56 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



done had it been placed in a liive of cubic con- 

 tents proportionate to the number of bees. Now 

 the reason is simply because the bees are una- 

 ble, in so large a space, to generate heat and 

 keep up the internal temperature required for 

 their prosperity. This last observation is made 

 for the purpose of showing the vital importance 

 of animal heat and its economical use, for the 

 greatest prosperity in artificial swarming, when 

 combs are inserted the full size of the hive 

 Again, is it not evident, if the bees cluster from 

 the top to the bottom of the hive, in order to 

 cover the brood at the bottom, that the animal 

 heat will ascend to the top, thus passing 

 away from the cluster ? Hence the artificial 

 colony lingers, while the natural swarm does 

 not. 



There is one other reason. It is this. All 

 artificial swarms should have the swarming pro- 

 pensity excited at the time they are being made. 

 "When that is done, and the combs properly ar- 

 ranged in the hive, there remains no other rea- 

 son why an artificial swarm will not gather as 

 much honey and build as much comb as a 

 natural swarm will, in auy given time. The 

 swarming propensity produces a Avonderful ef- 

 fect in causing bees to work with energy. 



"2. Suppose we liave, at the beginning of the honey 

 harvest two colonies in the same apiary, eacb having 

 twenty or thirty thousand bees— t^e same number of 

 young and old ; the same amount of worker and drone 

 comb ; a fertile queen equally prolific ; the same quanti- 

 ty of honey and bee-bread ; in the same style of hive; 

 managed alike in every respect ; and one gathers lifty 

 pounds of honey, and the other seventy-five pounds. 

 What should cause the difference? Who can give the 

 solution?" &c. 



The answer is, in and in breeding. How 

 many beekeepers have bought a single hive of 

 bees to get a start; or have found a swarm clus- 

 tered on some shrub or some branch of a tree ; 

 or perhaps have found a colony in tlie hollow of 

 some forest tree ; and have thus managed to get 

 their start from a single stock ? Perhaps there 

 may not have been another hive within two or 

 three miles of this one. His bees multiply 

 rapidly for a term of years, and increase until 

 his apiary contains fifty or a hundred hives. 

 Then comes the certain, sure and inevitable re- 

 tribution. Ten years or perhaps less have 

 passed, and how many hives of bees do you 

 suppose he has V The answer is, from seven to 

 twenty. Now why is it? The same man 

 knows perhaps that if he should take a stock of 

 hogs, sheep, or even chickens, upon a farm, and 

 n<^t change them in some way to prevent in and 

 in breeding, the stock would run down, until 

 they would have no physical or constitutional 

 ability to Uve and multiply profitably. The in- 

 evitable seal of nature is stamped upon in and 

 in breeding, in insects and animals as well as 

 the human race ; the penalty being eventually, 

 if persisted in for several generations, utter and 

 entire destruction. 



In the case alluded to, where a difference of 

 twenty-five pounds of honey is made, in profit 

 to the owner, in the hive containing the queen 

 whose progeny failed to produce as much hon- 

 ey as the other, was caused by the constitution- 

 al vigor and ability of the workers to perform 

 the labor being non est. The queen of this 



colony, through all her previous generations may 

 not have violated the law, until in the act of 

 her own fertilization. 



The next three questions seem to be directed 

 to Novice and Bingham. 



6. Except hy the absorption of the sun's rays 

 in early spring, there can be no reason why 

 bees would be more contented in a hive of dark 

 color than in a wliite one. 



7. As a general rule, bees never decamp be- 

 cause the queen is removed from the hive, if 

 they have the means to produce another, and 

 their hive has not too much upward ventila- 

 tion, and be not dispropoitionately large, leav- 

 ing an undue amount of vacant space. Tliey 

 almost invariably build drone comb in the ab- 

 sence of a fertile queen. J. "W". Seat. 



MoKROE, Iowa. 



P. S. In an article written by me, on page 

 139, volume 4, first column, line 39, for rest 

 read risk, and in the same line for queen read 

 owner. The article should also be signed J. W- 

 Seay, instead of J. W. Leay. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



How I Found a Black Queen. 



One of my hives contained one frame of Ital- 

 ian bees, with brood, eggs, honey, and a fertile 

 Italian queen. Anotiier hive contained a full 

 black colony, with a feriile black queen. 



I wanted lo f nd the black queen, and substi- 

 tute the Italian queen ; but could not find the 

 former, after a search of three days. Being a 

 Yankee I invented a plan. Making a few Italian 

 bees my agents, I found her by application of the 

 legal maxim — ^'■quifacit per alia., facii per sfi." 



Exchanging their stands when tlie black 

 bees were flying freely, I threw one-third irf the 

 black bees into the Italian hive, where I had 

 caged the Italian queen. A few Italian workers 

 were, by the same operation, thrown into the 

 black colony, where they immediately formed a 

 prison cluster about the black queen. Remov- 

 ing the cluster, the remaining operation of uni- 

 ting mj'^ Italian nucleus and the black colony 

 was easy enough. 



A Chicago Beginner. 



Chicago, Aug. 13, 1869. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



The Italian Bees on Red Clover. 



Mr. Editor: — If others who have Italian 

 bees, and red clover fields around them, and do 

 not find them working freely on the red clover, 

 surely their bees, soil, or clover, must be differ- 

 ent from mine. 



I have the large red (perhaps some would 

 call it the large Dutch) clover, mixed with the 

 alsike; and the common kinds of red clover 

 grow on my neighbors' lands. 



Now any day since these began to blossom, 

 when I take pains to observe, I see a portion of 

 the bees working on the red clover, although 

 the alsike and the common white may abound 

 all around them. J. W. Truesdell. 



Warwick, Canada, July 80, 1869. 



