1872.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



151 



Now, I will relate to you and the readers of the 

 Journal what came under my personal observa- 

 tion lately : Some time about the 10th of June 

 I and my assistant, Mr. Meldrem, were looking 

 over a hive of Italian bees, to see what condition 

 they were in, as I wished to raise young queens 

 from the mother of the colony, a very beautiful 

 queen. We came to the comb she was on, and 

 there were a number of queen cells on it. They 

 had smooth, thin walls, and were in the condition 

 they usually were wlien I found eggs in them. 

 I told mj' assistant, who was then rather new at 

 the bvisiness, that, judging from their appear- 

 ance, the queen would lay in them iu a day or 

 so. Each one of them (six in number) was 

 carefully inspected, and there was no egg to be 

 seen iu any. We watched the queen depositing 

 eggs in worker cells, close by the queen cells. 

 She laid quite a number, and then I turned the 

 comb, so as to view the workers on the other 

 side as to their markings, while my assistant 

 still kept watching the queen. Presently he 

 said, '' Hold still, the queen has inserted her ab- 

 domen in a queen cell, and is laying in it." I 

 did not turn the comb, for fear of disturbing her. 

 Soon he said she had come out, and he pointed 

 to the cell she had left. She was then close to 

 the side of it, and there was an egg in it. I know 

 my assistant to be a man of truth, and further- 

 more know there was no egg in any of the cells 

 five minutes before. The cell she had laid in 

 was about the usual length of queen cells after 

 they are sealed over, and the diameter of the 

 mouth was la?ger than that of a drone cell. I 

 could see no difference between that and the 

 other five without eggs. I thought at the time, 

 where does the compression theory come in ? I 

 kept watch of the cell, and it was sealed over in 

 due time after the larva had hatched, and the 

 young queen is now in my yard, a very prolific 

 one. The old one I let a friend have, after a good 

 deal of persuasion, as he had accommodated me 

 many times. Now, the compression theory may 

 'be correct, yet I have seen queens so often laying 

 in worker and in drone cells not over one-eighth 

 of an inch in depth, that 1 am inclined to doubt 

 it. I cannot see either why a queen should be 

 misled to lay in a queen cell, as swarming is the 

 way ordained by the Creator of all things for 

 bees to "multiply and replenish the earth." As 

 the old queen leaves with the first swarm, it 

 seems necessary that some way should be left for 

 the remaining bees to secure another royal 

 mother. Neither does it necessitate that the 

 young queen should be a "rival or natural 

 enemy," for in all cases that have come under 

 my notice when, from scarcity of forage or other 

 causes, swarming was postponed, the workers 

 tore open the cells and destroyed the young- 

 queens. Only in cases of supersedure are the 

 young queens allowed to hatch, and then fre- 

 quently the young and the old queen remain 

 peaceably in the hive, and even on the same 

 comb, until death by old age takes away the 

 mother. G. M. Doolittle. 



Borodino, iV. ¥., Dec. 5, 1871. 



iW According to the foregoing, and the pre- 

 vious communication of Mr. Grimm, given iu our 



last number, we may assume that queens do, at 

 least occasionally, lay eggs in royal cells. But 

 then comes up the question, if those eggs are 

 sutiered to remain there till hatched and the 

 larv.T be then nursed to matui-ity, what will the 

 product be— queens, or drones? Is it certain, 

 also, that eggs laid in such cells by queens, or the 

 larvae springing then from, will be suffered to 

 remain there and mature, after the workers dis- 

 cover their true character? Leaving out of view 

 altogether, for the present, the queen's ability 

 or inability to impregnate the egg deposited by 

 her in a queen cell, may we not inquire whether 

 she has the physical ability to place and attach 

 an egg properly in such a cell ? And may not 

 instinct impel the wArkers to discard and throw 

 out of them all eggs not found properly placed 

 and attached, replacing them by others of their 

 own choice and selection? Let the bearing on 

 some of these points, of the facts stated in the 

 ensuing article by Mr. Hewitt, be duly consid- 

 ered, before hasty conclusions are drawn j^i'O or 

 con. In the case there related, the workers were 

 the agents, both in inserting the eggs in and in 

 removing them from the queen cells, as circum- 

 stances existing at the time required or prompted 

 them to do. And as, in each of those instances, 

 they evidently proceeded in accordance with 

 what, humanly speaking, we might call the dic- 

 tates of sound judgment, may we not ascribe to 

 them, in other instances also, impulses prom j^tiug 

 them intuitively or instinctively to the course 

 which the law of their existence demands and 

 prescribes ? 



Furthermore, queens undoubtedly lay eggs in 

 very shallow cells. But has it occurred to t ha 

 observer to inquire what, if allowed to remain 

 there and the larvas hatched therefrom be nursed 

 to maturity, such eggs will produce ? When laid 

 in rudimental, shallow cells, are they not usually 

 discarded and thrown out by the workers, if this 

 do not happen at a time when they are natu- 

 rally predisposed to tolerate and cherish drone 

 brood? And if the eggs so laid chance to be 

 retained, and are properly brooded and the larvae 

 nursed to maturity, vv-ill the product be workers 

 or drones ? We know of only a single occur- 

 rence iu point ; but the issue there may indicate 

 what is ordinarily to be looked for as the result 

 of such contingencies. A few years ago a bee- 

 keeping friend set a top box having glass ends 

 on the hive of one of his most populous colonies, 

 whose queen was remarkably prolific. Within 

 the box were fastened strips of new worker 

 comb, to allure and guide the bees, which at 

 once took possession and went to work, sedu- 

 lously building worker cells and storing honey 

 in them nearly as rapidly as they were built — 

 many of them being then less than half finished. 

 When these combs were extended nearly to the 

 bottom of the box, the queen happened to find 

 her way into this upper story, and laid eggs in 

 such of the rudimental shallow cells near the 

 apex of each comb as still contained no honey. 

 Then finding no further call or room for her ser- 

 vices in that quarter, she withdrew and recom- 

 menced oviposition in the main hive below. 

 Observing the eggs iu the shallow cells our 

 friend's curiosity was excited, and he closely 



