52 



THE AMEKICAN BEE JOUENATi. 



[Sept., 



year round. With a stock of these, even a 

 novice may do anytliing lie wishes, at almost any 

 season, with comparative safety. 



Our dial shoAVS about two pounds of loss 

 every morning when the bees fly out. Is not 

 that'^the exact weight of the flying force? We 

 suppose a bee, when going out to work, carries 

 no honey with her, but we really do not like to 

 kill one of the little pets to ascertain— even if 

 there are forty thousand of them. Each little 

 life is what we can easily take away, but that 

 which none but God can give. We think that, 

 with some little help, we can count just how 

 many leave to make a pound— of course counting 

 those that return meanwhile. 



We think we mentioned, last season, that we 

 made a series of cages with doors in a frame 

 (eighteen in all), for queen raising. We did not 

 succeed at all then, and are inclined to call it a 

 failure. Our trouble was in thinking it neces- 

 sary to have honey in the cages, and this, with 

 the cell, occupied so much room that the young 

 queens would get fast and die. Now we put 

 nothing in the cage and remove the cell as soon 

 as hatched ; and have repeatedly kept queens 

 until they were ten or twelve days old, letting 

 them fly, one at a time, and securing them as 

 soon as fertilized. A queen eight days old will 

 sometimes become fertilized on her first flight, 

 so that this may be accomplished without her 

 going in at all, if she is secured on her return, 

 as soon as she arrives at the entrance. 



On one occasion we let three of them fly at 

 once. One came back fertilized ; the other two 

 did not return, we think on account of a luishap, 

 as follows : We were using a hive of full blood 

 Italians for nursery, and were raising a great 

 many fine queens with great satisfaction, until 

 some brood hatched from a few eggs laid by one 

 of the queens proved to b6hydrid, and the young 

 "mischiefs," as there were no eggs or unsealed 

 brood to give them employment, began looking 

 for something for them to do, for all the world 

 like a litter of young puppies. 



We had about a dozen queens of various ages, 

 caged in the hive, and one day were surprised to 

 hear a chorus of queen voices in trouble (are 

 they not voices?). An examination revealed 

 these same hybrid scamps reaching through the 

 meshes until they got hold of the queens, then 

 pulling their wings in strips and worrying them 

 to death generally. We failed so far in stopping 

 them that we lost nearly evei-y queen ; and the 

 three we let out at one time were of the lot. The 

 young bees gave two of them parting pinches as 

 they took wing, so that we really could not blame 

 them for not coming home. None of the old 

 bees took any part in the persecution, but treated 

 the queens with as much deference and respect 

 as we should expect thenr to receive. 



To test the matter, a new nursery hive was 

 started, by removing the queen from a strong 

 Italian stock. After the cells were put in nursery 

 frame, all the combs were taken away except 

 eight ; and the quilt was left off entirely, for 

 convenience. Nearly every cell hatched ; the 

 queens are now eight or ten days old, "and none 

 of them have been persecuted in the least. As 

 drones are scarce now, these queens become fer- 



tilized slowly. We do not think that the circum- 

 stance alone of these bees being hybrid, was 

 the reason why they worried the queens ; but 

 they were hatched after the queens, and young 

 bees must have something to do — miscJnef, if 

 nothing else offers. 



Artificial fertilization, we are sorry to hear, 

 makes little or no progress. We thought at first 

 that "Amateur" had it at last, and we enjoj-ed 

 our Fourth of July by making a cheese-cloth 

 "machine," seven feet high and six feet in di- 

 ameter ; put in a lot of drones and two queens 

 seven or eight days old. As the queens circled 

 arovmd and the drones circled after them, we 

 had strong hopes and kept them circling there 

 for several days. But, alas, they circled in 

 vain ! 



A friend made a house of cloth twelve feet 

 long, but with no better success. We both feared 

 to go to the expense of wire cloth, but determined 

 to do so, should further success be reported. Yet 

 now Amateur feels less certain, and speaks of a 

 smaller wire house — which we have tried repeat- 

 edly with variations. Why can't we succeed 

 just once, to give us a little faith? It is true, as 

 we have many times said, that so far as honey is 

 concerned, our present way of letting the queens 

 meet the drones, is good enough, provided we 

 only have an undoubtedly pure queen to rear 

 cells from. But as every bee-keeper wants at 

 least one queen of absolute purity, who is to sup- 

 ply them ? 



We wonder how many of our readers have en- 

 joyed the luxury of watching tlieir bees at work, 

 instead of dozing and trying to sleep— or still 

 worse, lying awake until seven or eight o'clock, 

 as by far too many bee-keepers and others do — 

 on brigfit, glorious Sunday mornings. We some- 

 times feel on rising at five o'clock that we almost 

 have the great, glorious, beautiful world all to 

 ourselves. No one stii'ring, and nothing to mar 

 the harmony. 



We think it was the first Sabbath in June that 

 we arose as usual, repaired to the garden with 

 mouth and eyes wide open, and feeling ourselves 

 "monarch of all we surveyed." Hurrah ! some- 

 thing's up ! The Italians were hurrying out of 

 their hives on a run, and tumbling over the fence 

 westward, as if they were really going some- 

 where. There was, so far as we know, nothing 

 in bloom then that should occasion such a stir, 

 and our curiosity was somewhat aroused. We 

 looked over in the direction the bees went, and 

 saw nothing but their busy lines. It was the 

 Sabbath, yet as no one else was up, (sound 

 logic !) it would not be very wrong to follow 

 them. Over fences we went, through the dewy 

 grass, past gurgling streams, but nothing could 

 we see of tiie bees, except occasionally a swift 

 messenger overhead. A wild cherry tree showed 

 a few at work, a thorn bush a few more. We gave 

 it up, and had turned homeward disappointed, 

 when the hum overhead once moi'e determined 

 us that we loould find them, and having failed 

 elsewhej-e, we concluded to try the woods. As 

 the humming increased we felt a thrill of plea- 

 sure in thinking we were on the right track, as 

 we approached a low piece of wet, marshy 

 ground. 



