212 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



August 



Bees Moving Eggs. 



BY ED. JOLLEY. 



It is often asserted that bees do not 

 move the eggs, and is even claimed by 

 some that they cannot do so. This, 

 too, in the face of very convincing 

 evidence to the contrary. If I remem- 

 cer correctly it was editor E. R. Root 

 who said that he actually saw a bee 

 carrying an egg, but not being partic- 

 ularly interested did not stay to see 

 the final disposition of it. Now I have 

 never seen a bee carry an egg, but I 

 have had just as convincing evidence 

 that they do. I will relate two in- 

 stances that came under my observa- 

 tion, where bees did move eggs beyond 

 a doubt. Last season 1 was in need of 

 some young queens. I selected one 

 of my best colonies, removed the 

 queen, and in due time had a number 

 of fine cells, which were removed and 

 given to the colonies I wanted to re- 

 queen, all but one cell, and that was 

 kept for the bees to rear a queen for 

 themselves. I looked over this colony 

 the day after I expected the cell to 

 hatch, and found the young queen. 

 Having satisfied myself as to her pres- 

 ence I closed the hive. I did not 

 have time to look at it again for about 

 two weeks. I then looked to see if 

 the young queen was laying but I 

 found neither eggs nor queen, the 

 queen having apparently been lost 

 when out to meet the drones. I look- 

 ed over the frames several times and 

 was fully satisfied that there were 

 neither queen nor eggs — that the 

 swarm was hopelessly queenless. I then 

 went to a colony that I had given some 

 full sheets of foundation a week or 

 more before, and selected a frame 

 that was partially drawn and pretty 



well filled with eggs and young brood. 

 I drew the center frame from the 

 queenless colony, and inserted the 

 frame of foundation instead. I look- 

 ed over the frames again in due time, 

 and on the frame adjoining the foun- 

 dation, on the side of the frame next 

 to the foundation I found two queen 

 cells and on the other side of the same 

 frame one queen cell. On the other 

 frame adjoining the foundation was 

 one queen cell, while on the founda- 

 tion itself was but two queen cells. 

 The starting and completion of the 

 cell and the coming of the queens all 

 corresponded with the time the foun- 

 dation was given. 



I was very much interested in this 

 case, therefore careful, and am very 

 sure that there could be no mistake 

 about those eggs being moved. 



The other case was that of a strong 

 colony that I divided. I took the 

 queen and about half the bees and 

 brood to a new stand, and filled their 

 place with empty combs that I had 

 saved from the year before. These 

 empty combs were in frames having 

 a thin top bar, while the frames be- 

 longing to the hive had thick ones. 

 On one of these empty combs a queen 

 cell was built, and a queen was reared 

 therein. The frame was otherwise 

 devoid of brood. There is no two ways 

 about it. The bees had to carry the 

 egg from another frame in order to 

 raise a queen in this frame. It has 

 been said that queenless bees will even 

 steal and carry egg from another 

 colony. As to this 1 cannot say, but 

 1 am very sure that they can and do 

 move egg from one part of the hive 

 to another. 



Franklin, Fa. 



