THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



35 



siblc, and allowing no natural swarming when 

 it could be avoided, that I might keep track of 

 every queen. I found, too. Hint many of my 

 young (jueens produced much liner drones than 

 their niotiicrs. My proportion of cpieens pro- 

 perly fertilized, has been fast increasing ; and 

 last fall, out of forty-six reared in October, 

 all but two met Italian drones. This spring, 

 instead of being oliliged to rear from three 

 queens, I liave had over thirty that did not 

 fail to give me duplicates of themselves ; and, 

 though I do not claim to be free from much 

 hybrid stock, nor expect to rear "six hundred 



pure queens" in years, I do know that by 



taking sufficient pains any one may have Italian 

 queens that will produce workers uniformly 

 marked with three rings, gentle and " tena- 

 cious" in disposition, and that will produce 

 queens always like themselves in coloring. As 

 to drones, though (here is undoubtedly more 

 difference in their coloring than in that of work- 

 ers and queens, I find that, by selecting queens 

 that produce the best colored drones to rear 

 from, there maybe a great improvement in this 

 respect also. Ellen S. Tupper. 



Brighton, Iowa, July 5, 18G7. 



[Translated for the Bee Journal. 



Do Bees Know Their Owner ? 



Every one who had the good fortune to spend 

 the years of his boyhood and youth in intimate 

 communion with external nature, Avhether bred 

 among quiet rural scenes, or visiting them only 

 occasionally to escape from the dust and noise 

 of city life, recalls with delight the hum of the 

 busy bee and the home-like suuguess of the old 

 fashioned straw hive. Our remembrance of 

 the honey-gathering insect is connected with 

 sweet passages of pastoral poetry, Avith the 

 shrewd admonitions of "proverbial philoso- 

 phy," and the wise teachings of the "Poor 

 Richards" of an earlier day. We summon to 

 the mind's eye the stalwart form of the aged 

 bee-keeper, arrayed in tasselled cap, stout gray 

 blouse, black breeches, blue hose and buckskin 

 slippers, seated in a snug shady corner of his 

 garden ; and, while regarding him Avith rever- 

 ence and awe as the captain bold of hosts mul- 

 titudinous and tierce, cast a timid glance at his 

 picturesque apiarj^ — the armory of the "small 

 infantry" of which he is comptroller and com- 

 mander-in-chief, and yield him the tribute of 

 our unfeigned admiration. 



" And do these bees know their master?" was 

 the inquiry which then invariably arose, ac- 

 companied by the spontaneous response— "Un- 

 doubtedly ! The bees cannot fail to know their 

 keeper. Are they not known to be so attached 

 and true, that when their owner dies they too 

 pine away and perish ?" 



These views and notions are probably those 

 which most men, not having occasion to revise 

 them subsequentl}' and ascertain the truth, 

 carry with them from boyhood to raaturer 

 years. Spring flowers in garden and meadow, 

 the sweet odor of honey, bright sunshine, sum- 

 mer showers, the hum of the hive, honey-cakes 

 and mead, a dim conception of the mysteries 



of the household and of the wise orderings of 

 nature ; but, above all, the memory of swollen 

 noses, closed eyes, and rubicund cars — in short, 

 a commingling of undefined admiration and 

 secret ajiprchension or dread ; such, approxi- 

 mately at least, are the views and feelings which 

 loom up belore the fancy or cower in the heart of 

 the layman when the talk is of bees. And 

 even in the bee-garden, in the very presence of 

 the "toiling multitude," the remark is fre- 

 quently made — "Is it not so, the bees know 

 their owner ?" 



I would, therefore, in advance, beg pardon 

 of all sentimental folks, for now undertaking to 

 attack and demolish this venerable, though 

 poetic conceit— denying that the bees cherish 

 any such attachments or possess such regard ; 

 and responding to the remark with a blunt, 

 bluff, prosaic no ! Nor need I say that this re- 

 sponse is intended for the layman only and the 

 novice, for the experienced and observant bee- 

 keeper would not put the question, having long 

 since settled the point to his own satisfaction. 



In arranging my reply, I shall make short 

 work with the fiueen and the drones — elimin- 

 ating and excluding them altogether from the 

 discussion. 



As regards the drones, they are either loung- 

 ing wisffully around the honey-pots at home, or 

 roaming abroad for exercise, or in the pursuit 

 of enjoyment at the forfeit of life. They con- 

 fessedly have no fondness for the bee-keeper, 

 nor the bee-keeper for them. 



The queen, on her part, dwells in the interior 

 of the hive, on household cares intent. If 

 ever she leaves home, it is to accompany a 

 swarm — thus mischievously bent on deserting 

 her owner ; or, impelled by blind passion, she 

 rushes forth in quest of a mate — on which im- 

 portant occasion, she has, of course, no consid- 

 eration whatever for the solicitous attention of 

 her master. 



Two of the constituents of the hive thus sum- 

 marily disposed of, as not coming in any re- 

 spect within the province of the "main ciues- 

 tion," the workers alone remain to have their 

 case investigated. 



Now the worker is a remarkably self-oc- 

 cupied creature, intent on specific duties, and 

 devoted when from home to certain definite 

 labors. She works with an assiduous perse- 

 verance and fatalistic contempt of danger and 

 death, as though sworn to the unfiagging dis- 

 charge of her obligations even unto the bitter 

 end. She waits upon the queen, she renders 

 watch and ward, she measures the minutest 

 angles, and builds most wondrous polygons. 

 She constructs admirable queen cradles for in- 

 cipient royalty, concocts the needed pap and 

 pabulum for the infant bruod, ventilates the 

 chamber, sweeps the floor, carries out the dross, 

 and buries the dead. These are her domestic 

 labors — her supervision of the department of the 

 interior. But she has charge likewise of the 

 portfolio of foreign relations. Behold her on 

 some sunny morn, makingher appearance at the 

 door of iier domicile, brushing the tlust from her 

 eyes, drawing on her gloves, and dashing off 

 boldly in mid air, winging her zig-zag and cir- 

 cumforaneous flight to the yellow rape-field, the 



