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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



season, I had no queen to give them. I there- 

 fore gave them, from another hive, a frame con- 

 taining worker brood in various stages of devel- 

 opment; having first taken from them such 

 combs as contained eggs laid by fertile workers. 

 They at once took possession of the brood which 

 I furnished them, and reared a queen which be- 

 came fertile. Thereafter the colony began to 

 prosper, and- continued to do so through the 

 season. 



Later in the season, I removed the queen from 

 another colony and inserted a queen cell in her 

 stead. The young queen hatched, but was lost 

 I suppose on her bridal tuur, as I never saw her 

 after she was five or six clays old, although I 

 looked for her repeatedly, thinking she might 

 possibly have escaped my vision. But being 

 finally convinced that there was no queen in the 

 hive, and finding, several days after the repeated 

 searches, eggs deposited promiscuously in the 

 cells, and ranging in number from one to half a 

 dozen in a single cell, I was convinced that I 

 had another case of the fertile-worker complaint 

 to deal with. I began operations as in the first 

 case, by taking from them all the combs contain- 

 ing eggs ; but, instead of giving them worker- 

 brood, as in the previous instance, I gave them 

 a finished queen cell, which they destroyed. I 

 repeated my former operation by giving them an- 

 other, which was received and the queen hatched. 

 As iu' the other case, she became fertile, and 

 brought out the colony in a prosperous condi- 

 tion. 



How such a course of treatment would answer 

 in another case of the kind, I am not prepared to 

 say ; but that it has proved successful with me 

 in two instances is certain. Nor do I pretend to 

 know more about the philosophy of this kind of 

 treatment (if treatment it may be called) than 

 that connected with the use of pufF-ball. Still, I 

 have wondered since my success in those two 

 cases, whether it may not be that all colonies 

 (and especially the Italians, which always de- 

 fend themselves when queenless with admirable 

 vigor) become very hostile to all strange bees or 

 queens, and refuse to recogaize them until they 

 are themselves severely dealt with by the use of 

 puff-ball or of some other stupefying agent. I 

 wish to state here that I do not believe that in 

 either of the above cases all the eggs found were 

 laid by one fertile worker. I know that in the 

 period of twenty-four hours there were more eggs 

 laid than could possibly have been laid by a 

 queen at the head of a populous and in all respects 

 prosperous colony. Besides, during my searches 

 for a queen in tliose two cases, and especially 

 when I was about convinced that there was no 

 queen present, and began to think of and look 

 for a fertile worker, it occurred to me that if fer- 

 tile workers come, as it is claimed they do, 

 (namely, by accidentally or otherwise being fed 

 on a small amount of royal jelly) they ought 

 not only to resemble a queeti in disposition, but 

 also in shape and locomotion. Thus it was these 

 features I looked for, and I also thought I might 

 possibly find her engaged in the act of depositing 

 eggs, if neither of the above-named marks of 

 difference would enable me to find her. I there- 

 fore set myself to searching, and after some time 



felt confident I had found her ; and I yet believe 

 that I found some, but not all. Her conduct 

 somewhat resembled that of a queen while she 

 was walking over the combs ; the bees also ap- 

 peared to bestow upon her some of their usual 

 marks of honor and distinction. But in shape 

 she bore no resemblance to a queen. After 

 walkiuij; over the combs for a time, I discovered 

 her looking into a cell and afterwards insert her 

 abdomen in it like a queen in the act of ovi- 

 positing. I caught and killed her, and then 

 looked for more, which I found engaged in simi- 

 lar acts as the first. Now, to satisfy myself about 

 this matter a little further, I opened several other 

 hives containing fertile queens, and in no case 

 could I discover a worker endeavoring to play 

 queen by crowding her abdomen deep down into 

 a cell, as though she meant to lay an c^g. 



These observations led me partiallj^ to the fol- 

 lowing conclusions : First, that in cases where 

 Italian colonies lose their queens during the breed- 

 ing season, we are almost sure to find fertile 

 workers. Secondly, that in all such cases we 

 may look for not only one fertile worker, but 

 we may expect them to be numerous, or that 

 there will at least be several found in a hive. 

 And thirdly, that by subjecting a colonv to such 

 treatment, such as the smoke of puff-balls or 

 other stupefying agents, they almost invariably 

 accept a fertile queen, and the deposit of bogus 

 eggs ceases. I further conclude that if all their 

 combs and eggs are taken from them and worker 

 brood given, they will rear a queen, and by re- 

 peated efforts they may be induced to accept a 

 queen cell, provided the young queen therein has 

 not yet begun to pipe. If she has, I think the 

 bees will be likely to destroy her, unless they be 

 first stupefied. 



Just how the fertile workers originate I do not 

 pretend to say or know, but I susp< ct that if any 

 get the royal" jelly during the grub stsite quite a 

 number get it. And it may be that where a 

 queen is taken from a colony the bees give such 

 food to many larvae, and as a result raise no 

 queen. I hope that bee-keepers who may have 

 such colonies to deal with, will put them in ob- 

 serving Mves, and by repeatedly noticing their 

 conduct ascertain if possible what kind of bee or 

 bees lay those eggs. I do not claim by what I 

 have observed and have related, to have defi- 

 nitely established the fact that these eggs are laid 

 by common workers, although I have strong sus- 

 picions that many workers do possess the ability 

 to lay eggs, and will do so when the colony is not 

 in possession of a fertile queen. 



If opportunity should be afforded me during 

 the coming season, I will endeavor to look a lit- 

 tle further after the fertile-worker part of the bee 

 creation, and if possible ascertain under what kind 

 of circumstances such colonies accept of queens 

 or queen cells. And I should be pleased to find 

 out certainly under what circumstance, or from 

 what causes, they reject them. Now this may 

 be more than any bee-keeper (myself not ex- 

 cepted) may ever be able to discover, but I shall 

 endeavor not to injure tlie profession of bee- 

 keeping in making my observations. 



GODFr.EY BOHRER. 



Alexandria, Ind. 



