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M. 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIS^. ^y 



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of the abdomen is of a, brilliant 

 color, showing under the micros- 

 cope a blending of hues which is 

 truly beautiful.2 Her carriage also 

 is majestic and her movements 

 eas}'^ and graceful. 

 • A ver}'^ peculiar and remarkable 

 thing, as well with the bees as with 

 other insects, is that the queen bee 

 alone has an audible voice, which 

 astonishes an observer. You hear 

 it particularly at swarming, as the 

 queen gives her colony the signal 

 for the start and begins the day 

 before her ; tilt, tilt, tilt, so clear 

 and loud, as thougli blown through 

 a horn, as you can hear it very dis- 

 tinctly within six to eight steps. 

 I have often listened and looked at 

 her with astonishment, to see how 

 she strains her voice and body in 

 doing so. When she trumpets like 

 that, she stands quiet and clings to 

 the cells with her feet, so that her 

 abdomen touches them firmly and 

 then she tiites. The tone does not 

 proceed from her mouth, but out 



-There are also liver-colore'l queens and 

 those entirely black, but they are very rare. 

 The common ones with under portion of the 

 abdomen and feet yellow are the most beau- 

 tiful and are called the best. Moreover you 

 must examine a living queen if you would 

 judge about her real size, as wlien she is dead 

 she does not look like herself. Tlie rings or 

 segments of tlie abdomen draw together and 

 telescope, as its long form is principally caused 

 by the extension of the rings or segments 

 whereby room is given for tlie ovaries, but 

 through which the nerves course tending to 

 stretch the abdomen constantly apart as long 

 as she lives. Especially is she the largest and 

 most beautiful at the time of laying. A com- 

 mon queen of medium size, which is ten to 

 eleven lines long wlien alive, does not measure 

 when dead more Uian seven lines, and is also 

 only one line longer than a dead working bee, 

 which is five and one-half to six lines long 

 when dead, and only seven lines when she is 

 alive and young, because old worker bees are 

 small and shrunken. 



of air-holes of whMiC^e ha;^ foui\ 

 principal ones on tl^^de of^tlie \ 

 thorax whose outer o|l^r>tffl3 i(t^. ' 

 oval, and through which shHi^resses <f 

 the air and forces it out, causT 

 this inarticulate and broken tone. 

 She goes from one corner of the 

 hive to the other and repeats it.^ 

 When there are several young 

 queens, you can distinguish the 

 older from the younger very dis- 

 tinctly by the voice, as the latter 

 i-euder a more delicate tone, and if 

 there are four there at the same 

 time, you can plainly distinguish 

 one from the other. You may also 

 hear the voice of the queen in her 

 song, as you may call it, at the 

 time when there have been strong 

 honey-dews, and her colony fill the 

 hive abundantly with honey. Then 



SI shall not, however, say anything M'on- 

 derful about the bee rei)ublic, if there is no 

 cause, but I cannot be persuaded that tliis 

 tone which the queen utters should be caused 

 solely by biting, and pursuing of the rivals 

 for tlie legiment, as a great many bee teachers 

 insist upon. The tone itself, as the prepara- 

 tion for it. has always contradicted that to 

 me. I have often seen the queen doing it with- 

 out being pursued by other queens. Yes, 

 during a quarrel and biting Avith another one, 

 she cannot give this regular tone, because she 

 has to make the preparation for it as before 

 mentioned. Therefore, I have never heard it 

 wlien I saw that the persecutor was behind 

 her. It may be right to say that the pursuit 

 of the others, or the old queen urges her on 

 more, to blow for the speedy departure; she 

 also does it when no other young queens are 

 there. Yes, the plainest proof that this call 

 of the queen is a signal and a watchword to 

 her colony, for departure, or to follow her, is 

 without doubt this: if you drive a stock of 

 bees out of a lull hive into an empty one, es- 

 pecially tiirough the drum, you hear the queen 

 tuten very often, the same as before the 

 swarming and this happens when ali'eady the 

 most of the colony have gone into the empty 

 hive. What rival pursues her Uiere? Surely 

 none'. But she calls the rest of her followers 

 to gather around her, which they do immedi- 

 ately. 



