THE AMERICAN BEE JOUENAL. 



67 



[Forthe Americau Bee Journal.] 



A Queen Mating Thrice. 



Mr. Editor :— On the 12tli day of July, in- 

 stant, one of my hives of bees swarmed, and 

 returned to the hive after partly cluster- 

 ing. Thinking the queen was probably unable 

 to tiy from the hive, I look out the frames and 

 shook most of the bees into an empty hive ; 

 then examined the combs and satisfied myself 

 tliat there was no queen on them. My artifi- 

 cial swarm remained qniet forawliile, but finally 

 all returned to the old stock. On the 20th this 

 liive swarmed again. On the 21sl I opened the 

 hive, aud found two queens in it. I tooli out 

 one comb with queen and bees, and put it in an 

 observing hive in my bedroom window. On 

 the 25th, at about 3 P. M., I missed the queen, 

 and at ten minutes past three, I saw her come 

 back, but with no signs of having met a drone. 

 At seventeen minutes afler three slie again went 

 out, and nineteen minutes afterwards came in, 

 with a whitish mass, about half the size of her 

 head, attached to her tail. This was soon re- 

 moved by a worker, and. carried out of the 

 hive. Next day, the 26th, I saw this queen go 

 out again, at fifteen minutes after four P. M. ; 

 and twenty minutes after, she again came in, 

 with the parts of the drone attached. The bees 

 gathered around her, as before ; and one of 

 them, taldng hold of the object, pulled it away 

 aid carried it out. On the 27th, about four 

 o'clock, a commotion was observed among the 

 bees, and on examination it was found that tlie 

 queen was again absent. I took my station in 

 front of the hive and watched it closely, fu 

 about twenty-nine minutes from the time the 

 queen was missed, I saw her come in with the 

 signs of copulation precisely as in tbe two for- 

 mer cases. The bees gathered around her; one 

 laid hold of it, pulled it away, aud carried it 

 out. 



Mr. J. T. Langstroth, in the January number 

 of the Bee Journal, says that when impreg- 

 nation is one effected, we have no reason to be- 

 lieve that any subsequent copulation takes 

 place. Now I can see no reason to doubt that 

 impregnation of this queen took place on each 

 of these three occasions. Any person seeing 

 her could not fail to notice from her actions that 

 some important operation had been performed 

 upon her. For, as I suppose, an hour after each 

 copulation, she moved slowly and with her 

 body drawn up, as if feeling very uncomforta- 

 ble. Alter this experience I must say that the 

 modes yet devised of securing pure impregna- 

 tion appear to me questionable, if not worth- 

 less. 



Thomas C. Hill. 



Sydney, C. B., July 28, 1869. 



It is well known to breeders of poultry, that 

 the fertility of a hen decreases with age, until at 

 length she may become entirely barren. By 

 the same law, the fecundity of the queen bee 

 ordinarily diminishes after she has entered her 

 third year. — Langstroth. 



[For tlie Americau Bee Journal. 1 



Queens Mating Twice. 



Mr. Editor :— When I wrote my first arti- 

 cle on this subject, I had no other motive than 

 to get at facts and to advance bee-culture. At 

 that time I was not raising qneens for sale; and 

 j I would not have written to tlie Journal then 

 1 only for the request of Mr. Langstroth. 



Mr. J. E. Pond, Jr., must no'^t have read my 

 I article very carefully, or he would not have un- 

 derstood me to say tliat queens go out to meet 

 the drones after they commenced laying eggs. I 

 never said so, nor do I say so now ; for I do 

 not believe they ever leave the hive for such 

 purpose, or ever mate with a drone, after the)'- 

 commence laying. But I am still of the opin- 

 ion that they do sometimes mate with more than 

 one drone ; and I will so believe until it is 

 satistactorily proi'era that they do not. 



I do not wish to deter anyone from purchas- 

 ing Italian queens. On the contrary, I am try- 

 ing to induce all I can to purchase ; aud I wisli 

 everyone that keeps bees would have no others 

 except Italians, for then we would have no 

 trouble in keeping them pure. 



Mr. Pond says— " The allwise Creator has 

 designed that among bees impregnation should 

 take place high in the air, in order probably to 

 guard as much as possible from in and 

 in breeding." Would it not be a more effectual 

 way to cross, if they were to meet two or more 

 drones? If the aliwise Creator devises means 

 for them to find their way home safely one 

 time, and knows it is necessary that they should 

 go out a second time, He cnn easily enable 

 them to find the way home safe a second or a 

 third time. Mr. J. L. McLean thinks this doc- 

 trine is only a shrewd invention of queen-roisei'S, 

 to humbug their customers and sell spurious 

 queens. So far as I am concerned, I gujLvrantee 

 all the queens I sell, and tell my customers 

 that if at a7\y time the queens purchased of me 

 should fail to produce workers with three 

 stripes, I will, when notified of the fact, send, 

 another free of charge. Does this look like 

 humbug ? 



Mr. McL. thanks Mr. Langstroth and Gallup 

 for entering their protest. As I said above I 

 wrote my first article at Mr. Langstroth's re- 

 quest. Mr. James T. Langstroth says, in one 

 of his articles, that he has observed queens 

 coming in more than once., bearing the signs of 

 having mated with a drone, but were impreg- 

 nated by only one. But he does not produce 

 any evidence that they were not impregnated 

 more than once. 



As for Mr. Gallup, I think he gallops around 

 after us all oftentimes just for argument's sake ; 

 and I am glad too that he does so, for he keeps 

 things stirred up, so that he keeps us all awake. 

 Thanks to the galloper. 



When Mr. Pond, or any one else, proves con- 

 clusively that my theory is incorrect, I will then 

 give in. 



H. Nesbit. 



Cynthiana, Ky., August 9, 1869. 



