172 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOUENAL. 



and your readers are not wearied with the nar- 

 rative, I wiJl give an account of my second at- 

 tempt ki your next number. 



CnAiiLEs Dadant. 

 Hamilton, III. Jan. 1868. 



[For tlie American Bee Jouraal ] 



Evaporating TTectar. 



Rome bee-keepers hold that bees gather hrmey 

 from tlowers and deposit in the cells immediate- 

 ly, and if the hive is patented on purpose for 

 evaporating honey, or the watery parts of it, it 

 evaporates of itself, and when thick enough Uie 

 bees seal it up, &c., &c. Quer}', how did the 

 bees get along belbre these excellent contrivan- 

 ces were patented for them ? Well, that is just 

 what I am going to tell yon, for I never taiiglit 

 my be^^s any of those patent tricks. 



When bees gather iioney, maple sap, or any 

 other watery sweet, more than their honey sacks 

 can contain, tliey deposit it in the cells until 

 evening, and then they hung in festoons or clus- 

 ters in the hive, each one in his place — that is, 

 one below the other, each one's trunk or probos- 

 cis clear when extended, so as not to tou«h 

 another bee or anything else. Then by their 

 great roaring, luunming, or whatever you have 

 a mind to call it, they ci'eate a great degree of 

 animal heat; their sac is tilled with this liquid, 

 which is then blown owt to the end of the trunk, 

 stirred over, and drawn in again to warm up. 

 This process is repeated until the liquid is suih- 

 cicntly evaporated to be deposited in the cells and 

 se[ded up. Take a shojt straw in your mouth 

 and blow a drop of water gently through it out 

 to the end, and vlien draw it in again, and you 

 have an idea of the process, all except the stir- 

 ring up. The bees do that part better than you 

 can, because they have tools made on purpose 

 for that business. "Well, Gallup, that can't 

 be," says an objector, for I have kept bees, my 

 father has kept bees, and my grandfather kept 

 bees, and avc never saw any such thing." Your 

 argument is a good one, for it is the very argu- 

 ment used by an old grayheaded man not long 

 ago to me at an agricultural lair, to prove that 

 there is no such thing as a queen bee ! (JMany a 

 night have I lain beside an observation hive till 

 12 o'clock, watching the little fellows in their 

 labors). This process goes on through the day 

 also; but there arc so many bees then out in the 

 fields gathering, that it does not go on near so 

 rapid. A swarm tliat is gathering honey very 

 slowly Avill not show any of this process. You 

 Avill be most likely to sec it going on when the 

 bass-wood is in full bloom. Enough on this sub- 

 ject at present. 



Do you know that the Italians eat candied or 

 granulated sugar, which the black bees refuse ? 

 That is another good quality. They will even 

 go into your sugar box, and eat dry sugar, if you 

 let them. 



I am anxious to know whether Mr. Grimm ar- 

 rived with that hundred queens all right. Let 

 us hear from you, friend Grimm, through the 

 Bee Jouknal. Elistia Gallup. 



Osage, Iowa. 



[For the Amoricaa Bee Journal.] 



Another Singular Case. 



Mr. Editok :— On the lOlh of May, 1867, I 

 deprived an Italian colouy of its queen, and on 

 the SOlh of that month I examined it and found 

 it had constructed twent}^ or more queen cells. 

 Some of these I carefully cut out and inserted 

 in common colonies, having previously ab- 

 stracted and destroyed their queens. In exam- 

 ining one of these colonies a few days after- 

 wards, I found that its young queen luid emer- 

 ged from the cell in a natural way ; the cap of 

 tiie cell having been displaced and its edge uni- 

 formly smooth and horizontal. I now regard- 

 ed this colony as being in possession of a young 

 Italian queen ; yet I was somewhat astonished 

 to find a queen cell of their own construction 

 capped over, within a couple of inches of the 

 cell which 1 had inserted. As this cell Avas, 

 however, situated near the edge of the comb at 

 the bottom of the hive, where the young queen 

 was not likely to frequent, 1 supposed it had 

 been overlooked by her in her search for ro3'ai 

 cells, and as I could not see any oilier in liie 

 hive (common box hive), I concluded to de- 

 stroy it and await further develcpements. 

 Some ten daj's afterwards, I examined this hive 

 again, to see if all was well, when to my sur- 

 prise, I could see no biood or sign of any. I 

 therefore supposed that the young queen had 

 got lost on her a}rial excursion, and 1 forthwith 

 introduced into the hive a young, unfertile, 

 bright yellow Italian queen, rather below me- 

 dium size, and somewhat feeble in its deport- 

 ment. I then awaited the elapse of ten days 

 or two weeks, when upon examination, I found 

 considerable brood in the comb ; and after the 

 lapse of still greater length of time, I had the 

 pleasure of beholding both in and out of the 

 hive, as bright and pretty Italian bees as I 

 ever saw, all three-banded, without an excep- 

 tion. About the 15th of August, I proceeded to 

 transfer this queen to auotlier hive, which I 

 wished to Italianize, when lo ! not a larva or 

 brood in any stage of developement was to be 

 seen in the cells. I however removed the queen, 

 but had lo w- ait ten days before I could get anoth- 

 er ready for introduction. Then once more to 

 my astonishment, I found in this same hive, any 

 amount of brood capped over. But the strangest 

 thing of all was, that after wailing till some of 

 the brood would hatch, that I might test their 

 puiity by their color, I discovered that they 

 were black bees, without a trace or sign of Ital- 

 ian blood in them. I then went to Avork and 

 drove out a black queen, without a shadow of 

 doubt as to her purity. This hive stood three 

 feet from any other hive, on a separate board, 

 by itself. Now, Mr. Editor, two questions 

 present themselves here, which 1 would like 

 you or some of your correspondents to answer. 

 The first is, where did this black queen origi- 

 nate, and how came she there ? The second, 

 Why did the young Italian queen cease to liy 

 so soon ? John L. McLean. 



Richmond, Jepfehson Co , Ohio. 



