thus 

 far this season ?" I was at a loss as were 

 many others to know what was desired from 

 the above question. Some thought, the 

 amount already taken off the hives, others 

 the amount off and on the hives ; and others 

 the amount that we expected or had for the 

 whole season. The question being indefinite, 

 the answers were likewise indefinite. One 

 of my neighbors reported 2,600 lbs. now off, 

 his amount is over 7,000 lbs. Friend New- 

 man, have you not done us an injustice in 

 reporting thusly. "This gives an average 

 of only 32 lbs. per colony, showing it to have 

 been on the whole an exceedingly poor 

 year." This has been a poor season with 

 us. We had a month of fine weather in 

 spring which set a large amount of brood 

 rearing. During this month all looked pros- 

 perous, a large amount ot brood and plenty 

 of honey ; following this was a month of 

 cold weather, during which this brood had 

 to be fed and consumed in many instances 

 every drop of honey and nary a hive 

 any to spare ; white clover was abundant 

 but nights were cool, basswood failed and 

 then extremely hot and dry until about Sept. 

 18, and during fall cool nights, (warm nights 

 for fiowers to secrete honey). Last year we 

 had from 150 colonies 15,000 lbs. this season 

 from 200 we will have about 11,000 lbs. 



OUR CONVENTION AT NEW BOSTON, 



Oct. 2, was a success, we had the best dis- 

 play of honey and apiarian supplies ever 

 shown at any of our conventions. About 

 600 lbs. of honey being exhibited, 400 lbs. 

 being from Sweet Home Apiary. The dif- 

 ferent articles of exhibit are too numerous 

 for me to mention, and it is hoped our Sec- 

 retary, who was sick during most of the 

 season, will give a minute detail of each. 

 Prominent among other exhibits were the 

 articles of T. G. Newman & Son. The wax 

 and honey extractors showed for themselves, 

 but the fine amount of books, papers, honey 

 knives, smokers, etc., was shown by our 

 Secretary in a manner becoming any news 

 depot. And what surprises me most is to 

 know of men who keep bees from 200 colo- 

 nies down, within a few miles of our con- 

 vention, to either not attend, or if there, to 

 not buy a bee book or paper, nor take no 

 interest, not even to join. I will have to 

 make one exception, being a man who 10 

 years ago was well posted on bees but since 

 then has not taken bee publications nor 

 attended conventions till this. He was not 

 aware how much he had fallen behind, and 

 bored the first speakers with questions till 

 they were tired, and he had to be called to 

 order by the chair, this too without becom- 

 ing a member or subscribing for a bee 

 paper. One of this class of men who a few 

 years ago told me it was useless for him to 

 take a bee paper, or buy bee hooks, because 

 he knew as much as they, sells his hoD*'v 



