86 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOUENAL. 



[Oct., 



[For the American Bee Jouiual.] 



Queen Cells and their Contents. 



Mr. Editor : — To-day I had a large swarm of 

 bees corae oft' from one of my liives. They were 

 clustering on the fence, when I discovered them. 

 The. honey season being over, I determined to 

 open the hive they came from, destroy the young 

 queens in their cells, and return the swarm to 

 the ijareut hive. On opening the hive, it was 

 very full of brood, mostly sealed over. The 

 first two queen cells I cut out contained each a 

 dead larva. The third cell had its cap nearly cut 

 round by the young queen, ready to emerge. I 

 removed the cap, and jjlaced the young queen in 

 a cage for future use, if needed. The fourth 

 cell contained a dead loorker bee dwarfed in size, 

 as you will find on examination. The fifth cell 

 — the most singular, contained a icorker bee and 

 a queen, both dead. These had evidently been 

 dead several days, for on attempting to remove 

 the queen (as I thought,) I pulled the head oS 

 the worker. By opening the cell carefully and 

 removing them together, you will find their legs 

 entwined together as they died. The sixth cell 

 contained a live well developed worhr bee, with her 

 head to the base of the cell. I killed her and 

 returned her to the cell, as you will find her. 

 The seventh cell contained a live queeu pupae, 

 well developed. 



The cells as you will see, are of usual size and 

 position, and in outward appearance were like 

 ordinary queen cells. I have never heard of 

 two bees being hatched in one cell, and what is 

 more striking, the one a worker aud the other a 

 queen. Can you account for it ? 



The cells evidently had never been disturbed 

 or opened from the time the bees had sealed them 

 up, until I opened them with a pair of slender 

 point tweezers that I carry in my pocket to re- 

 move stings, &c. The cocoon or silk covering 

 inside was perfect, until I opened them. 



Last spring the parent stock was a three-quar- 

 ter blood black bee. They swarmed on the 19th of 

 May. On the 20th I removed the queen cells and 

 Introduced an unimpregnated Italian queen 

 (taken from a full hive after it was sealed, and 

 hatched in a nucleus). She was laying on the 

 27th of May and the hive has done well ever 

 since. Her progeny has a slight dash of black 

 blood. 



I have packed the cells in a tin box, and think 

 they will go safely by mail. Cell marked No. 1 

 contains the dead worker ; No. 2, the queeu aud 

 worker ; No. 3, the workers alive when opened. 

 They were a curiosity to me, and as such I 

 forward them to you— hoping they will arrive 

 safely. A. L. Bkown. 



London, Ohio, July 29, 1871. 



E^" We received the box in good condition, and 

 found the contents of the cells as described. We 

 have often read of workers found in queen cells, but 

 never before of a worker and a queen. — [Ed. 



No person ever got stung by hornets who kept 

 away from where they were. It is so with bad 

 habits. 



[For the Aiaericau Bee Jouraal.] 



"Natural Hardy Queens-" 



The American people is held by all other 

 nations, as an intelligent people, endowed with 

 sound, practical ideas. Indeed, all classes of citi- 

 zens in theUiiited States are favored with a sound, 

 clear mind, unbefogged with foolish notions — 

 except one class of society. I mean the bee- 

 keepers! Since the late promulgation of the 

 modern theory of improved bee-culture, the 

 minds of all those who had "bee on the brain," 

 have been thoroughly disturbed. The unreason- 

 able theory advanced is that by the method of 

 artificial queen raising, bees can be multiplied ad 

 libitum if not ad infinitum, without at all con- 

 sulting those insects as to their own proper dis- 

 position or wishes. All the feeble-minded of the 

 fraternity of beekeepers — that is the great ma- 

 jority of those who own bees and like to attend 

 to them, have accepted that theory as indisputa- 

 bly true ; and all, unconscious of the fallacy of 

 such a system, claim, in spite of common sense 

 and contradicting evidence, that queens thus 

 artificially raised are as good as, or even better 

 than those produced by natural swarming ; and 

 continue to incur the risk of their own ruin and 

 the ruin of the race of bees, ^^hj acting against 

 reason, nature and common sense.'' 



Among the feeble-minded fellows I can cite one 

 who, after getting forty-six colonies by that bad 

 method, imagined that his cistern was full of 

 honey gathered by his bees, aud that by turning 

 a crank he had filled, one after another, all the 

 pots in his kitchen, and then the boilers of his 

 neighbors, and afterward, some thousands of 

 glass jars with water, labelled — " WnivE Clover 

 Honey, from A. I. Root, Medina, Ohio." As- 

 tounding hallucination ! 



Another of the same set, who inhabits "Wen- 

 ham (I do not give his name, because I fear to 

 turn his innoxious mania into furious folly), has 

 imagined to raise queens for sale. So much de- 

 ranged is he on this point, that he never per- 

 ceived that of every five queens which he tries 

 to raise, three fly away on their wedding trip and 

 are lost, and the remaining two are either drone 

 laying, or lay eggs which do not hatch, or at 

 least are a year in maturing. And what is the 

 more wonderful, that the man not only seems 

 content with his business, but that all his cus- 

 tomers — equally purblind^are content also and 

 in the perverted craniums imagine that the 

 queens they receive, though nearly or quite dead, 

 are thoroughly prolific, filling their hives with 

 brood and honey which exist only in their own- 

 er's imagination. 



Such, during the six or eight years past, has 

 been the mental state of the American beekeepers 

 at lai'ge. Fortunately Providence, who always 

 has eyes open in order to produce the saviour of 

 the nation just at the right moment (Ex. Napo- 

 leon III. for France), has prepared in the West, 

 a man whose mission it is to recall the beekeepers 

 from vain imaginings to common sense. The 

 predestined man is Mr. John M. Price. His 

 first attemjjt at prophesying having been with- 

 out results, he retired under his teut. But the 



