16 



THE AMEEICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[July, 



ajihides, about the size of a large flea and of very 

 much the same shape. The "dew" was evi- 

 dently voided by the insects ; there being none 

 of it on the under side of the leaves and no 

 aphides on the upper side, as there would have 

 been had they been eating the "dew." I have 

 since heard that the trees for several miles 

 around us are full of it. 



We have had one of these long dry spells of 

 weather so favorable to insect life, which, coming 

 so early in the season has, I suppose, caused a 

 great increase of the aphides, and consequently 

 a very general honej' dew. 



Daniel M. Worthington. 



St. Dennis, Md., June 13, 1871. 



[For the American Bee Journal. | 



A Strange Occurrence. 



Mr. Editor : — I have a question to ask you 

 or some of the readers of your valuable Journal, 

 which is this : — 



On the 7th of this month, June, a swarm of 

 Italian bees issued from one of my hives, and 

 lit on a pea vine in the garden, near the ground. 

 I took a hive there, which had been painted 

 about three weeks, after inserting three frames 

 of brood, bees and all, to give the swarm a start, 

 — it being an afterswarm. When I set the hive 

 there, about the half of the bees went in them- 

 selves. About this time, I obsei'ved that they 

 were taking the "blind staggers," as I thought. 

 They would crawl around, drag their hind legs 

 on the ground for a few minutes, and then ex- 

 pire. While the bees wtre crawling in, so many 

 of them died before the entrance, that I had to 

 scrape them away to give the otliers a chance. 

 After all were in, I pixt the hive on the proper 

 stand, well ventilated. Next morning, to my 

 great surprise, I found more thau half the bees 

 were dead, and among the dead ones I found the 

 queen, which was a virgin. Now, if any of your 

 readers have experienced anything of this kind, 

 I wish they would tell the reasou why, and ob- 

 lige 



E. J. Worst. 



New Pittsburgh, Ohio, June, 1871. 



The mortality here was probably caused by 

 the paint, though a Ijetter judgmeut could he formed 

 if we knew what kind of paint was used, and whether 

 any was applied to the interior of the hive. — The 

 symptoms resemble much those given by theCierraaus 

 as attendin!! what they call the "' ToU-krankheit,^' —a 

 bee disease of wliieh, fortunately, we have no experi- 

 ence or knowledge. — Eu. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Large Number of Queen Cells. 



Eager youth and greenhorns are prone to 

 fancy that the surest way to get upon a pedestal 

 is to push somebody else down. But there is 

 room for all who are at all worthy of conspicu- 

 ousncss ; and the bustling booby, as well as the 

 contriving knave, is sv;re to sink to deserved 

 oblivion at last, despite of awkward efforts or 

 cunning schemes. 



I have seen several statements of large num- 

 bers of queen cells found in a hive, though 

 less in number than in my own knowledge. My 

 desire is not to bring before your readers a 

 lai'ger story or exceptional cases ; but to show 

 that the number of cells depends much upon cii- 

 cumstances. Three or four years ago, I received 

 some imported queens for Mr. Langstroth. The 

 choicest one I put in a single frame observing 

 hive, and after a few days forwarded her in a 

 small box to Oxford, Ohio. Mr. Langstroth had 

 I'equested me to send eggs to Mr. Gary, at Cole- 

 rain, Mass. I sent him the frame. The follow- 

 ing day he had a swarm issue, which he deprived 

 of its queen, and gave it the frame, placing 

 the hive ou the old stand. In due time he found 

 forty-eight (48) queen cells. This number would 

 not have been made, if the frame had been given 

 to the swarm as it was ; but by cutting the comb 

 irregularly increased space was given for the 

 formation of cells, which induced the bees to 

 build a greater number— a fact well known to 

 old queen-raisers. 



Another case. Last season I noticed an unu- 

 sual commotion about one of my hives, and saw 

 three young queens run out within a minute. I 

 then decided I would cut out cells and give them a 

 queen from a nucleus, and was surprised at the 

 number of cells I found. In all examinations I 

 carry a box to save wax scraps, and dropped in 

 the cells as I cut them out. Some of the queens 

 emerged in my hand, and when I had finished 

 there were a number of queens crawling about the 

 box and trying to kill each other. On counting I 

 found one hundred and nineteen (119). This was 

 a hybrid Egyptian swarm ; but I think under 

 similar circumstances, the same number— if not 

 more — might be obtained from any other strong 

 colony. Tins hive had been made up the year 

 before from combs taken from several stocks, 

 and places favorable to the formation of queen 

 cells were much increased by irregularities in 

 the combs, that would not be found in a hive 

 under ordinary circumstances— that is, where 

 the combs had been built as thej"^ stood. The 

 queens were as large and active as when a 

 smaller number are raised. The strength of the 

 colony and the state of the honey harvest also 

 influence the number of cells which will be 

 formed. Ehrick Parmlt. 



New York, April, 1871. 



Velocity of Insects during Flight. 



M. E. Marcy has made some curious inves- 

 tigations on this subject. The result of his 

 experiments, allowing, in regard to accuracy, 

 from a variety of disturbing causes, was to show 

 the following number of beats per second, for 

 the wings of each insect. The common fly, 330 ; 

 the drone, 240 ; the bee, 190 ; the wasp, 110 ; 

 the hawk moth, 72 ; the dragon-fly, 38 ; and the 

 cabbage butterfly, which is inaudible, nine beats 

 l)er second. 



