92 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



as soon as placed in a colony having a 

 fertile queen, she would not be molested 

 until the reigning queen happens to meet 

 the young queen on the combs ; then 

 the former would be despatched. 



Should the queens not meet until the 

 young one was several hours old, it 

 would most likely be the old queen 

 that would be dethroned. The longer 

 the mortal combat is delayed, the more 

 advantageous it is to the young queen. 



1 have seen two queens emerge from 

 cells at the same time and in less than 

 a minute they were closed in a death 

 struggle for control of the colony. When 

 a queen has received a mortal wound 

 from the sting of a rival queen, she does 

 not die immediately. The sting usu- 

 ally causes paralysis of the side injured 

 and the wounded bee will creep around 

 on the combs dragging one leg and 

 wing for some time. Should she be 

 met again by the queen that gave the 

 death wound, they would pass by with- 

 out taking the least notice of each other. 



Best way to get knowledge of the habits of 

 bees. 



I do not guess at or suppose these 

 things may be as stated. I know them 

 to be correct from long experience and 

 actual experiment. No one can know 

 these things without spending consider- 

 able time in studying the bees and their 

 habits. 



A queen, fertile or unfertile, as well as 

 bees will surely follow her nature in ev- 

 ery instance. She will at sight destroy 

 another queen, or rather make the at- 

 tempt to do so. If a queen-cell is given 

 a colony containing a queen, instinct 

 teaches the queen that it is her duty to 

 destroy the cell unless previous prepara- 

 tions have been made by the colony to 

 swarm. The same instinct teaches the 

 bees that a queen cell under all circum- 

 stances should be respected and re- 

 ceive proper care until the queen comes 

 forth to take charge of the colony. 



It seems to me that it ought not to 

 require a great amount of argument to 

 convince the average beekeeper that 

 these statements are correct. I have 



found that a colony of bees is always 

 ready to receive a young queen or a 

 queen-cell at any time and it did not 

 matter whether or not they had a queen. 



A person who gives an opinion or an 

 experience differing from the above has 

 not had much experience in the mat- 

 ter, or jumps at conclusions without 

 properly investigating the subject. 



Having devoted more space to this 

 subject than I intended, I will conclude 

 by advising those who desire to test the 

 matter of introducing young queens, or 

 queen- cells at the time a fertile queen 

 is removed from a colony, to follow the 

 directions given on another page of 

 this work. I venture to say that when 

 a cell containing a well developed queen 

 is placed in a full queenless colony, the 

 queen will be allowed to emerge and 

 will be well taken care of, and that not 

 one cell in one htmdred will be de- 

 stroyed, and not even one queen killed 

 that hatches from such shells. 



How to obtain some valuable information 

 about bees. 



I know of no better way for any bee- 

 keeper to get so much profitable amuse- 

 ment and valuable information regard- 

 ing bees and queens, as can be had by 

 experimenting in the line of introducing 

 just- hatched queens and inserting queen- 

 cells in colonies at the proper season of 

 the year. Most any beekeeper has 

 plenty of queen-cells at swarming time 

 and no special effort need be made to 

 procure a supply by artificial methods. 



Proper time to remove queen-cells from a 

 colony that has swarmed. 



It is not expected that the inexperi- 

 enced beekeeper will do everything 

 right in the apiary. All must live and 

 learn. Many old beekeepers make mis- 

 takes in the management of their bees. 



There is a time to do certain things 

 and a time when some things should 

 not be done. There is a right time to 

 remove queen-cells from a colony that 

 has cast a swarm. Usually a swarm 

 issues on the first pleasant day after 

 one of the queen-cells is sealed. If a 



