THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



237 



the queen was lost in July previous ; 

 but it would be in bad condition 

 in the spring, so far as the number 

 of bees is concerned, as the bees 

 would be very uneasy all winter 

 and continually getting out the 

 hive ; the sooner re-queened the 

 better. 



5. No: fertile workers would 

 not take possession till spring. As 

 soon as the bees can fly, in March 

 or April, the fertile worker will 

 commence to lay eggs. At that 

 time the best plan would I)e to 

 destroy all ; as, if a queen is in- 

 troduced, the worker bees would 

 continue for a while to fill the cells 

 witli eggs, and, before any brood 

 could be reared, the entire colony 

 would disappear. 



Old Bees as Nurses. 



Query No. 33. We read in tlie bee jour- 

 nals that old bees cannot I'ear brooil for tlie 

 reason that they cannot nurse the larva. 

 When a colony has been queenless a long 

 time tlie worlicr bees lay ejrss and drones 

 are reared in worker cells. Do not old bees 

 do the nursing for those young drones ? 

 Querist. 



ANSWER BY R. L. TAYLOR. 



Certainly, I think no one claims 

 that old bees cannot nurse larvae, 

 but only that they cannot do it as 

 well as young bees. 



'ANSWER BY HILAS D. DAVIS. 



Old bees are capable of nursing 

 the larva as long as the queen lays 

 eggs for them, young bees are 

 needed and they have properstores. 



ANSWER BY J. H. MARTIN. 



Old bees can rear brood, as I 

 have repeatedly proven, by taking- 

 old bees from one apiary to another 

 and giving young brood which was 

 reared as carefully as though young 

 bees were at work. 



ANSWER BY C. C. MILLER. 



You make a good point. Per- 

 haps the better way would be to 

 say that as a general rule old bees 

 do not feed larvse, but under press 



18 



of circumstances msiy do so. 

 Tliere are exceptions to general 

 rules. The rule is that a bee does 

 not work in the field till more than 

 two weeks old, but I have seen 

 bees only five days old carrying 

 pollen when no older bees were in 

 the hive. 



ANSWER BY HENRY ALLEY. 



Old bees can act as nurses for a 

 few weeks only, and then they will 

 cease to nurse and rear brood. 

 As the bees grow old, their interest 

 or desire to rear brood is lost. It 

 is not generally known that, even 

 if a colony is left queenless several 

 months, the worker bees will not or 

 cannot lay eggs and did they do so 

 no brood would be reared, as the 

 bees remaining in the hive have lost 

 their power as nurses and fertility 

 on account of old age. 



ANSWER BY DR. G. L. TINKER. 



Yes, old bees may do the nurs- 

 ing in colonies having laj'ing work- 

 ers but they are unable [)roperly to 

 feed the larvae. Stinting the food 

 supply of larval bees results in 

 untleveloped and undersized work- 

 ers, queens and drones. An ex- 

 amination will show that the larval 

 food is scantily supplied in such a 

 colony. But a colony that has 

 been queenless only two or three 

 weeks will feed the brood of a new 

 queen prodigally, and produce 

 larger workers than at other times. 



ANSWER BY JAMES HEDDON. 



Old bees can and do successfully 

 nurse larva, as we have seen dem- 

 onstrated many times. It is fair 

 to suppose that such bees are not 

 as good for the purpose as young 

 bees, because where the colony 

 contains both, the young bees al- 

 ways attend that duty. It might 

 be urged that such does not prove 

 tliem better, but merely that the 

 older bees do not do it because 

 otherwise occupied in work which 



